Mate Widamon

Hi everybody, I am prepping for a feature and half of the film is taking place in an apartment. We are building the apt in a studio and I will have two rooms with large windows. The view from the window will be block houses and rooftops. We will use a 65 x 15 feet translight as a background with the view printed on it. In the apt I will have plenty of day, evening, dusk and night scenes and we are planning to go with long takes with lots of dolly moves. I'd like to ask for your opinion on translight techniques as I am quite confused. I have found a demo from Rosco SoftDrop. That is a based on a night time print and it is supposed to be lit from the front in order to achieve day and backlit to get the night look. I heard though that it doesnt work very well. Also we would need to hire a scenic photographer from Rosco to do the picture for the print. Anybody has any experience with that? Our art director suggest that we should have 2 translights. 1 with a daylight photo printed on it and 1 with a night time print of the same view so we can change the backdrops according to our scenes. In that case for the night time scenes I would always have the same windows illuminated in the windows of the blockhouses in our view. However my gaffer suggests that we should only have 1 daylight print on the translight. He says for the daytime scenes we should light it from the front and for the night scenes we just reduce the ambient and the make some warm lights in he windows from behind. In this case we would have the variety for each night scene so we could have different lights to be switched on in the windows of the blockhouse. These are 3 completely different ways, Please share me your experiences. All comments are much appreciated.

Wow, this is absolutely fantastic! Thanks Kyryll for all this! Great to know that those shots were made by running tracks along the two sides of the tunnel. Brilliant art department too hiding the tracks perfectly! The rest of the info with regards camera gear and lenses also very useful. And the photos on that site you posted are truly fascinating. I was shocked to read though that several people who worked on the movie got very ill from the fumes of the chemical plant at the location... :(

Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts on this amazing scene!

Hi everybody, I recently watched again Tarkovsky's masterpiece Stalker. The cinematography is simply amazing and way ahead its time. I was just wondering how the famous tunnel scene was shot... The camera is slowly moving forward in the tunnel with a wide angle lens, but no sign of tracks. Since it was shot in 1978 I doubt the use of steadicam. Anybody knows the story behind that scene? Thanks!

Thank you very much for the replies! David your suggestions and the example photos are highly appreciated! I will do a full (optimo, macro, diopter) test and will let you know how it went. I have used anamorphic lenses only with Alexa before, but now I will test it on a Dragon too. Thanks again.

Hi everybody, I am shooting a project with a set of Cineovision anamorphic lenses. (24-100) I have an ECU of an eyeball to shoot with fire reflecting in it. I was thinking to shoot this only one shot with a spherical macro lens cropped down, because I cannot achieve a close enough shot with my anamorphic set. I will try to project fire onto a screen behind the camera or use an LCD screen with fire on it. I have to work very fast so If it does not work I might have to consider shooting the fire as a plate and then composite it over the eyeball in post. Have you done this on anamorphic? All comments are greatly appreciated!

Thanks very much for your words Adrian!

Hi Everybody, I am wondering if you have any experience of shooting at the Hunza valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. I am a European DoP and I would be working over there for a week for a local production house. Your comment/advice on this is highly appreciated.

Thanks for this very appropriate photo, wonderful work David! And thanks for everybody for all useful comments! I am still happy I did the filter test today, I'check the result tomorrrow. We only have one set of Masterprime lenses here in Budapest and I am eager to try it, now this project seems like a good reason to talk to production about it. Anybody has any experiance how Masterprime handles lens flare? I am a great fan of Cooke S4, but when it comes to lens flare S4 can be very funny, especially on longer lenses. A clear glass can be useful though, to avoid those rainbow type of lens flares.

Hello everybody, I have an upcoming beer commercial and in terms of colours my director would be very much after a look Roger Dakins achieved in 'No country for old men'. It is budgeted for 16mm so I am doing a filter test tomorrow with arri 416 + Cooke S4 on 250D, 200T. My aspect ratio is 1:1.78 and it goes for digital intermediate. My intention is to complete a test with Antique Suede, Chocolate, Tobacco, Warm Promist and Gold diffuse filters and then see what can be done on Da Vinci in order to achieve that desaturated look. I have the feeling that Antique Suede will provide me the best result since I should not really soften the image. Also, I believe production design and art direction is crucial here, we have to select the appropriate colours for each frame. I have mainly exterieurs, and a pub interieur with light brownish walls and yellow practical lights. Any other suggestions and advices are greatly appreciated! Mate Toth Widamon, Budapest

