Shelly Johnson ASC

Hi Karl, Based on your reflective readings... and the fact you're shooting on film vs digital, I would have placed the shooting stop closer to a T1.8-1.6 Film has a marvelous capability of hanging on to highlight detail and even with a push process, generous exposure will help give depth to the large amount of low-light details in your composition while still giving the highlights a bright but detailed character. Keep track of any lab printer point values and talk to your colorist to see if he felt he had enough detail to work with. Hopefully you'll be fine (and I realize your fastest lens was well over a 2) as pushing and/or under-cranking are your only viable options if you don't have access to a faster lens. The presence of water and other urban movement makes under-cranking a clear slippery slope. I'd be curious to hear how this shot printed!

Regarding Guy's comments, Correct on all counts. Great tips there. I've never thought about the DC thing. I'll try that one! This is why a cinematographer needs a creative gaffer!

Hi Drew, LightSource - James McGuire has done a good job with that AP. Also, PCam has foot-candle tables as I recall. Dave Eubanks has made a very useful AP there. Both APs are well worth having. I use them often.

Hi Kenny, Here's an old-school type of reply. When dealing with the tungsten strobing on Phantom (I believe certain tungsten lights tend to strobe at frame rates of 300FPS and above, with severe strobing at 1,000-2,000FPS). It seems like the smaller the globe, the more noticeable the strobing. For instance, a 1K or 750 Source 4 strobes more than a 10K or 20K at higher frame rates. Certain Kinos will strobe less, but thats a bit of a roll of the dice... and as you mentioned, the output isn't overly useful at high frame rates. The use of a space-light will likely produce severe strobing since that light is comprised of (usually) 6 1K quartz globes. Almost anything below a 2K tungsten lamp is subject to strobing at high frame rates. My solution has always been to use lamps with larger globes, then diffuse, bounce, reflect... whatever... to shape the light as needed. Seems like this old tried-and-true method will get the best results with the fewest headaches. My thoughts on using newer lamps, such as LEDs, Plasma Sources Hive or SoftSun, are that they are lamps that already have inconsistencies with regard to color and phasing. I've had difficulty (as has everybody) with strobing LEDs at 24FPS, let alone highspeed applications. The Phantom already has a limited eye when it comes to contrast and color rendition, so there is already less of a fudge-factor than you'd have with, say, an Alexa (under normal speed conditions). I've always had luck choosing sources that had full and predictable color fidelity (good ol' tungsten). Often, integrating daylight is a great idea, with the sensor's native color temp closer to daylight... and I've used solid state HMIs with The Phantom without strobing, but feel I was lucky. Technically speaking, the HMIs should have strobed, so maybe some testing if you use those. Obviously you're limited with dimming abilities of HMI sources. Large tungsten lights seem to answer what the camera is asking for, in my experience. I'd be curious to hear what you ultimately use! If there is another technique out there, I'd love to know. Best regards, Shelly

I was thrilled when I heard David was coming in to shoot the episodes for Smash. It required him to move temporarily to NYC where we shot the Pilot, so he really committed himself to the project. He was very respectful for how the show was created in the Pilot stage, then like all good cinematographers ran with it and made it his own. That is not an easy show to shoot... what with all it's facets. My hat's off to him for a job well done. Looks like he had fun too! -Shelly

Hey Gregory, I'm not aware of the LabLites coming in wattages higher than 30K. You might mean a 100K SoftSun perhaps? The SoftSuns are great. They are pretty huge... and HOT, but they do have punch and are flicker-free. They are difficult to gel and would normally require a custom made over-sized frame (and spliced gel sheet) in order to keep the gel from melting or losing it's color integrity as a result of the lamp's heat. The beam pattern is somewhat rectangular (as is the lamp's design) and the shadow cast is rather unique since it is created by a globe that is long and thin. Similar to the shadow cast from a single Flo tube, only a bit more faceted since the globe in the SoftSun is clear. You can look up the colorimetry and measure it accurately with a traditional color temp meter.. unlike LED's, so it's possible to get predictable results from that lamp. There are a few sources for output and beam pattern information... one being the Light Source Ap (LS) for I-Phone. James Maguire included information for the SoftSun in that Ap. It's a hot, bright lamp so bring your gloves and your sunglasses! Good luck! Shelly

