Miguel Angel

6 weeks of prep for testing lenses?! Not even when I was a 2nd AC on Knight & Day or any other major US motion picture we had that! Wow! In Spain and Ireland nobody is using Prestons anymore because of the power of the motors and how they affect the older lenses that are becoming more and more popular. A friend of mine who has a Preston was a 1st AC on a massive movie shot with the B Series and they had to change the Preston on day 1 of prep because the lenses couldn't handle it. They are all using WC4s now (which apparently brings different problems) but it seems like a better solution when you use old lenses.

This looks like it could be an interesting solution for shooting on a 2:1 aspect ratio on film with 25% more of running time.

@Ruben Woodin they printed to 35mm as far as I know.

Hi Ruben, There was a really good Spanish movie (O Que Arde) that was shot on Super16 but for the first scene, which was shot on a drone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv2_i6R3stU They printed the drone shots and it matches very well (under my point of view of course) https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/lo-que-arde https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWdlRdCzD-w I have used the S16 Alexa Mini mode with both, the old S16 zeiss superspeed and the ultra 16 lenses, I didn't like the look of the Ultra16 on the Alexa but the superspeeds are really beautiful. Ultra16 https://vimeo.com/312168266 Super16 Superspeeds https://vimeo.com/310678277 Hope it helps! Have a good day.

Looks superb @Craig Benson!

As far as I know you could de-squeeze the image in a monitor like a Small HD, if I can remember correctly they can do that but we haven't tested it as I'm not in Spain until June, 20th. Be careful with the resolution as @David Mullen ASC said. I just finished shooting a mini series for a well known platform in Spain, we shot anamorphic 2:1 on the Alexa Mini in the drama part and it went well but for the interviews we used the option that the Alexa Mini has to shot on anamorphic 2K and we discovered that because we were cropping 2:1 we didn't reach the specifications in height, which is what they understood for 2K (that's what we had to deliver). They were very understanding in the end but it was a bit of a crisis moment ?.

Hi Sonia, I'm preparing a project exactly with the same camera and anamorphic lenses (hopefully not the same ones ha!) for a 1.33 aspect ratio in the final delivery. The best option for viewing the full 1.33:1 aspect ratio that we have come up with so far is the same as you came up with. Did you do a test with the anamorphic aspect ratio deactivated but applying an anamorphic squeeze just through the qtake / videovillage? Have a lovely day.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/05/tig-notaro-zack-snyder-chris-delia-army-of-the-dead "Every time you see Tig Notaro in Zack Snyder’s new zombiepalooza smash-and-grab heist movie Army of the Dead, the character you’re watching was originally played by now scandal-plagued comedian Chris D’Elia. Don’t try to picture it; that was the whole point of removing him. Snyder answered quickly when I asked him if it was a difficult decision to replace D’Elia after he was accused by multiple women of predatory sexual behavior, sometimes when they were underage. “I think it was a fairly easy one,” the filmmaker said, wincing."

I thought C stands where a rarity in the UK and you could only find them at a certain time, date and location.. usually at night, wandering around.. ? ? ?

Thanks @Satsuki Murashige, not my frame though! (Too bright! ?) It was the frame my gaffer in Milano produced from his phone when we were shooting the Gillette Venus commercial to show me how an interior day would look like when lit with Litemats. I saw it and I was sold on the method! It is so efficient and as you said, elegant, that I have been using it every time I can. These frames below (not colour graded) are an interior day and night of a mini series I just finished shooting where we had three windows (2 windows that you see in the frames that we were going to see all the time and one one the left hand side, next to an actor, that you don't see in that frame) in a 4th floor that we had to control at all times in order to do day and night sequences and where I (literally) taped the litetiles inside the windows ? (well, my wonderful gaffer and his team taped them) Each sequence lasted for about 2 hours and thanks to the litetiles we were able to cut the light from the sun coming from outside. Interior day Interior Night

Thanks Stephen! That might be the goal for the next reel in a couple of years! ?

Thanks so much Joel! Upstage lighting is the best lighting! ? (although not the right one all the time!) I didn't even know that it was a thing.. until Mr. Morris Flam taught me so in a course I did! I learnt to light with Mo Flam! He is an amazing gaffer and a great tutor. Many thanks David! ?

Hi @Ben Kahn, @Satsuki Murashigealready highlighted a lot of things to ask for, I have another question: - Does the director want to see ALL the windows open? Maybe you could talk him / her about just having one of the windows on the side open! If the director doesn't want to see all the windows open you could place Litetiles on the windows (and curtains or voile) that the director doesn't want to see open. As the litetiles have a black back the sun wouldn't be able to enter through the windows and your light will be exactly the same through the hours / days, letting you play with, perhaps, patterns of hard sun light coming through the side window. My gaffer in Milano did exactly that on a job and it looks pretty believable I think.

Hi, If your scene is composed of several shots and you think that the shoot of the scene is going to last for a couple of hours I'd suggest to look for a location that is north orientated or is in the shade for most of the day. If you get one of those locations you will be able to shoot for a couple of hours without the light changing much. You can add 1/4 of CTB to the windows, put some voile nets / curtains over the windows and there you go. I did the above in a sequence from this commercial (00:40) https://vimeo.com/430717354 The warm light inside the bathroom is a practical light and we shot in that bathroom for 2 hours (we did several shots although there are only 2 in the cut). Hope it helped!

After watching Lupin on Netflix (which was shot with the lenses you're testing at the moment) they remind me a bit of the Xtal Xpress. Also, the close focus is fantastic, 19 inches! You changed a bit Greg ?

Thanks Eddy! ?

Congrats!!! The trailer looks superb! ?

This is super good! The soap + water diffusion is amazing. I wonder how any production designer would react to me asking for all the windows on a set to be filled with soap + water ? . Thanks for posting it.

@Viggo Söderberg If you want to shoot a scene in red, shoot it in red. Forget about colourists, LUTs and post-production, the best thing that you can do is to achieve the look that you're after on set with a light that is red. In fairness, the images on your post look just a bit overexposed to me (maybe because I like contrast. If it helps, I have shot plenty of scenes just with red (somehow!) and what I was seeing on set is what was in the final product. Examples on my reel (the train sequence basically) Have a good day.

I totally agree with Stuart. What you can accomplish in terms of connections and work in NFTS or AFI is way superior to what you can achieve in your own terms. Remember that you will meet with loads of directors there and other cinematographers whom you will be friends with and they will help you in your career eventually. If I had gone to the NFTS or AFI (as I was planning to) I would be shooting high-end tv series or features in the UK or USA for sure. Have a good day.

Hi Jake, welcome to the forum. Under my point of view it is just too short to see what you can do as a cinematographer, I'd say that you should try to aim for, at least, 1 minute. It might also help to focus on just one thing, be it narrative or corporate or whatever! Have a good day!

You can see the 35mm Todd Ao in action at the beginning of the mini series when the kids are on the streets wandering around. Really nice.

You can take a look at the following mini series: When They See Us It was shot with the LF, Todd Ao's and Meru anamorphic lenses. Hope it helps.

Extremely impressive! I wonder how many times they rehearsed it.

@Manu Delpech, @Satsuki Murashige, @Stephen Perera, @Giray Izcan Thanks to all of you!!! ? December has been a bit crazy and I have had, literally, no time to do anything than working and studying (I'm doing a masters in UX Design) on the 1 day off that I had per week! Here is the link to the piece of news if any wants to take a look at it: https://icad.ie/student_greenhorn_2020/ @Stephen Perera I love that shot too, although I think that my favourite one is the close up of him after that one! Have a lovely day all and happy new year!!