Sean Conaty

Hold the Phones! The Honda 6500 generator is not a 65 Amp generator, as one would guess. I made this mistake in plotting out an equipment package and was fortunately told that the genny was rated at around 45 amps. In other words, the number following the generator is not the wattage. I may be totally mistaken and have played it safe as a result, but I would double check it with the rental house before trying to plug in a 4k and an 800 (especially because of the initial power draw necessary to strike an HMI). -sean

what about Buster Keaton's "The General"? The whole film is a chase sequence.

maybe freeze is the wrong word to describe it. let me rephrase the question: how do you combine strobe lighting with existing tungsten lighting? what does this do to the quality of the existing light (soft light vs. hard strobe light)? Also, i'm assuming strobes are upward of 6000k as well, right? should those corrections be made?

I've got a few questions about strobes and existing lighting. I'm lighting an actress's face but the director wants to freeze the droplets of water on her face. I'm guessing that using a strobe is the best way to achieve this. Is it something so simple as bringing in strobes to the existing lighting situtation? I want to keep the existing soft light on her face. Would the strobes overpower the soft light and have a solely hard light effect? If this is the case, does it make sense to hit a strobe into a bounce board to soften it? Also, I was looking at Clairmont's strobe setup and the manual said nothing about metering for existing light + strobe light. Does anyone have any examples on their reels or from other films in which they used strobes/regular lights? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, -Sean

steve, thank you so much for your post. this was exactly what i was looking for. if you take a look at the link, it goes over converting the RGB to CMY. how would one actually do this in photoshop or after effects?

i'm curious if anyone has had any success achieving this look digitally. through photoshop or magic bullet, what are the steps? i'm assuming desaturation and losing the green channel, but if anyone's done it and can attach some before and after screen caps, that'd be great. -sean

what about duart in nyc or cinelab in fall river, ma? -sean

Walter, if you can come up with the info, that'd be great. thanks.

Read the new AC article this month. He used Zeiss Superspeeds, Arri's Shift and Tilt, and the Lensbaby 2.0

I was doing some tests with my friend's cheap digital point and shoot camera and happened upon a pretty nasty vertical smear from a bunch of point lights in the frame. i've been looking around and there are a lot of posts on the web about removing the vertical smear, but what if you want it? i know that shooting on film would require putting the shutter out of phase but how would you accomplish this digitally? i'm guessing some sort of vertical hilighting filter, but i'm curious if anyone has been successful in achieving this look digitally. thanks, -sean

Hey Everyone, So I'm shooting a movie in which the majority takes place in an elevator. We'll be doing all of that on stage. Problem is, we have a few shots in which we need to transition from the on-location elevator (that we're matching on stage) to the on-location lobby. The shot is a 2 shot from the lobby looking in on the heroes and then the door closes. And visa versa: 2 shot, door opens, heroes walk out into the lobby. Problems: -Getting enough light into our on-location elevator so that we are not locked into having to match a poorly lit elevator when we're on stage. Fortunately, we have the ability to turn off the elevator while we're lighting, but then it needs to be live during the take. This means, we can't run any sort of cable into the elevator. What do you guys suggest for this problem? It's really only a quick shot so it doesn't have to match PERFECTLY what we end up shooting on stage, but I'd like it to be at least similar. Is there a way to run 4ft 4Bank Kinos on Batttery Power off say an Anton Bauer brick? Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, -Sean Conaty

What is CID? Anyone?

Robert, thank you for your response. Switching out the tubes does seem like a viable option, however, my concern is that I still won't get enough output to shoot at ASA 200. What do you suggest? Is there a type of super-bright tubes that I'm not aware of?

Here's my dilemma: I'm shooting an office comedy (think Office Space meets The Apartment meets All The Presidents Men). Acres of cubicles, overhead fluorescents, etc. Trouble is, I want to shoot on a slower stock: 7217 (200T) or ideally 7212 (100T). I don't have the luxury of going in beforehand and prerigging the overhead units (although I don't think Kinos would give off enough regardless). My concerns are twofold: 1) Do I have to sacrifice the slower stock and shoot on 7218 (500T) and use the available overhead light? I really want it to look slick and low on grain (very important!). 2) What do I do about the color shift of the existing flos? I'm predicting my crew won't have the time to get in there beforehand and Minus Green the overheads so do I just accept it and color it correctly in post? What do legit, big budget movies that shoot in an office do? I know Conrad Hall had the luxury of a built set in which he could shine whatever he wanted through the overheads. Is that even how it's done? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, -Sean Conaty

just found it. thanks.

You see it pretty often in music videos. The best example I can think of right now is Bob Elswit's work in "Punch Drunk Love". It's a horizontal, razor-thin, blue streak that seems to occur when you hit a point light. I'm curious, is this a filter creating this effect? It's a bit overused now (Transformers, et al), but I'm still curious how to do it. On a side note: I was doing some scouting with a friend's cheap digital still camera, and I noticed that right before the picture was being taken, the lights in the frame made a vertical streak. I'm assuming it has something to do with phasing and the shutter (a la "The Limey"). Can this be duplicated for motion picture (film or digital)? Thanks, -Sean Conaty

sorry to be a stickler, and thank you so much for your help. last question: would it be possible to process the black and white reversal as a black and white negative (not the color) or is there no effect whatsoever?

Thanks for the help. i was just wondering if it works on Black and white film or if it only works on color.

I've been told about this technique called Cross-Processing where you develop reversal film as you would a negative. 1 - could someone give me a summary of what effect this achieves? - I saw it used in Lee's "Summer of Sam" (photographed by Ellen Kuras) and want to use it for a very stylized scene in my film 2 - I want to shoot a test roll using this technique. Could someone give me some advice on things to keep in mind while shooting a test roll. I'm somewhat in the dark on this one... -Sean

I'm wondering if anyone knows how Ellen Kuras shot the David Berkowitz scenes in Spike Lee's "Summer of Sam" (1999). I'm having trouble analyzing them. If you're unclear as to what I'm talking about, I'd be happy to give more details, but I don't want to mislead in any way. I'm shooting a dream/hallucination sequence and I need it to be very stylistic and this is EXACTLY the look I'm going for. Any help would be greatly appreciated. -Sean

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/prs/stign/ This was the only picture I could find of the interior of the Church. You can see that there aren't any balconies on the sides to hang fixtures from. Also, the China-ball idea is decent, but it would be visible the more I pull back. Please also keep in mind that this is relatively low budget and that I also don't have free reign to do whatever I want in/to the church itself. The film is lit very low-key so it might work to my advantage that it is a very lowlight setting. Someone suggested that it might just be the time of the day that decides how I shoot it. A few ideas I was thinking off: -Low angle on the actor as he walks down the aisle and put the lights at his feet. This gets rid of the problem of seeing the lights as I pull back and it creates a low key effect by its very nature. The only problem with this is that the lighting is very unnatural (ie. light in a church does not come from the ground). -Cutaways. Light the dolly shot for about 10 feet, cut, then light the next 10 feet. This might free me up. Thanks, -Sean

If I shoot Wide Open during the middle of the day so that the light from the windows streams in, will this work adequately? (I'm going for a pretty low key, high contrast lighting style anyway)

I'm shooting a very technically complicated shot in a church on 16mm. The shot is a dolly back frontal medium close up on a man as he walks down the aisle all the way to the altar. -No side balconies to light from above -Also, the further the camera pulls back, the more of the church is revealed (therefore, nothing on the sides or on the ceiling can be seen) -No cutaways How on earth do I light this? -Sean