Tadeusz Kieniewicz

Hi all. First thanks for the attention. This forum is so helpful cuz all of you. So I have this social ad. Shoot on Friday. The set up is very simple. One wall painted blue as reference below I'm wondering how lighting temperature will affect the intensity of a blue tone. I was thinking of tungsten lighting set up and balance the camera for 3200/3500k but now I'm confused a little since I know that tungsten white balance setting tends to over saturate the blue tones. So... what would be the best scenario for achieving desired look? Lighting 3200k and camera set to 3200k? Or, lighting 5600 and rate the camera for 5600? What do you think guys? Shooting Arri Alexa mini, master primes Ps. I know That in post I can shift the blue into many tones but I'm thinking what would be the most convenient in this situation. Thanks a lot. Ted.

Hey Folks. I've got for sale barely used Motion Control PAN and TILT head for sale! The package includes all items from GOLD bundle. You can check it on: http://ditogear.com/products/omnihead/bundles/ The Evolution package for (motion control) is brand new. The Head was used 2 times for non commercial shoot. It's able to carry RED Epic, C300, F55 etc For more info contact me via @ kieniewicz@gmail.com Cheers.

Forgot to mention about shafts! Remember that light beams are visible better and worse in condition to looking angle. 1K per window might be not enough not in term of amount of light but in term of light covering wood placed on windows. PAR 64 looks like SPOT spot source even if are flooded fixture (not PAR 64-SPOT) and that might be a problem for you. If you want to diffuse the light coming from the windows you also need more power coming from the diffusion that means more than 1K per window...

That'll be hard. Knowing that RED cameras are balanced to daylight so blue channel tends to be more grainy in my opinion. This sometime looks ok. using CTB is good idea remember that 1/2CTB is reducing light level at 1 f-stop. Adding 1/8 or 1/4 of plus green might be interesting if you'll like it. Try to get PAR 64 not PAR 64-SPOT it'll make more sense since you are going for soft moonlight look. Bouncing PARs from big foam from the inside for close ups would be something that I would go for. Hope I made myself clear and helpful. cheers. Ted.

Wow! Sounds like you want us to write couple of books for you:) Try to search this forum instead of asking us to try explain what cinematography is about;) cheers. Ted.

Joseph! Thanks for advice!I decided with producer and director that we don't have time to do proper post production with green screen so I suggested doing it on Black screen. Shooting windows against black. Create some freeze on windows and simulate movemnt with moving top light ex. 2x 650W fresnell. The only one scene with green screen will be when camera is looking through front window. So my clues are: Put one big source 12x12 SilverGold bounce grid, probably tungstens source, 2x2KW on the other side of car I'm thinking of 1K hitting iregulary on dimmer. Bounced from a piece of foam, gelled with 1/4ctb.?? Build moving light rig 2x 650W (from the top). Play around with fill / negative fill to adjust contrast. See what gelles on windows might do. PS. I liked "collateral" and car scenes in it. Thanks for reminding me about that! All right I feel much better now. I say Merry Christmas to all of you and many thanks! Ted.

Thanks Kennan but it's not exactly what I'm looking for. Of course I can use LED panel to lit actors faces but it wont be in the style that scenarios is. Action take place in Poland in 80's there were no lights in cars:) So my goal is to see every detail in the shadow just like the eye would. So to do that on ISO 500 I have to rise ambience light level as much as I can since I do not want to use anything higher than 500 ISO on RED Scarlet. I don't want to have underexposed areas on the set. Maybe that sounds stupid but this is ow I feel this situation... Anyway thanks for replay and I wish someone will guide me better than myself:) cheers.

