keith

HEY FELLAS FOR YEARS NOW IVE BEEN A HUGE PROPONENT OF LIGHTING DIAGRAMS, WHETHER IM DPing, LDing, OR GAFFING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS.

I SPEND BOUT 225 DAYS A YEAR ON SET AND PROBABLY ANOTHER 75 WORKIN ON PREPRO. I FEEL ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES I HAVE OVER SOME AND IS PROBABLY A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE ADVANCEMENT OF MY CARRER OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS IS MY ABILITY TO PROBLEM SOLVE AND PROBLEM SOLVE

IN A HURRY.

I LEARNED EARLY ON THAT WHEN I WAS PREPARED AND CAME TO SET WITH A PLAN THAT INCLUDED THE WHOS WHATS WHYS AND WHERES,NOT ONLY WAS I MORE AFFICIENT AND ABLE TO FOCUS ON MY JOB, BUT SO WERE MY BOYS, SO WERE OTHER DEPARTMENTS,AND GENERALLY SPEAKING, SO WAS THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION. SAFE, PRODUCTIVE, TIMLY, BEAUTIFUL IMAGRY, AND MOST OF ALL, FUN! HELL, PEOPLE PAY US TO PLAY, WHY NOT BE GOOD AND HAVE FUN DOING IT.

SO, THIS BRINGS ME TO MY QUESTION..... IVE SEARCHED HIGH AND LOW ON WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE NEVER ENDING INTER-WEB THATS FULL OF EVERYTHING ELSE BUT WHAT I NEED WHEN I NEED IT......

WHAT SOFTWARE IS OUT THERE TO HELP ME WITH MY LIGHTING DIAGRAMS,MY SKA'MATIKZ AS I CALL THEM????THERES GOTTA BE SOMETHING BETTER?

I LIKE THINGS NEAT, I LIKE 'EM TIDDY, I LIKE THEM IN A HURRY, AND GOSH DARNIT IF I HAVE TO SPEND 4HOURS IN MS-WORD TRYING TO MAKE IT DO THINGS IT WASENT DESIGNED TO DO JUST SO THAT THE BOYS AND I CAN HAVE A MORE PRODUCTIVE DAY..... THEN 4 HOURS IT IS!

IVE DONE THE MAJORITY OF MY DIAGRAMS VIA GRAPH PAPER OR AN 'OL MAC PROGRAM CALLED APPLEWORKS THAT JUST LIKE WORD, I MADE IT DO IT!!!

IM GETTIN OLDER,BUSIER,AND PROBABLY JADED''ER. WHEN THE COMPUTER CRAP IS THE TOUGHEST PART OF CREATING LIGHT,TIME TO LOOK ELSEWHERE.

CALLING ALL CARS CALLING ALL CARS, WE GOT AN A.P.B. OUT ON ANY AND ALL SOFTWARE PROGRAMS TO HELP PREVENT LIGHTING DIAGRAM CRIMES.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME FELLAS,I HOPE THIS BLOG WILL BE USEFUL TO MYSELF ASWELL AS OTHERS TIRED OF NOT HAVING THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB!

Yesterday I lit a scene with a girl walking through pools of light with candles in lanterns hanging in the background. We shot on the Red at a 320 iso and the director was pretty happy with it, but I had a problem with the candle flames. I was taught that practicals should be 2-3 stops above your keytone, but our flames were reading at a 2, and the only lens we had was the Red 2.8 zoom lens. As a result the flames were just little balls of light.

 

I'm shooting a similar scene in the next few days- dark with a single candle in a lantern- and was looking for some advice. I was thinking of putting a gold reflector on the ground in front of the subject and bouncing light off that. Bigger candles maybe? I'll be shooting on the XTR prod and havent chosen my film stock yet, so advice on that would be welcome as well!

MY FIRST QUESTION WOULD BE ARE YOU PLANNING ON INTER CUTTING THE RED FOOTAGE WITH THE FILM STOCK STUFF YOUR DOING NEXT ? CAUSE UNLESS YOU GOT A BIG BUDGET,ALOT OF TIME,AND A TALENTED TELECINE ARTIST/POST HOUSE,,,,,,,,,, HIGHER SPEED FILM THROUGH OLD GLASS NEXT TO DIGITAL HD CAPTURE W/poop GLASS.....????? TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LOOKS MY MAN. AND PROBABLY NOT THE BEST SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM.

IF IT WAS ME, ID JUST GO RENT SOME BETTER GLASS. SOMETHING FASTER, 1.5 TO 2 STOPS FASTER AND FOR SURE NOT A ZOOM. IVE SHOT ALOT ON THE RED THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS AND AM A FAN, BUT THAT ZOOM IS JUNK, OK WELL NOT JUNK, JUST NOT GOOD. THERES PLENTY OF OTHER PL MOUNTED LENS OUT THERE THAT'LL MAKE YOUR RED RESULTS LOOK JUST THAT MUCH BETTER. EVEN ISO320 @24FPS UNDER CANDLELIGHT CAN BE BEAUTIFUL ON THE RED.RIGHT TOOL FOR THE RIGHT JOB IS WHAT ME POOPS SAYS.

GOOD LUCK MY FRIEN,MY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!