Matt Day

I should just point out that PVC usually doesn't snap, it just bends.. The only reason our PVC frame snapped in the wind was probably because it was old (rescued from scrap) and brittle, buying from new, the frame would probably just flex a little in strong winds, like carrying a giant umbrella. Sorry for double post.

Yeah thinking about it the aluminium will be the strongest but PVC will be stronger than copper and cheaper than both. So go for PVC. Oh it's mega cheap too, i found meter length pipes for less than $5 a piece (perhaps around £2-£3) around local hardware stores. Nah, when PVC snaps you'll get a little dust and perhaps a couple of sharp edges but nothing that could hurt anyone. I was sure i had some pictures but i can't seem to find them :( But be sure to let me know if you decide to build one though, I'm more than happy to give advice etc :)

May be worth getting hold of some black fabric and stretching it across the background, bounce the 800 from the ceiling, maybe put a snoot on there as well just to help keep it from directly hitting the background. Use the dedos to model the actors, should be pretty straight forward, if i were you just push light in from high up on your key side (they always have high narrow windows in those interrogation rooms), i think a small reflector or some white board would be enough for fill as you will probably want to keep it quite dramatic and contrasty. If you can't get access to any background fabric it might be possible to cheat slightly, shoot all angles up against a blank wall and vary the distance depending on the shot. EG: for a wide shot showing both interrogator and interviewee on opposite sides of the desk you might want the desk right up against the wall (here you could have light coming in from camera side (high angle key).. And then for the closeups, turn the desk around and put a bit of space between the back of the actor's chair and the wall. Just some ideas, without seeing the location or knowing what mood / feel etc nobody can really tell you the best thing to do. (Be sure to change your display name too, otherwise in future nobody will want to help you here... ;) )

I once made up a 4x4 from PVC pipe for a low budget affair, the diffusion was similar to half frost i think, clipped along the edges of the pipes whenever we needed to fly it (a bit of tape to seal the edges in between also helps if it's rattling). Worked pretty well until a freak gust of wind interrupted a blue sky day, lifted the frame right up and snapped one of the pipes. If you ask me, get your hands on some thin lightweight aluminium or copper tubes (cheap plumbing pipes) and it'll make your frame a little more sturdy in exchange for a bit more weight. Just my two cents.

My goodness what a terribly embarrassing post. :o I have to apologise for the stupidity (and double post), it's a side effect of sinking far too many pints at a meeting earlier and being able to post from my phone. I swear i need to make a filter for that thing so i don't end up posting something ridiculous like this again. Please do feel free to laugh or patronise me by actually answering the question. If you haven't already 'worked out' the answer really i would question whether or not you've been drinking as well...

My experiences actually vary quite vastly but here are a couple of my recent shooting experiences that might help inform you.. I was on a relatively simple shoot, one scene in one room, lighting was simple (so i thought), I'd planned for about 4 lighting setups and there were a few different camera setups too i recall. We were shooting 3 pages of script in a 5 hour time slot, that's cutting it fine but we could just about manage given the simplicity of the scene. We made it with about 5 min to spare, mostly in part due to complications with the lighting setup for one shot. Consider this also, i was working on my last shoot with a very naive producer, i was told they had prior experience but you wouldn't have guessed (maybe they just pressed the button on the coffee machine?) So he says we can shoot 3 pages of script in a single day. Sounds plausible, until you read through the shot list and realize there are about 19 different setups. That 3 pages of script ended up taking all of a week to shoot, due mostly to various complications imposed by the location. Personally my trick is to overestimate the easy shots, doing so gives you leverage when problems pop up and eases the pressure slightly. Just don't over-do the over-estimations! ~Happy Days

Probably a silly question but one which has completely puzzled me since i noticed it.. The studio logos that screen before the body of the movie (eg: WB, Paramount etc), always seem to pop out of the screen with much more clarity than any part of the film does. Of course the big studios want themselves to subconsciously in an audiences mind be seen as the 'bosses', it's a way they can say to people 'we own this film' without sending some greasy executive to read out copyright contracts during the trailers from rival studios.. I pointed this out to a friend of mine and we were trying to work out how the heck the studio logos always 'popped' whilst the film itself remained relatively repressed, perhaps my technical brain isn't working as well as it used to be or it's just too early in the morning now to think but if anyone has any ideas (or facts) feel free to jump in and settle this.. Indeed i must apologise for such a ridiculous question but far too many pints have been sunk whilst trying to work out the answer! ~Happy Days.