Hi, This has been a very informative conversation indeed and also great photos as examples. I have just watched 'The Illusionist' shot by Dick Pope, BSC. Beautiful work, I was wondering weather he used shift and tilt for the closer shots or he perhaps had Master Primes wide-open and defocused some parts of the frames in post. Thank You,

Hi, Thanks again, I have watched the above mentioned films. I found 7285 crossprocessed way too rough and contrasty for my dream sequences I loved the childhood parts in 'Blow", but that is 5285 anamorphic. Despite this is a Daylight stock a found the interieurs stunning beautiful, having that 'original slide photo feeling'. However outside I found less details in the faces and a touch of too much redish magenta. Do you think the interiers were corrected to tungsten and shot under 25asa (perhaps pushed to 50asa) or lit with HMI-s? I would not think that you can get rid off that much yellow in telecine if you shoot under 3200K on 100D Ektachrome, I'll try it on the test. How much of its character do you think 7285 (processed E-6) looses on telecine? Would you advise me to scan it directly or should I get a dup.negative first? (The film ends up 35mm print for screen through DI) Thanks,

Thanks very much, I'll watch these films. Also, seems I can get some Fujichrome 64T in 16mm to test. See how it intercuts with the exterieur shots on 7285. I'll let you know. Rgds,

I meant Ektachrome processed with E-6. I would love to check out any commercial, musc video or feature sequence shot with that. Thanks,

Hello, Could anybody please name any recent spherical feature shot on Ektachrome 72/5285? Many Thanks

Mate, Changing the subject....Why are you using a 435 for a feature? Are you dubbing the whole movie? Thank for all replays. This week I will have a chance to play a bit with diopters and shift and tilt at the rental house. I will quite likely swap to Ultra Primes instead of S4 since it is going for screen and I would prefer a bit sharper and contrasty look. I wanted Master Primes for the shallowest depth, but the production would not allow me. Thanks for the 'warning' question Brad, I did not want to get into deatails, but here we go; We have a four day pre-shoot where no sound is recorded and mainly running 32fps on 5218 with Arri 435. Than I shoot pov sequences with Aaton Minima rigged on chest cam., running also 32fps on 7217. Afer that we will be shooting the narrative sequences with ArriCam on 5218, 25fps( shallow depth). We have news footage to record, I plan too use Sony Beta Sp Dx50 for that and also some very limited archive-looking footage on 40ASA S8mm Ektachrome. We will be finishing with the dream sequences; I'll shoot them on 7285 Ektachrome Reversal for exterieurs and 64T Fujichrome in interieurs with Arri SR3. This time it is approppriate to have all these different formats to tell the story. Everything goes to 2k scanning than digital grading before blowing up to prints. Tons of people telling me to shoot a safe negative because at post I will be able get the desired look (for dream, archive etc sequences) out from the neg at digital grading. What I say is that before getting to the digitalising stage, 7285 is already processed in way which is completely different to how the neg gets treated. Different process, different emotions... Neg and Reversal as two photocemical process is actually symbolising being asleep or awake as the dream is the reverse of reality or vice-versa depending which one you prefer your reality. The film is about this sort of questions, it is a Stanislav Lem adaptation. This is my first feature and I am aware that this way is more risky especially considering that all Reversal footage gets processed with E-6 in my friend's house lab, in the basement... But that is the look I am after! In commercials I have been trying create an Ektachrome look out of the neg at digital grading, but never been satisfied with the result. It feels great sharing all this with you, perhaps not everyone in the production can follow this. But they give me enourmous trust so I do not want to blew up things... Any replays are greatly appreciated, ps; I was thinking of shooting a short test on Ektachrome Infra Red Photo Reversal stock rolled and loaded into 35mm motion picture camera then processed with E-6. But I don't dare asking the production for a test... Kind Regards, Mate Widamon, Hungary

Hi, I was just wondering whether anyone has shot a motion picture test on Ektachrome Ifra Red stock, processed with E-6? Thanks for any comment on colour infra red.

