Eugene Lehnert

Hello- When setting up lighting on a set how do you keep practical lights from blowing out? Do you merely use low wattage lights or do you use something to knock it down a few stops? Thanks, Eugene

I made our 78 minute movie available online as a free H.254 Quicktime download if anyone has the interest or time to watch it. We have a trailer and some web comics online as well. www.bohemiafilms.com Thanks, Eugene

If you are in New York you can speak with Peter Bavaro at Post Logic. He's most helpful but Post Logic does not have lab. Peter's number: 212-520-3150

I'm happy accepting whatever the image looks like. I wanted to see if it could still be processed. I just wanted to try some experimental stuff with them.

I was given some old film. Some 35mm some 16mm. 2 sets of cans have not been opened. One set is Fujichrome 8540 daylight and the other is Kodak 5293 EXR. Can these still be processed? I want to experiment shooting with them. Eugene

Our second episode failed at the screening, but I would like to share the 2 episodes we made with you all. The episodes were shot with the HVX200. http://channel102.net/show.php?show=97 Thanks! Eugene

What kind of smoke machine do you use to get good volumetric lighting? I've been doing my own low-budget shoots using a cheap water-based smoke machine (something you would use at a halloween party) to create some atmosphere in a scene. The smoke does not hang in the air creating the shafts of light that I would like. What type of smoke machine would do this?

We sold out on Saturday and even had our movie on the Marquee at Two Boots. It felt pretty good. We also just got into the Anthology Film Archives' "New Filmmaker Series." We are showing the movie again at the Anthology in May. Thanks everyone! Eugene

"Armageddon for Andy" and "Astronaut Farmer" together on one webpage.... http://media.www.nyunews.com/media/storage...m-2739782.shtml If our movie only looked 1/10000000th as good as "Astronaut Farmer." Euge

One more day to buy tickets to "Armageddon for Andy." Eugene

Yeah. The light is on but no the projector sure isn't running. Continuity? Who needs it?

Well if we knew what we were doing we probably would not have made the movie. It was too large a project to take on when we began it. It's a nice blueprint for a well funded film. But you can see more this weekend at the Two Boots Pioneer theater in Manhattan at 6:30pm. You can still get tickets online... www.twoboots.com/pioneer We are also screning the next episode of our Channel102 show "U.K.M" Monday, February 26th at 8pm. The screening will be at the Tribecca Cinemas on Canal Street. If you are in New York you should go because it's free! www.channel102.net Thanks, Eugene

Hello everyone. We have a new trailer to help promote our next screening at Two Boots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk4hsTxdwCQ

Ok so that helps clear things up. Knowing for sure now that 59.94i is the same thing as 29.97i is very helpfull. 60p is 60 full progressive frames per second? So then it's played back at 60fps? So that must cut down on motion blur. Then 59.94i is half the temporal resolution of 60p? Now on an HDCAM deck I have multiple frame rates to choose from. The 29.97 must be progressive then since there is a 59.94 frame rate as well? Thanks for taking the time to explain this all.

Ok, let me see if I understand this correctly. When something is shot 59.94i that is 59.94 fields shot in a second? NOT progressive frames. If the footage originated in 59.94i each field then has motion that changes from field to field? Which is different than if you shot film at 23.98 added pulldown and converted 23.98 footage to 59.94i? The motion in each field then changes with a 2:3 cadence? When footage is shot 29.97p you can then transfer it to 59.94i with a 2:2 cadence? And broadcasters choose to broadcast in 60p or 60i to because you can convert most formats to 60p or 60i? What is the difference then between 29.97i and 59.94i? I always thought of 29.97 as frames per second with two fields in each frame. Does the "i" automatically tell you that motion changes from field to field? And the "p" tell you that the motion changes from frame to frame?

Why is 59.94 used by some people and 29.97 used be others? For instance I set 59.94 as the rate on the HDCAM deck but Final Cut Pro only has the 29.97 option for 1080 and then 59.94 for 720.

Why don't HD projectors project 23.98 tapes? Why do you need 59.94? If you have a non-drop frame 59.94 tape will it project properly? Why does HD use 59.94 instead of 29.97?

