Kar Wai Ng

I had this exact situation on a film I shot back in the spring. As a student film, we were lucky to even afford a 1.2K HMI... In retrospect, the 1.2K HMI wasn't quite enough to simulate sunlight the way I wanted it to. We had a fresnel (a PAR would have been better), shining into a north-facing patio door, lighting a kitchen (going for a bright, high-key morning aesthetic.) We rigged up some C-stands and grip arms, some black cloth and tarps to create a tent over the HMI, blocking out as much ambient daylight as possible, trying to make the light from the HMI as directional as we could without added skylight. At EI 160, and with sheer white drapes, I was getting about 5.6 from about 5 feet away from the patio door, and dropping down to 2.8 deeper into the kitchen. Ideally, I would have liked something more powerful like a 2.4K PAR or higher, placing the light further away from the patio door to get the same exposure inside but a smaller disparity in dropoff throughout the kitchen. And of course, some large butterflies to block out sunlight would have been a lot less sketchy than our set up (take a peek at http://tinyurl.com/m4q52).

That's beautiful. What framerate did you shoot at for most of it?

You could just use a BNC to RCA adapter...those portable DVD players are more likely to take a composite in rather than BNC, if they take video in at all.

I believe Fuji still sells B&W motion picture film but it is only available in the Asian market. Call your Fuji rep and see if a special order is a possibility.

There's no single location; it's held in various venues across the city. "The Festival runs from September 7 to September 16, 2006. Twenty-three screens in downtown Toronto, offer a broad spectrum of theatre-going experiences using venues that combine elegance with state-of-the-art facilities. The Festival is now in its 12th year at Roy Thomson Hall for Gala Presentations, including Opening Night and Closing Night. The VISA Screening Room, located at the Elgin Theatre, once again hosts Special Presentations, among other screenings. Returning cinemas in the Festival Village include: Alliance Atlantis Cumberland Cinemas; Cineplex Odeon Varsity Cinemas; Famous Players Paramount Theatre; Isabel Bader Theatre; The National Film Board Mediatheque; Royal Ontario Museum Theatre; and Ryerson Theatre."

Bad idea. This safelight is meant for black and white darkroom use (for printmaking), and should also be safe for orthographic sheet film. Motion picture films, whether colour or black and white, should never be exposed to a safelight; it will fog.

If you use a Mac or have access to one, I'd recommend looking at OmniGraffle, a very versatile diagramming application. (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle) In the extras section, there are even downloadable stencils for film lighting and camera staging symbols.

I've used both the 8mm and 9.5mm Illuminas. There's a big difference between the two; the 8mm is *very* wide. Whether or not you need the 8mm in a car depends on how wide you're thinking your shots are going to be. The general feeling I get when I look through the viewfinder is that the 9.5 is a good wide-angle focal length that gets used often in interiors, but the 8mm look calls a little bit of attention to itself because it is so wide.