timHealy

To answer you question about a grip arm is no. There are specific codes for using grounding rods and I imagine the codes may change from country to country, and perhaps state to state under the NEC. There is absolutely no way that a grip arm is ever mentioned in any of these codes. The question to ground or not to ground a generator is like asking which is better film or video. for a great discussion about it can be found at http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/H...g_Grounding.htm In California where the film business is a big industry, they are much more strict about codes and violations and I believe a fireman/marshall can be found on most if not all sets. Someone with more knowledge about that can comment. You will find that in CA it is illegal to ground a generator. But in NY you'll find many who will ground one. The CA law is written by humans. Electricity will not follow the laws humans but of physics. You'll find many electricians who will say that if a mobile generator is insulated from the earth by rubber tires there is no potential if a live cable were to touch the earth. In a completely dry environment I would agree with that. But what if it were raining? What if cable was run through moist grass, dirt, mud, or pools of water? I find holes and cuts in cable all the time where the insulation on a cable was damaged from either from knife cuts or worn away down to the copper. Read that thread. It is enlighting about both sides of the issue. But the story I have that to me proves there is potential between an ungrounded insulated generator and the earth. I was watching a 1200 amp generator when suddenly someone turned on something big on one phase. That something big was almost 400 amps of power. I called on the walkis to ask what it was and no one answered. So I start walking the line to find out where that load is coming from. I traced it to a distibution box with a few electricians huddled over it tryoing to solve another problem. I started tugging on the cable with the 350 amps on it asking what was this plugged in to when someone realized it was plugged in to a local ground that unknown to me, was attached to a small boathouse near a small fresh water lake. Yeah someone really screwed up to do that. When it was unplugged the load was disrupted and a hugh arc was seen by all. A closer inspection to the ground of the electric panel that it was attached to looked like a bolt of lightning hit it. The earth was taking as much power as the generator would produce. I can't iamgine in how many ways someone could have gotten hurt, but thank god no one did. Even though there are arguments for grounding and not ground, I tend to think an earth ground from the generator is not a bad idea. just my 2 cents Tim

It sounds like you may have a light leak somewhere. I am not familiar with your camera so I cannot make any specific suggestions but perhaps something is leaking light either around the lens, perhasp the eyepiece or perhaps between the mag and the body. I would suggest taking it to a shop before you shoot anything else. When you find out what it is please post a solution. Tim

Don't forget the high speed version of the SR. It'll go up to 150 fps. But the motor can be slightly louder than a regular SR. But a good tune up and maintainence by you local ARRI office can keep it running well. Too bad Arri never had the forsight to make SR's reg 16/super 16 interchangeable like the Aaton people. Damn fools. I guess hindsight is alwasy 20/20.

Daniel, I agree with David that you are missing the point and also not thinking of the inverse square law. A practical may give enough light for exposure when an actor may be right next to it. But as they move away the exposure will drop off like a rock. If you double the distance you will lose one stop, or half the amount of light. Conversely if you need one stop bring the light closer and cut the distance in half. You'll have twice the amount of light. With a small wattage light you may be talking inches to lose a stop and a foot or two to lose serval stops and put you actor in darkness. With a dino light through diffusion, you may have to go 30 feet to lose one stop then 60 feet to lose two, then 120 to lose three stops. So in that example one would move 210 feet and you would lose three stops and still be in films lattitude for exposure. More if there is no diffusion in that particular lamp. But that is an example, and I'm sure you get my point. Most practicals in most movies will have a larger studio light just off screen so that light will appear to be coming from that practical but it will reach deep into the room. Actually the farther back you pull the studio lamp back from the set, the more even the exposure will be across the set. Then typically a solid/cutter/flag will be used to take the studio light off the practical. In the picture you submitted there is a large overhead soft source and there is also a soft source coming from camera right. When I say soft source I maen a large perhaps 12 x 12 frame, or a series of chinese lanterns so that the whole ceiling becomes a soft source. The camera right source could be large if the wall ends just out of frame, Perhaps a 12 x 12 if there is room or an 8 x 8, or 6 x 6 if it was tight and a large light filling the frame to make it look as soft as it is. Look at the shadows on his and her faces. Shadows can give you more information about a light than the lite side. On the right side of his face, under his nose, under her chin. If it were just the practical on the table lighting Jennifer, how would light get on the right side of her face as she appears to have past the table lamp. This is where she would be in silhouette, as David points out. There is also just the slightest touch of a very soft backlight. Look at his right shoulder and the sheen of her right shoulder, and the top of their heads, especially his. Also as I mentioned in another post, 35mm doesn't have as much depth of field as smaller formats like 16mm (and I think most HD and beta cameras but someone correct me on that) so you need more light than you think depending on filmstock. You are not to far off base about the use of practicals in a sense, and again I agree with David, they help the cinematographer and production design at the same time. I personally love close ups with out of focus practicals in the background. They add depth to your environment. With more shooting this will all be second nature. just my 2 cents