Hi Everybody! I'm in preproduction of short film which will take place mostly in car at night. We decided to shoot in studio with green screen / black screen. My question is about contrast level in car. I'd like to create really low contrast feeling. To do that I need to rise light level in the car. This is my main problem. How would you guys do that? I was thinking about putting 60cm Kino Flos banks rigged to celling with ND 0.6 and diff gel but it might look un natural. I figured that bouncing light from foams around the car might be that what I'm looking for. Maybe both? Another thing is to fake cars movement on an actors face but I have some ideas about that. I'll be running on RED Scarlet and Canon L Primes mostly Wide open with ND. Mostly hand held I didn't try anything like this before and all suggestions are welcome. I'm a little bit scared and excited at the same time. Maybe some of you have had problems doing car interior scene ? I'd be really glad to hear those stories... Thanks a lot and wish you all merry christmas and happy new year. Ted Kieniewicz

Thank you David! You convinced me. I'll use soft filter rather than fix 1000 shots. Numbers spoke to me. cheers, Ted Kieniewicz

What would you do If desire look is to sharp with chosen lenses?Would you go for diffusion filter or fix it in post? Or some other walk around? I'm in situation where producer decided to shoot with Red Pro Primes (cuz of budget) and I wanted to shoot with Cooke S4/i. I find Red Primes ultra sharp and I'm thinking what would be the best option to soften the image. I have to notice that I'm not a great fan of soften filters such as classic soft, pro mists etc. I think I'll try to get desire look in post, what do you guys thinks? Cheers Ted Kieniewicz.

I know that with Scarlet i can't go for 5K as with Epic. But when you want to finish with DCP 2K I don't think the diference between 4K from Scarlet and 5K from Epic would be crucial In term of resolution. Compression is different thing and that is what I asked for. So what best quality I can get with Scarlet at 4K? 6:1? And how Scarlet performs comparing to RED One MX? Does 4K Redcode 42 performs better than 4K Scarlet both at 24fps? cheers

Hi all! I'm about to shoot a feature film and I'm in strong battle with producer who want to save as much money as he can! What he asks is if Scarlet X will perform as good as Epic on big screen? Since I didn't work on Epic and Scarlet yet I'd like to ask you guys here what are your thoughts. What RED's Scarlet compression 3:1 does really mean? Would you agree shooting a feature film (comedy) on Scarlet instead of Epic? (Alexa was our goal but it's to expensive for our budget) Does Scarlet noise level is more noticeable than Epic? We will be using Cooke S4/i lenses and quite a lot of lighting. Director want's to achieve warm bright look of the film. Producer want DCP and DI, positive copy for theatrical screenings. PS: I'll do some test of course, but It's always nice to hear from you guys! Cheers and thanks in advance! Ted Kieniewicz

I'm not sure if it is the best way to do this in camera. I would suggest doing white balance in camera using color gels. Just put oposite color gel in front of lens and do WB calibration on white paper. ie. If you put red color gel in front of a lens and do calibration camera will try to add as much oposite color to sensor to neutralize the look, when you take of the filter you image is covered with shift of oposite color of your gel. It takes time to achieve a desire look but works nice! PS. Putting effect gel on ie. Kino flo or HMI will give you an effect only on areas hitted by the fixture, shadows will be "neutral" and that looks odd sometimes. Cheers. Ted.

Oh!!That is great. Tanks for great answer but there is one little problem. I want to shoot ceiling. I mean for sure it'll be in frame sometimes. Idea with rigging Kinos from ceiling is very good and I have tools for that for sure but I'm going for lot's of steadicam mastershots with wide angle around 21mm lens. I might keep camera angle from above the eye level and try to avoid shooting ceilig but I think It' won't work for this story. I was considering using some diffused source from the camera handled by someone. But I'm afraid of that. It might look like MTV or TV programme. It looks like the best way would be to plan master shots in a way where I can rig kinos from ceiling and leave some ceiling as part of set design with hidden kinos, instead of foam, and covered with 1/2 #216 The other idea is to put Kinos 60cm tubes into the notice board in the hallway or small but long lite or led panels (because of their self powered fixture?) Then set a dialogue scene somewhere around these boards. Anyway Guy Holt thanks for your time and intrest. You're reply was awsome:) Cheers. Ted

Director want's to be as much flexible as possible so I'd like to have possibility to see whole ceiling. A thought about removing square foams and putting 60cm4bank warm kinos and replace the foam with 1/2 or 1/4 #216 diffusion gel. thanks.