Hi Bagath, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "platform"... but we shot in the Molokai Channel on Jurrasic Park 3 on a variety of different boats and barges. The piece of equipment that made everything do-able was the Libra Head. It performs pretty well on water, and the Molokai Channel is noted for being some of the roughest water in the Pacific. The Libra kept a stable and consistent horizon while we were either moving or just bobbing around like corks. I highly recommend this item for any kind of water work where you are looking for a stabilized image. Good luck! Shelly

Hi David, The person to talk to at LEDz is Malcolm Mills. I know him from Panavision, Manchester... and he was their front man for those lights and can answer all your questions, organize a demo, and offer ideas on how different DPs are using them. When I saw them a couple of years ago (hopefully Malcolm is still there) the daylight version looked good in terms of color... but the 3200 version had some color spikes that they were hoping to solve. Good luck! Shelly

I second this! Larry is the Grandson of Peter Mole and is one of the most generous industry professionals I know. He has devoted his life to educating future cinematographers and crew members and is approachable in every way. If you are ever in California, you should give him a shout. Good luck, Shelly

Hi Morgan, I completely agree with Johann. Broken lenses from glasses or an even thicker magnifying glass or old broken pieces of surplus lens elements, etc. Some of the effects in the video included refractive components as well as reflective, which might suggest the they were placed at an angle to the front lens element... in other words, not parallel to the lens element group. Some were handheld close to the front of the lens and manipulated during the shot to vary the effect. There was also some prismatic edge refraction which would suggest thicker pieces of glass or even cut pieces of glass as part of the tools that cinematographer used to create that look. There was reflective movement to some of the effects as well, which could suggest there may have been pieces of gel or clear wrap (anything affected by moving air such as wind or fan... or even Dust-off) to create that movement. To get the more opaque effects, you can use translucent glass, or scratch some of your pieces. You can even spray things like Streaks & Tips onto certain glass pieces and control the degree of opacity. Another trick is to spray some of the pieces with water... or a combination of antiperspirant and water (and possibly wave a Maglite near the lens) to make the pieces opaque, clear and/or refractive/reflective at the same time Sounds like some testing could be fun! Depending on your format and your focal length, you will get differing results... so experiment with distances, focal lengths and T-stops until you get the degree of abstraction you are looking for. Good luck! Shelly

Hi Jake, I'm in Eastern Europe doing a film and I have the same situation here, where I would like to create a sodium look. I've used every type of method it seems from matching it completely using gels on tungsten lights, along with keying with actual sodium gas arcs... to contrasting colors like blues and yellows, etc. The local gaffer here had a mix of gels he that he has used to match sodium vapor that I have not heard of before, but that I will test. It's blending Lee 108 with a 1/2 Plus Green. Looks great to the eye, but I'm going to put it on film along with actual sodium sources just to confirm the coloring. Might be worth testing for your application. As far as colors that register well on film, take a look at Lee 013, 131, 241, 242, 088 and 048... along with all the CTS line. Those all work in a palette that seem to resonate with film. A few are clearly aggressive, but that might be OK depending on your specific project. Digital capture has a different response to these colors... especially those containing blue... so you'll want to test a variety. Good luck! Shelly