Hi there, In some sequences of my upcoming feature I would like to achieve extremely shalow depth of field. I am shooting on 5218 with the intention of having prints for screen. I don't have a chance to go for anamorphic, I intend shooting with Arri 435 + Cooke S4 lenses with 1:1.85 aspect ratio. The location does not always allow me to use long lenses, bu I can run wide open. My characters are sort of 'trapped' in a situation so when I give a close up I would only like the eyebulbs to be in focus, but the nose and ears already unsharp. Cooke S4 on 135 and 180mm go macro mode, apart from that any other ways, lenses/filters to achieve that very shallow depth? All replays are greatly appreciated. Rgds, mate widamon, budapest, hungary

Dear guys out there, Wondering if anyone knows what type of camera was used in the films 'The Inheritance' dir; Per Fly, dop; Harald Gunnar Paalgard and 'Brothers' dir; Susanne Bier, dop; Morten Soborg. Many Thanks & Regards, Mate Widamon

Many Thanks Katrina for your reply! Kind Regards, Mate Widamon

Hi Fellow Cinematographers, I have an upcoming car commercial to shoot, any routes how to light the interier shots are greatly appreciated. The car is standing in a trafffic jam in daytime and members of the family are playing with the car's features (cd player, clima, movable chairs etc.) Many Thanks & Regards, Mate Widamon

Thanks again for all replys, My shooting went really well! First time I used Cooke primes on Fujicolor 8622 and I am truly amazed by its colour reproduction! My opening shot against the sun worked out nicely; I had the key (sun) one stop over (incident) and the guys' profile (bounced back the sun) a stop under at F Stop 8. I used 1/4 Promist and it gave me beautiful lensflares, thanks David! For all tighter shots (under butterfly frame) I used lights and I am so glad I ordered an 18K bulb to the 12K HMI because I really needed that when having 3/4 backlights on two-three mediums in the frame. Above four people I needed the 6K Par too, and I was also lucky enough having the sun so I made hot spots on the background architecture with the use of mirrors. Even though I only had 64 ASA, but I was running wide open for shallow depth and I don't really see the chance getting the job done properly with smaller units when you have to balance your exposure on your people with the sunny background. What sort of units do you guys consider using on exterior projects? I was familier with Arri and Desisty, but this time in France I used LTM HMIs. Thanks&Regards, Máté Widamon

Many Thanks for your replys, although I don't quite understand what you mean Oscar, I would greatly appreciate if you could explane again. Just to make it clear I'd like to have a medium profile shot of the guy from slightly underneath. I'd like to expose him correctly or one stop under whilst being able to see the shape (a star shape) of the sun in the background max two stops overexposed otherwised the sky would be burning out, I thought. If you suggest underexposing the sky (lots of NDs) how can I keep the guy's face correctly or only slightly underexposed (lots of fill)? The scene supposed to be late afternoon, but my only chance is to shoot it at dawn. My other concern stopping the iris down is breaking consistency since the rest of the spot will be shot wide open to achieve shallow depth of field. Would this shot stand out? I assume, would need an enormous amount of ND running wide open for this shot. Thanks again for your advices, Máté Widamon

Hello Fellow Cinematographers out there! I am a young DP from Budapest, shooting my first ad in Paris next week. It is a day exterior, right in the mid of Trocadero by the Eiffel Tour. I'll have a street musician jaming on glasses with water in them (it is a min water ad) and about 30 extras stood in half a circle around watcing him playing. Since I am supposed to create late afternoon, my intention during the day is to soften the sun with a 20'x20' silk frame and use a 12/18KW Arri HMI Fresnel for 3/4 backlight as my key (sun) wich I 'd also use for a touch of fill from underneath bounced back from a polly or silver ref. board. I would also place a black Gryffolin frame on the oppposite side as negative fill (we'd like a contrasty, slightly blueish look) and for the backgrounds I would fire a 6KW Arri SunPar getting a hot spot. (mainly medium shots, shooting wide open, 50mp/s with an SR3, set of Cooke S4 Primes on Fujicolor 64-D in the view of video positive) For close ups of the guy's hand playing with sticks on the glasses of water I would use a 1.2 Arrisun 3/4 backlight as key through diffusion frame, a daylight kino from half underneath and again would also create some hot spots on the glasses with the use of mirrors. Any comments and advices on this concept are greatly appreciated especially regarding lighting contrast ratio. I would also have a Medium-CU dolly profile shot of the guy having the sun in the background. Should I increase fill in a great deal on the guy's face to be able to see the sun in the back insted of burning out sky? Any special filters for this effect above Polariser? Also wondering how to create nice flares enhancing the hot feeling. Many Thanks, Máté Widamon