Miguel Angel

I just got a wonderful piece of news! If has been nominated to best cinematography in the ICAD awards 2020 in the student craft category! ? (It has also been nominated to best direction in the normal craft awards ?) The winners are announced tomorrow night! Fingers crossed!!! ?

I'm translating it.. veeeery slowly! I'm happy I bought all the books I knew about cinematographers nearly 20 years ago ? .. they seem like a great investment now ha!

Interesting topic! I have one question for you all. Which one is a digital cinema camera and which one is film? They are both shot side by side on the same day on a film I shot, same exposure. The colour variation is because of the lenses! They are both straight out of camera (the digital one having the LUT I use) In any case, I personally think that any colourist could match both in any direction. Have a good day! Regarding your questions: Are you interested in recreating a film look when acquiring a project digitally? Not strictly speaking, I think that digital cameras and film cameras are different and each have their textures. On the other hand, I reckon that film and digital intercut seamlessly at this stage. Are you currently doing anything to emulate film when shooting digital? If so what's your process? Not at all, however there is one thing that I miss from film and that's halation!.

Looks fantastic AJ! Very impressed with the look of the Atlas.

Muchas gracias Matias!!!!! Me alegra que te guste! ?

Well, I come from a photography background and one of the things that distinguish great photographers from average ones is that they are able to capture a story in one single frame while being truthful about it. As an example, if we take a look at the work of Sebastiao Salgado (especially in portraits) we can feel the authenticity, honesty and truth of the photo, we also feel that there is a story in the photo and around the subjects. However, the photographer deliberately chose to take a photo from that angle so he made a choice in order to tell a story. Hence, we have a photo that is authentic, it is true (as it has been taken in a true non-modified environment) but it is also an alteration of the truth because the photographer has decided to focus on X instead of Y. https://huxleyparlour.com/works/mother-and-child-at-the-korem-camp-ethiopia-1984/ I kind of think that maybe there should be a distinction in filmmaking regarding genres. Usually when you are shooting a documentary you are documenting the reality that is happening at that particular time and most of the time you're just capturing a set of images in a certain medium. However, when you are making a movie, you are altering reality to fit a purpose and in that case you are using all the tools that you have available to do so consciously.

There are some examples in painting where the painters used depth of field to draw attention to what they wanted you to focus on. https://www.reynoldahouse.org/collections/object/orchid-with-two-hummingbirds Or Turner or many of the impressionists just to say a few ?

I agree! Pretty on point!

I'm used to using black paper. Easy to put in, it is extremely lightweight, you can put it up with normal cellotape and it comes in super big rolls. That's interesting! Thanks for the tip!! ? Have a lovely day.

Fair points! I might think about putting them in! I think so as well.. it is very difficult to part with pre-established ideas that work in your head though. Thanks!!! ?

And congratulations on winning another Emmy!!! ? Very well deserved!

Thanks Manu, there is just one new clip from The Tattoo on the reel though! ? Thank you Satsuki! I might agree with you on the wider day exteriors shots. Let me explain the reason why I didn't put them there. - I have a wide exterior shot (in black & white though) at the beginning of the reel with a lot of people and some action in the shot happening. - I wanted to keep the projects together and I was thinking about putting the following shot in the part where "IF" is: But I don't think that it is nice enough! - Now, I have a lot of day exterior shots in commercials and I thought about putting some together at the end of the reel, but then it wouldn't have been just focused on narrative projects (I reckon!) I might be wrong though! Regarding music, my initial thought about it was to use this music (from this point to the end) https://youtu.be/lEMIKBiDHeo?t=86 I cut a reel with that music and I thought that it was REALLY good, my friends told me that the music was too much and didn't match the images nor the passion I have when I take on a project though. If I still have a working file of that reel I'll upload it so anybody who is looking to cut their reel can take a look at it and see the start of the project and the end! ? Well, let's see if my reel works and I end up shooting a feature or a tv series because of it! ?

You all know that I hate reels but after much consideration I ended up making one. Now, I have no idea whether is good or not but I do think that it is tailored to narrative work and maybe it would help somebody when cutting their reel! It took me 4 months to find the song I thought that represented me a bit and cutting the reel has been a great way to realise even more that I just want to shoot wonderful human stories instead of commercials. Also.. I just graduated from college (believe it or not ??)

I like what you did with the music to break the pace of the reel. However, I'm confused as to what kind of projects you want to get with it, is it music videos or narrative features / dramas / shorts? I would consider cutting two shorter reels, one for music videos and one for narrative projects. I know that cutting a reel is kind of an ordeal but you have to make sure what is what you want to achieve with it in the bigger picture. Also, a question I asked myself when cutting my reel was: What music does represent me? Even though most people watch reels with the music off, I'd say that if you take the time to see your reel as a piece of personal work that encapsulates your work as well as says something about you, that's a win-win. Hope it makes sense?

Hilite The sun hitting the table on the first 4 seconds of this commercial is diffused with Hilite.