Thank you to everyone who has shared their knowledge and offered helpful suggestions, sorry i couldn't reply sooner but the shoot began and i was busy on set for the most part. The hallway shoot is later this evening and the location is actually worse than i remember. A narrow long corridor with those awful flat fluorescent spheres (the energy saving ones). The shot itself won't be showing any of the ceiling as we physically can't remove or hide the existing lights (not enough height for a false ceiling, can't mask them or add china hats due to space), this means i can switch the existing lights off and fix some kinos up to create some nice light pools. Thanks once again to all of you for sharing your knowledge

hmm interesting suggestions but there wouldn't be room for a china, i even have to duck to scratch my head in there. My thinking at the moment is to back-light with a reddish tint (i believe this could work for the story). For fill in a little perhaps i could tape a small fluorescent to the camera ops forehead (filling in as they track backwards), shouldn't be too much of an issue, all i have to say is it's an 'insider trick they used on the matrix' and he'll be up for anything.. Thanks once again for the suggestions, each one triggers a new line of thinking :)

The cheap Chinese made knock off brands you find floating around ebay are hit and miss actually. In terms of the lamp heads sometimes the parts are badly assembled and so you might find the bulbs to be a little lose fitting but they are usually safe enough (use some common sense here). If your going to be using them for personal projects or just getting started on smaller shoots then by all means go for them, try them out use them to experiment without risk of having a heart attack every time you visit an ATM. Light quality is not that great but it's more than workable, they do tend to have very rough edges and you get trouble with hotspots but these are easily fixable issues.

I found myself moving from shooting weekend projects to having to take time out of work to shoot bigger and bigger projects (people i had worked with previously were moving up the ladder and helping me up with them). Really the only advice i can give is to try and start filming some of your own projects, don't be afraid to be a bit ambitious and if possible get some other people involved too. Have a good time shooting, learn from it and keep doing it until you get an opportunity to move up the ladder. Also get people to do you some favors (eg. helping you out with filming), then you can 'owe them one', (hopefully when they have a big project to shoot!) Good luck anyway!

Ah sadly the walls are in shot for the entire length of the hallway so any fluorescent tubes taped to the walls would look a little out of place. Perhaps though i could tape a couple out of shot in some of the door ways to give a bit of shine as the character runs past but i can't think of any motivation for these (unless perhaps we frame only one wall in shot with 'imaginary' windows on the other off screen). Thanks anyway for the suggestion Jon, it's given me a new line of thinking to consider.

Hello Guys, I have a shoot coming up in which one of the scenes to be lit is a very narrow hallway , it's causing me some difficulties so thought i would come ask for some advice. The ceiling height is too low to hang fixtures and the hallway is very narrow, there are doors running the length of the hallway but we only have access to one which our character will be running out of (and towards the camera) (i was thinking of putting a small fixture behind the door, 300 or 500 with some diffusion perhaps, don't want the light to be too intense as it's just moonlight ambience) The story dictates the character is feeling trapped and sees no clear way out of the hallway and the director wants a kind of tense but frantic atmosphere which makes me think backlighting would be inappropriate (light at the end of the tunnel etc). I was thinking of bouncing a few tungstens off the existing fixtures but not sure if this will cause the scene to look overlit (as it's also a night scene), i was also thinking of unscrewing a few of the bulbs to leave only a couple of the practicals on and just streaking some blueish light down a wall to give some depth. Any advice on what i could do with this most boring apartment building hallway would be very much appreciated, (we have tungstens of various sizes) Cheers, Matt