Elliott Balsley

I'm preparing for a shoot in a nightclub, and they have cam-lok tails available for us to use. But nobody at the venue can tell me any more details than that. I need to figure out how much power is available exactly. I took this photo of the fuse box, and it looks to me like 100A per leg for 300A total. Can someone confirm that please? I can see that the cam-lok tails has 3 hots, neutral, and ground. Also — I'm assuming each phase-neutral is 120v, but what would be the standard voltage phase-phase in this kind of venue? Just curious, in case we have any 240v units. Thanks in advance for any help! -Elliott

Here is a link to the footage: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33335399/A031_C021_0210GP%20full.mov This was transcoded to 1920x1080 H.264 with full debayer.

I was shooting a short film last weekend on a RED One (MX). Project was at 23.98fps with a 180° shutter. Everything was going swell until I changed the shutter to 45° for one shot. I got a rolling band of warmish color on the LCD, and it shows in the footage too. In a hurry, we didn't have time for empirical tests, but we fixed it by changing the shutter to 86° (if I remember correctly). The only light in the scene was daylight through the window, an M18 HMI set to flicker-free mode, and some very dim incandescent china balls overhead. I had a 1/4 black pro mist on the lens. I'm very confused, as I thought flicker-free mode on an electronic ballast was supposed to allow shooting at all frame rates and shutter speed combinations. How do you explain this? Should I tell the rental house their light is broken? I will post a clip soon, when I get it back from the editor.

I want to buy a baby plate with a built-in strong earth magnet. This would allow mounting lights in places never before mounted! What do you think? Has anyone ever seen this for sale somewhere?

I'm in the middle of color grading a short film, and we have a problem. I've been using a Lustre Master Station 2012, but the machine crashed and apparently won't be back up in time for us to finish the film. I'm done with the grade, so all I need to do is the final render. Is it possible to somehow convert the project file to be used in another system, such as DaVinci or Apple Color? I have all the project files and all the original media backed up.

I should have mentioned: The reason I'm thinking chocolate is that this film is set in the 1930's, and I want an old look. The director is worried about locking in anything right now, and wants to do it in post. Any thoughts about that?

This might be slightly off-topic, but can anyone give me any references of footage or films shot with a chocolate filter? I'm considering using one for the first time this weekend, but want to be sure of how it will look. Any major films I've heard of that used one? Thanks.

Thanks for all the ideas, I like having more to think about :) In the hallway, the director and I decided it might actually be nice if the background is a little dark, because the character is somewhat lost mentally in these scenes, is looking for someone but doesn't know which room he's in or how to find him. So I will try something on the dolly, not sure how much. There are many shots in this hallway. Some following the actor running, some leading her from the front. Three times, at different doorways, she stops and has a brief encounter with the people in each room. For those shots, we'll be getting coverage over her shoulder, and from the other person's POV looking out the doorway.

Thanks everyone, for the responses. Ronald, you make a good point about the set color. The walls are pale green, probably around 50% reflectance I'd guess. But the furniture and floor is dark wood, so that might require an extra stop or so. I have a 1K and a 2K fresnel availalble, as well as a 575w HMI, but I was just picking small sources based on the footcandles, like I said. I realized the drawing is a little confusing; the wall on the bottom doesn't exist, that's just the The 300w far away is in another room. No gel, but I realized I want to diffuse it with muslin, which probably means it needs to be a 1K instead. It's job is to provide dim ambience everywhere (hence the distance.. inverse square law). The china ball is supposed to bring the actor up to key. Do you think it's a problem they're on the same side? I might add a bounce card on the dark side if I need to. I plan to use a real TV to provide a little flickering light, but if that doesn't work, I have a salt'n'pepper kino ready instead. I have another question now. Another location I have is a hotel hallway. The hall has ugly fluorescent tubes along the ceiling, which I'll be replacing with Kino KF32's. I'm trying to figure out how much light that will provide, since I can't get in to test it until the shoot day. According to Kino's website, a 4' T12 KF32 tube produces 3350 lumens, but I don't know how to calculate the candelas from that. A Kino Double Select produces 26 footcandles at 8 feet, which I think is the distance to the actor's shoulder from the fixture. I'll have the same 2 bulbs, but without a reflector, so I'm figuring half that will hit the actor. Is that right? That would give me light to shoot at a f/1.4, but I'd like to get f/4. So my main question is what do you recommend in this hallway? I've thought of putting a 1K or 2K on the Fisher dolly, bounced into the ceiling, but I worry it will look too unnatural as we move. We don't have access to put lights in rooms, and there are no windows.

For some reason the image didn't upload last time. Here it is.

Hi everyone. I'm a cinematography student, shooting on 16mm for my first time next weekend. I've been trying to come up with a lighting plan, and I could use some advice. I'll be shooting on Kodak 7217, 200T. It's all night interiors, and I'm going to for a moody, lonely look. I have measurements of the room, as you can see in the attached picture. (I apologize for the lousy scan quality.) I want to shoot at an f/2, which means key light should be 25 footcandles, according to my Set Lighting Technician's Handbook. I'm looking at all the tables in the back of that book, listing brightness of various fixtures at various distances. So I've come up with this: a 300w fresnel 20 feet away (in another room which diegetically doesn't exist) for a little ambience a practical floor lamp in the frame to provide some motivation. (The room is dark because the protagonist is watching a movie.) a chinaball (maybe 150w?) just out of frame, mimicking the floor lamp. I want this to be close so its light will fall off the background. possibly a very small source (150w pepper) with a cucoloris in the background for texture. From my experience working on sets, those fixtures just seem really small to me, and I'm worried I won't have nearly enough light. So there's a conflict between the charts/math and my experience. Can anyone offer advice here?