I emailed the show and got a response back from someone there. My question had to do with the Super 8 look of those inbetween segment breaks. I was wondering if they actually used Super 8 or if they found a magic plug in to take the edge off video. They confirmed it was indeed Super 8 and transferred in Switzerland I recall. I did not ask what stock they used but I would think it was Kodachrome and the colorist is given a bit of latitude on the look. Perhaps they have a few rolls of Ektachrome on hand as well. I was just impressed that it they were using Super 8 at all. Tim

This sounds like a completely unusual experience. Were they Kino bulbs? If not were they all the same brand and type bulbs? Or were they a mix of whatever the rental house had? Had the rental house mixed up the order and give you cool whites and warm whites or something? It happens. What was the condition of the heads and ballasts? Did you call Kino for some poosible reasons as to why this may have occurred? All Kinos have a green spike and as David suggests, gets greener as they heat up wrapped in gels and blackwrap. They get hot enough to easily melt the black plastic crates if their is not enough ventilation. Walter is right as Kino 32's are more like 3500 and need a little correction or they look a little cool. K29's are like 3200. But green as in "Martian" green, sounds like something else had gone wrong on your shoot. In general I would insist that all the bulbs be the same if they are rigged on a set like that. A little off subject but...I'll always remember the day I set up two 2k tungsten fresnels, one on each side of a 4x8 poly bounce for Fred Elmes. One side of the card had a mole 2k and the other side had an Arri 2k. The Mole was distinctly warmer than the cooler Arri, even though both were tungsten. Fred mentioned he wasn't crazy about it so it never happened again. Ever since, I always go out of the way to group like items.

I agree with David that if you have shot a lot of 16 the move to 35 is an easy one. As long as you start using dollys as a camera platform and get away from tripods. But during my first 35 mm shoot the thing that I learned the most, which should have been obvious, is the difference in depth of field. I made a few decisions which lowered the amount of light I had - type of lights, gels, filters, etc, until I realized I had very little depth of field. So I started thinking along the lines that it should be obvious that depth of field decreases with a larger format. If a 25mm lens provides a "normal" look in 16mm and 50mm provides the same field of view in 35mm, then inherently a 35mm shoot will have less depth of field than 16mm. Other than that all went well. my 2 cents Tim

Phil Abraham, who shoots The Sopranos, drops in a lens from a pair of eyeglasses cut down to fit in a Panavision eyecup. Actually it is more like a second eyecup fixed with the eyeglass lens while he is lighting, and the operator uses a normal one. It seems to work for them. Tim

It sounds like you may want to try and use lightwave or some other CGI program if the real thing doesn't work. Does your school have any computer artists in your film program? You could easily shoot a background plate that you could import into a 3D program. You would just have to model a fly, animate and render. You may be able to buy a fly that has already been modeled. Just a thought. Tim