Hi Phil, It's tough for me to imagine what you're going to make. It sounds like you would like to box-in the light, which is fine. Making it out of poly (bead board) might make it tough to move and adjust however... but you know best what you might need from a practical point of view. Usually one would make a box out of several duvateen frames or flags. My guess is that you will need more than 10K to get your stop. Possibly a 20K. Especially if you are going to double diffuse. By solids, I mean duvateen (bolton). You can usually screw them up onto the wall or put them on large frames to knock down the ambient spill. I should have been clearer on the sentence about high light levels and light fall-off. Indeed yes. That works in your favor in a big way. Chances are, the stills you are referencing were shot under strobes putting out enormous amounts of light. Still photographers do this so they can work at faster shutter speeds and get a sharper image. Also because their medium format or large format lenses need more depth of field since they are working with longer focal lengths associated with those formats. You can certainly follow their lead and raise your levels in order to achieve a similar look. Good luck! Shelly

Hi Phil, I believe that you will need the amount of light that you are thinking. By the time you roll at 120FPS, you will be at a T4.0 or in that area, depending on your shutter angle. Working at higher light levels and stopping-down tends to create more light fall off as well In looking at the reference photos, they have a very rich black and crisp highlight, as what seems to be needed with classic B&W photography. You should consider protecting your light and dark values on your log image... or raw image... whatever applies here, and introduce these high and low extremes later in your workflow after image capture, in order to give your image the type of tonal fidelity seen here. The blacks can later be lowered to a "polite" crush, just to anchor the tones. The highlights can be adjusted right up there, just below clip (108-109). The comment about controlling unwanted spill from within the stage is right on. You will want plenty of solids for the walls and ceiling so that you are in full control of the shadows. Negative fill is extremely important when you are controlling contrast to this degree. As for sharpness, you might want to look at where your lenses perform at their best, and work at that optimal stop. You can research this for your specific lenses, but I've noticed very few lenses that do not perform well at T4.0-5.6 The light source(s) in the photos you have posted appear to be working rather close to the subject. Perhaps a large frame that is placed just beyond the frameline so you can get that wrap working. The light will fall away faster if it works closer to the subject as well (law of inverse square). Your idea of double diffusing the lamp is also good. Keep in mind that with soft frames, the diffusion closest to the subject basically is the source. That frame may want to carry the more dense diffusion material in order to give the light the kind of purity that is shown in the reference pictures. Hope this makes sense! Good luck with your shoot! Shelly

Hi Alan, Well, making the move from AC to Operator is a great opportunity. The previous responses are correct... there is not allot of paid prep for an Operator in the states. This, however, does not mean you should not prep. A great thing to do would be to go in and make sure the camera is comfortable for you. Get a feel for the heads, the ground glass, the viewing system, and make adjustments where appropriate (of course any adjustments to the package should be OK'ed by the DP). Make sure the framing leaders are shot correctly and acquaint the AC's on the job as to how you might want the truck set-up and any working preferences you, the DP & Director may have. You can also go into the office and sit down with the DP for a few minutes and get caught up on the group dynamic of the production, and ask about his relationship with the Director... and the areas where he may be looking for help. If there is an opportunity to be present at make-up tests, etc. (production will often try to shoot these without an operator, but show up anyway) that is a great way to get introduced to the actors, Director, AD and Producers. It also establishes your place behind the camera. These are the types of things you can be looking at. They help the DP... but also you. As anybody knows, the most difficult thing about making a move upwards is staying there consistently after that first job. Donating your time and interest will help solidify all that. Good luck!

Hi Chris, Nets are good to experiment with. You can place them in front of the lens, or over the rear lens element as well. The effect is a little lighter when the nets are placed over the rear of the lens... and they are not affected by ambient light hitting them, but more act as a diffusion. You can try different color stockings from white to brown to black. Generally a lighter weave is good, as nets and stockings do have a way of hitting very hard... especially in 16mm where sharpness is at a premium. You can fasten to the rear of the lens with a net retainer, tack putty or even a few drops of nail polish like in those days. It would do you well to shoot some tests so you can evaluate the results ahead of time, as the effect on film is different than what you see on the groundglass. Also, different weaves of nets and stockings offer a different character to highlights and pin spots, so trying a few different types would be a great idea. Good luck!