Hi all! In a 10 days I'm starting a feature film which take place mostly in school. Production designer and director have chosen school that is not good for me in term of lighting. That means I don't have windows to lit from. below is the picture of the hallway: My link And now. I want to look bright and natural look with a little bit warmish tint. Fluorescent tubes are not enough for my exposure which I want to keep around F/4. What would you suggest to bring up light level. I don't have experience with that kind of celling so I thought that maybe someone here is familiar with that kind of celling. I'll be runnig on Alexa plus rated to 800ASA with Cooke S4 lenses on steadicam and I'd like to be flexible with framing that means I want to shoot celling ANY IDEAS?? thanks. cheers. Ted.

Thank you so much that is really helpfull

Yes Freya you're right Roger Deakins already said that he will be using Alexa on his project's but I can't belive if he doesn't use Arri RAW format. I saw In Time at CAMERIMAGE festivals and projection and images were perfect in term of quality. But I don't know if he was shooting Arri RAW (over 2K resolution) or just on SxS cards... I should ask him on his forum though. cheers

Thanks all of you for response! I didn't say that I'm thinking about making copy of my film for sundance;) I just asked cuz I heard about lots of dslr entries last year. I'm just speculating if Alexa 1080 will be enough for Cinema. And now I see that yes it's enough if projection is from 2K projector:) So thank you one more time cheers Ted.

Hi All! In two weeks I'm starting shooting feature film. We decided to shoot digital and I'm keen on Alexa. We can't afford Codex or other Arri RAW recorder so it brings lot's of questions: -If I'll record uncompressed 1920x1080 12bit is it going to look ok in Cinema? I'm asking mostly about resolution We will be shooting mostly in high key so I thought Alexa is best choice, specially that director want to avoid super sharp images (1920x1080??) But! There is this EPIC question, perhaps it'll be smarter to shoot 5K which is perfect for cinema but I don't like how RED cameras handle higlights... Generally my question is what is more important in your opinion Resolution in EPIC or good highlight handling in Alexa? Cheers, Ted.

Yes you are right, but isn't this kill your natural ambient daylight in the room? I believe you can project your 2K tungsten (maybe with fresnel lens opened) through the window without any gelling and blocking the daylight. And in that way simulate late afternoon, low sun. This might work when you have a shady day.

There are great courses at NFTS in Beaconsfield (close to London) . Question about light continuity is hard as long as I'm DP and I can see in many features or scenes there is no light continuity specially in wide shots! look carefully on lighting in close ups and try to find these light's in wide shoots! usually there are not there. But it's not a problem if story keeps you focused on a story! If story is good you have easier task to do:) Do not get involved in projects with bad scripts or stories that you don't believe in!!! This is my first rule;) cheers, Ted. www.kieniewicz.blogspot.com

I'm posting this cuz this might be help full for someone on this site. So I was shooting using this light's" ARRI Compact 4K HMI fully flooded 1/4 #216 white diffusion frame through the window [ about 4.5-5 meters from the couch ] KINO FLO 4 banks 120/5600 tubes all of them turned on, gain +4ft 1/2 #216 diffusion gell hanged over couch [ about 1 meter above actors face and a little bit behind them ] KINO FLO 4 Banks 120/3200 3 tubes turned on, gain 4ft no gell hidden in hallway to add color contrast to the scene I used 150W Dedolight +1/8CTB for kicker light on actress face (left side) To simulate kicker coming from the hallway Pic1. I was runing on Canon 7D with 24-70 L f/2.8 lens ISO 320 F/5.0 shutter 1/50 WB: white Kodak card shot under 4K Arri 4K from 4.5 meters should give me 8363LUX and 803 fc so it would be around f/8(running on settings above) but adding diffusion frame and curtains it reduced amount of light to f/5.6 on my Seconic incident meter (metering to the window) I used kino from above as fill light. Also I have noticed that Arri 4K was much warmer than Kino's ( both 5600 temperature) I don't know what was the diference exactly but it was seeable. As soon as I finish this project I'll upload it here Hope this is helpful for someone. cheers. Ted www.kieniewicz.blogspot.com

Hi there, I'm looking for 1stAC in Berlin. I'm cinematogrpaher from Warsaw. We are shooting with Canon 5D. If anyone is interested please write me an email kieniewicz@gmail.com It is paid job! Can't tell here how much;) cheers. Tadeusz Kieniewicz www.kieniewicz.blogspot.com