For what it's worth, I understand that this version of Spielberg's version of "Worlds" actually goes back to the book for many key sequences albeit the contemporary setting. We'll all find out on the 29th. From the trailers it looks like it may be a good one. Tim

off the top of my head, I'd like to add to a great list: A Walk in the Clouds. Just beautiful. Tucker again beauty all the way. And Black Hawk Down. from a gritty, get your hands dirty, point of view. It has already been mentioned, but I got a chance to see Lawrence of Arabia at the Ziegfeld in NY when it was restored in the early 90's. It was nothing less than spectacular. Films like that are simply not made for television. This list could go on and on.... Tim

Why don't you plan your shoot so that you work with the sun. Shooting in one direction in the morning then try and work in the other direction as the sun moves during the course of the day. I wouldn't get to hung up on every shot. Look at just about any movie and there will be inconsistancies in lighting that 99% of viewers don't catch.

Don't buy anything unless you are sure you can rent it, whether it be an AC or DP with a camera, a DP or Gaffer with lights, a grip with a dolly or truck, or like Tim said an operator with a steadicam rig. You will always get chewed down because you may be dealing with production managers who will do anything for a cheaper price and rental companies that may give a 1.5 day rentals for the week. And if you buy something anyway, think about getting something that no one has yet. That's a great way of making extra cash. Tim

There is no filter that makes something look sunny. You need some form of lighting for that to add a splash of light emulating the sun. It could be HMI's with half orange, or maybe tungsten par's with no correction or half blue correction for example. If the sun is out and not hitting the porch it may look similiar to an overcast day period as overhead daylight is similiar to overhead overcast except brighter and a little different in color. If the sun is out and not hitting the porch you may be able to use mirrors depending on your camera angles and where the sun is. You may try and catch some bounce from the day light with a 12 x 12 or a 12 x12 gold lame somewhere off the porch but that may be like squeezing blood from stone. Good luck.

From someone who worked on War of the Worlds on the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Virginia locations, I have a greater respect for Speilberg than I had before. Like David I had been completely inspire by Close Encounters and have seen all his earlier films like Duel and Sugarland Express. I have to say the guy knows what he wants and shoots extremely fast. WOW was like a freight train running at top speed and there was no stopping it. He surrounds himself with top people and he gets to do what he wants. I can't wait to see the film because it will be great summer fare, I have no doubt. But even though he still shoots film, a tremendous amount of effects were added digitally, whether they were accents or major effects. From the trailer, I can see where they added explosions or fire where there had been none, and completely removed the Bayonne Bridge from a shot and replaced it with one collapsing and destroyed by Martians. I especially like the tractor trailer smashing into the house in that one. For those interested I understand the writers went back to the book for a more original interpretation. But needless to say the script was not easily available. I did not read it or get a hold of one. But I am going to see it the day it comes out. Someone mentioned Kaminski likes to shoot Super 35 with an anamorphic aspect ratio and sherical lenses. I am working on Scorcese's The Departed and Michael Balhaus is utilzing the same format. I guess great minds think alike.

Sunpath is a wonderful tool. It is really helpful say if one is shooting in a valley and you won't get sun until a few hours after sunrise or say if you have buildings you may want to take into account like in NYC.

You have a difficult situation. first question I would ask is the party of people inside the boat and treat it like and interior or on deck like an exterior. Some things I would think about would be can I do wide shots of the boat at magic hour with the already set sun horizon in the background. ND grads at the top of the frame or power windows grading for video transfer might help. If the scene is inside the boat, can you do the close ups at night with chinese lanterns or small kinos or tungsten? If they are on the deck and it is like an exterior, can you take lessons from the older Hollywood westerns where they did day for night all the time. Usually the sun and the actors backs and underexposed and probably a filter or two some one else better than I could recommend. You would always have to move the boat so that the sun would be somewhat backlit or 3/4 back lit. I wouldn't shoot if the sun wasn't out if you followed that idea. You would get mush if it were cloudy. And of course you may try a number of methods to create a blueish cast to your shots. You may want to do a test to determine what ever method you choose, works.

