Lorenzo Levrini

Hi all, I want to buy a spot-and-incident all-in-one metering solution. I know the Sekonic L 758 is the most popular of these. There is a 'cine' variant, but it costs more. Any shortcomings in the non-cine variants I should know of for cinematography use? Thanks, Lorenzo

For an upcoming project I'd like to bounce HMI sources and direct the bounced light through one or more windows into kitchens' living rooms and other smallish spaces. I'm in the UK and won't have the budget for a genny so the most powerful unit I can use is the 2.5 PAR. I have two questions: 1) Given that bouncing will lose me a lot of light, approximately how many of these units would I need to have to give me enough power? (I'm assuming the day will be overcast and f not I'll use blackout to cut direct sun) 2) What bounce surface will give me the most punch? (Poly/muslin/ultrabounce etc) Also any rigging advice related to the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for your replies. I'm afraid we're on the old sensor for this show due to budget reasons, I won't be rating above 400 though. Would you still recommend using the filter?

Hi guys, I have an indoor shoot coming up full of pracs so there's no chance of blueing up the lights. A guy at a rental house told me it is preferable to use an 80 filter instead of balancing to 3200K and fixing in post. Presumably doing all the conversion in post is not only annoying but adds a little noise? I don't like the idea of being forced to keep the 80 in front of the lens at all times, what if I want to remove the matte box for a particular shot? Let me know your thoughts.

I have an interesting challenge coming up. We have to fake a peephole on the inside of a door that does not have one. Art department will put a fake one on but I would like to have a small amount of light hitting the actress's face as she looks through it, to sell the effect. Can anyone think of any way to do this? The only thing I can think of is to cut a tiny circle of Lee 271 or 273 silver mirror gel and place it inside the diameter of the fake peephole, hide a dedo behind the actress and spot it right into the circle to provide a reflection. This is not a bad idea but I'm worried that the spotted beam from the dedo will be too obvious on the inside of the door.

Thanks Chris. I bought one of the aforementioned cans of smoke and this is a test still with a very mild spray of it. It's okay but looks to much like smoke so I may well hire the DF-50!

Hey all, I've just been hired on a project that has a morning attic scene. The attic has a single window and I'd love to create the effect of a shaft of light coming into the otherwise dark attic. I have a 1000w parcan with medium beam bulb that would be ideal for the shaft, and I was wondering what kind of smoke/fog I should use to build up a fog level high enough to see the beam but low enough to still be able to see clearly. Would this work? http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... checkstore Cheers!

Thanks, but I'm not really worried about the flare characteristics of the lenses, I don't need massive flaring or anything. I wanted to talk about the specific technique of shining light into lenses rather than using the sun.

I forgot to mention that we will be shooting on 5Dmk2 with good quality Canon primes that should be able to handle the flare well.

Hi Guys. I'm doing an outdoor location shoot in the English countryside this summer for a road trip short. The story calls for a feeling of intense heat and disorientation as tension mounts between the characters. I'm imagining a blinding sun effect shown through flare and the associated contrast reduction, without ever seeing the sun. We will obviously film at times when the weather works with us and the sun is in the right place in the sky, but I was toying with the idea of aiming an off-camera light into the lens slightly off-axis to create the aforementioned flare and 'blinding sun' effect, and wanted to know if any of you have done this and if you have any tips. Thanks!

You are assuming that you will get your 'cold' feel solely by affecting the white balance, which is not always the case. Think of your palette, etc.

I am building some homemade lighting accessories and came upon roughly 3'x3' of what I am pretty sure is satin (white, thin, shiny). I threw it up in front of a parcan and it seems to be a fairly nice diffusion, but I'm not sure whether it's something worth stretching on a frame, which is something I've had my painter friend do for me before. So has anyone ever used satin for diffusion, and if they have, what's it like? Thanks!

If I was shooting this I would really want to see the curtains hit by that golden sunlight. I would cheat the size of the room to be smaller and put up some curtains with your lighting units behind. You would have to shoot relatively tight - any wide shots and the fake curtains would be obvious. I can't think of a way to see the sun directly but seeing the curtains bathed in that light would really sell the look. Shooting in London, you are most likely going to have an overcast day, which is ideal - you won't have to worry about the light outside changing during the course of the day.