I still remember this scene because you could see her and her performance, on top of being lit beautifully!!!. I'm so tired of not being able to see the actors / actresses in "night scenes" in movies / tv series that this scene was pretty inspiring!. I think that we all cinematographers (me included of course) fall into the trap at some stage of trying to make things dark when 99% of the times there is no reason as to why not to see the face of the character. Making the decision to light somebody's face in a night scene feels extremely courageous sometimes.

I just got my ticket for the 70mm projection! Can't wait! ?

Tell that to directors nowadays.. and actors! They all want to shoot rehearsals, actors move around the place without doing the same thing twice, etc, etc. Last thing I shot on film (and Alexa) was a short documentary, we didn't have storyboards but we knew what things we wanted to emphasise with film. It worked beautifully!

Now try to do that with Ektachrome (which is the stock that we want to use), long takes, a PA flying 3 times / week from Spain to London to deliver the stock (amount that has to come from the camera budget), lab processing, scanning (not in 2K but in 4K). I'm not arguing with you though! I'd love to shoot in on Super 16! and maybe it will happen. Regarding short-films, I'm going to put you two examples: Budget, circa €6000. 1 day shooting, super limited lighting setup and super limited crew: Gaffer, 1st AC, 2nd AC, data wrangler. Production had the two producers and 1 PA, 1 person for H&MU, 1 production designer + 1 assistant. Alexa Mini + Superspeeds, we ended up with around 1 hour of raw footage. I wanted to shoot it on Super 16 and let's say that we aim for 1 hour of raw footage. (Prices below from Frame 24) Process Paid: Stock + Neg Developing + 2K Scan £1 917.60 (£2000 with shipping to Ireland) - €2209 Super 16 camera kit in Ireland for 1 day (because they don't have Super16 lenses in Ireland and they have to rehire them) - €1104 We have already spent €3313, more than 1/2 of the budget in the camera kit and stock!.. what do you do with the actors, locations, transport, etc, etc, etc? The producer, who is very good, said no. Budget - €50K Amount of raw footage - Loads AND really really long takes so if you shoot one take and it doesn't work you have to change the roll.. and hope that you can use the short-ends for an insert (which didn't happen). I didn't want to shoot it on Super 16 though! ? it would have been a mistake. They do! However I don't use a DIT / Digital lab on set ever. I only need a data wrangler, which seems to be way cheaper than a DIT apparently.

Hi Marta, Without knowing the particular style / aesthetics that you're looking for and the ASA of the stock that you're using is difficult to give a particular answer but here is a general one and how I would light this from the top of my head, assuming that those shots are your wide shots. 1st location I would use a small HMI or Skypanel in the background to create a bit of daylight on that table / wall / picture, would block the light from any of the existing windows and would make sure that I can turn off the lights in the ceiling individually if I wanted to. That way you can create a silhouette up until you have your character in the last position (I would make sure that the character's last position is in front of one of the ceiling lights so he / she is backlit by it) I would put depron inside those lamp covers. For the close ups, if you are going to look towards the interior of the rows of bookshelves I would do the same as I did in the wide shot, I would lit the background with a daylight source and for the actors I would just use the two aladdins together through a frame with diffusion) 2nd location You could replace the bulb for another bulb a bit more powerful and if you really wanted to give it more power you could always put the two aladdins attached to the ceiling through a diffusion or depron. 3rd location You have a great location here and at night it can be really good. You can use the existing fluorescent lights on top of the tables (not the ones in the ceiling) and gel them with a colour that you like and place some practicals here and there.. or you can rent a set of Astera Tubes and replace the fluorescent bulbs and use the aladdin lights on the laptop screens that you're not seeing in camera. For the close ups you can use one of the aladdin lights on the laptop screen through depron and supplement it with another source on the far side of the character if needed. Hope it helps!

Just chiming here to say that I don't really know where all the people who shoot film on music videos / shorts / etc find the money for it to be honest! I'm preparing two €1M / €1.5M movies at the moment (which is a normal budget for normal movies here). I would like to shoot one on Super 16 + anamorphic and it is impossible to make it work (not because of the camera and the lenses which cost nothing in the overall budget but because of the cost of film + processing + scan) The other one is Alexa 65 / Monstro and the camera kit + storage fits perfectly within the budget. When I try to pitch Super 16 to producers on short-films we look at the costs together and the budget increases, minimum, by 70% so it is always unfortunately a no go. Maybe in USA is different and you have loads of different offers but in UK / Ireland the cost is demential.

Congratulations (again) on the Emmy nomination @David Mullen ASC!!! ?

Thank you very much Manu! It is a pity that Vimeo compresses the image so the whole texture can't be appreciated! Oh! Thanks for your kind words again Satsuki. I think that you are only as good as your director is and Steve is really really good and talented. Thinking about it now I reckon that I could have lit the bathroom scene in a different way, probably a bit more natural, letting the bulb in the bathroom being the main source and having the sodium vapor way less strong. And I should have framed the wide shot of the bedroom scene differently! Chivo and Kaminski, that's a great combination haha! ?

Thank you Manu!! Very appreciated! ?

I don't know! My bank account doesn't agree with my path in cinematography! If we measure success in terms of how much money you make, I'm definitely not successful at all! Damn, I recently discovered that recce days are charged as a NORMAL day instead of 1/2 day!!!!!! ?