I recently went to an Apple seminar where thery explained that you can use a Mac with Final Cut Pro, which is not hardware dependant, with SD and HD systems. The HD deck may be more expensive than the software and hardware. http://seminars.apple.com/go/hdtour/ may be worth a look. cheaper than an avid system.

I think the industry itself is to blame for arcs disappearing. First how many electricians do you know that know how to use arcs? Not many if any, and if any they are the older guys who don't want to put up with the crap the industry serves to them. Put this way, with every cameraman rushing to become a DP with out knowing how to use the equipment, camera and lights etc, it is easier for a young DP to use an HMI or inexperienced electricians who can turn on and HMI becasue they are easier than arcs. In the right hands an arc will be just as fast as an HMI. But in the hands of a novice, a unexperienced electrician wouldn't be able to load a rod or know the difference between a positive or neg, or know how to trim them during use. So basically what I am saying is that if a young DP moves up in their career and brings their young gaffers with them to bigger and better jobs, they never use or try arcs. If they try arcs they have to go with older electricians and gaffers that may not be interested in running and sucking up to production in everyway because they usually have more experience in their jobs than the 30 year old production manager who just got upgraded from the locations department will have, but the 30 year old thinks they know how the electrician (or anyone else) knows how to do their job. Ok maybe I rambled, but the industry has a certain way of not taking care or respecting the advice or experience of many people whether they are a DP, electrician, carpenter, or a make up artist. I may have diverged a little... But arcs have a terrific clean light, in the right hands.

sounds like you could use a few Musco light rigs or Bebee light rigs

Just an update I spoke to a friend who works with generators and thinks the unregulated black leg is a myth. Though it is true that the black leg of a generator seems to cause trouble for some HMI's it is for a different reason. He thinks it is more the effect of the electric supply for the brains of the generator. The brains control the electric output of the generator but also controls the same electric that feeds itself. Then throw in the weird harmonic effects of a few square wave ballasts and sooner of later one doesn't fire. The resolution is still the same: Switch phases. Tim

Is it crystal synced with a Barbra Coleman or similiar technology? if no, don't use it unless you like HMI flicker. If yes, than as long as the light doesn't draw more than 75% or so of the amperage rating. You should be good to go without damaging the light. I would be interested to know if anyone got away with using a non crystal sync generator and an electronic flicker free ballast?? Tim PS Honda makes great and quiet generators. http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/ModelDe...delName=eu2000i

dending on how you use them you may be able to use less gel. Spacelights have a black skirt accessory that hangs over the tubular silk leaving the bottom free to light. But obviously this would only work if the light were right above your set. Then you could just gel the frames and let them hang normally without gelling the whole damn thing. Tim

Personally I love the Arri line of HMI Pars. They all have the same basic design from the smaller 575w up to 12k's, and you can use the heat of a par or toss in a fresnel lamp and use them direct. All their heads will work on magnetic ballasts which are not flicker free or electronic flicker free ballasts. I have never seen a magnetic flicker free ballast. Some flicker free electronic ballasts may have trouble on some generators. I am not sure why but the black leg on many three phase generators is not regulated. Someone who has an electronic/generator background would have much to add here about why this is. But having run into this trouble from time to time, just switching legs may more than likely take care of the problem when it does occur. I seem to recall a job once where the red leg had been the culprit too??? So when in doubt, switch legs. long cable runs may have an adverse affect on HMI's. long runs equals more resistance. If you strike on HMI and another goes out, it is a sure sign of a voltage drop. Crank the voltage up on the genny or bring it closer. And I hope the electrics ran 4 ought first if it was a long run. Some electrics run a double pump run for longs runs or at least a double neutral for the weird harmonic effects of many electronic ballasts. just my 2 cents.

Space lights require tons of gel. You can wrap the inside of the tubular skirt with color and gel frame that can hang on the bottom. Not too close to the bulbs or it'll melt after being on all day. If the light is already built and hanging you can easily wrap the whole thing from the outside. baby spring clips work better than clothes pins.