We're going to be on the radio! Wednesday, January 10th at 2pm Eastern Standard time Marc Dworkin, Chris Giarrusso and myself will be interviewed on Fanboy Radio in Fort Worth Texas. We'll talk about our movie "Armageddon for Andy" and our book "Andy." Please check it out if you have time. The podcast is available on iTunes as well. www.fanboyradio.com

Thanks everyone. I guess art of lighting is about controlling your environment. Just like politics.

Greetings to you Mr. Dahan. I'm sure you have already shot this scene but I would have done what you did for the most part. I would have started out creating a large soft light source that was about 2 stops underexposed. I would also try and add some harder lights coming in from the outside to break up the scene so it's not totally flat. You could justify the lights by saying it's the moon or some street light or a light on the house next door. Then place them in strategic positions in your scene. The fill alone maybe too flat. But that's just me. The blue gel thing is kinda overdone but definately has the look you want. Might be fun to mix an overall blue look with some more orange looking lights to mix it up a bit. Playing the orange against the blue. Good luck! And remember to never let smart ass Brazilians tell you that your film school sucks ass.

You can't listen to those people. If they bring up some interesting points listen but overall it's just background noise to me. I don't understand why people have to try and bring others down. But my hats off to you Mike and Dan for the nice comments. If you're good it doesn't matter what you shoot on. You'll make it work.

I just used After Effects.

What do you do when you are in a white room to shoot in? I agree to shoot short sketches for friends and I always end up in someone's apartment in a white room. What do people do? Does a lot of good cinematography come down to working with an art department and locations manager? White walls never look good since they reflect so much light. It becomes hard to dull them down so as to not take away from the actors. But I notice I never see a lot of white walls in films. Backgrounds tend to be darker and mixed with duller colors that do not reflect a lot of light. What are other people's experiences?

It's cool. Please be honest. I think we should have made a 10-15 minute short too but we didn't know any better. I don't want to make anything this big again. I think for a while it seemed like we wouldn't finish it but we invested sooo much time into it I couldn't not finish it. I didn't want to turn 40 one day and say "remember that movie we started but never finished?" I learned a hell of a lot from making that thing. And over time I think we somehow made it better than it would have ever been originally. The funny thing was it started out as a 20 minute musical. Then it turned into a 120 page feature with no musical numbers. We after filming we had a 110 minute boring film and we cut it down to a quick 80 minute feature that has "spirit." We've been showing it around and we've gotten a pretty damn good response. The best response is from people at comic book conventions. I think they can look past the lousy production value and see it for what we meant it to be. Just a strange teen-comedy about love and the end of the world. And in the end that's all that really matters. We may never see big distribution but we will have our small little audience. Even if it's only a few hundred people. But yeah, I don't know what we were thinking. I always tell new filmmakers to make shorts. Don't invest a lot of money and just learn the basics of storytelling. The KISS rule.

Hello everyone! Saturday, February 24th our first feature length film "Armageddon for Andy" will be playing at the Two Boots Pioneer theater in Manhattan at 6:30pm. It's the same weekend of the big New York Comic Con. Tickets are available online at the link below. http://pioneertheater.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=80188 http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer/ ******************************* From the first day of kindergarten, Andy knew he was going to take Bethany Hopkins to the senior prom. The only problem is: he never bothered to tell Bethany. In fact, Andy's never even spoken to her. But with the prom only twenty-four hours away, he's not going to let a little thing like that get him down. He's got bigger problems. Mainly the fact that America is on the brink of a nuclear war that not only threatens to destroy the free world... but his prom night as well. "Sometimes, the unexplainable inexplicably happens ? the movie was amazing. Shot on video for an obviously non-existent budget (don?t go in looking for Clerks 3), the movie does make a strong case for being the next Clerks 1." Dave Baxter, Brokenfrontier.com "Following in the footsteps of guys like Kevin Smith (Clerks, etc), Bob Lipski (Uptown Girl) and others, Bohemia Films? Eugene Lenhert and Marc Dworkin have brought their creation, Andy, to life in a full-length feature film, Armageddon for Andy." Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, Newsarama.com ******************************* Check out the first five-minutes on Youtube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp4gmjlaAHo ******************************* Some articles about the movie and comic book! http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=90281 http://brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/details.php?id=542 *******************************