not valid

Ok heres an update on what i did for the shoot. The backdrop of satin i lit from below with a kinoflow with daylight globes gave a very nice shic hollywood curtain feel. For the hair i had 1 redhead choked then diffused with spun web just beside the satin to backlight the hair. I used a redhead on the opposite side flooded into a reflector board covered in aluminium foil to fill the hair with silver. i used a redhead reflected off a reflector board on the ceiling to fill the hair from above. i used 2 fairly weak parcans one used from below the actress to fill her hair from below then i used the other shooting head hieght to fill her hair in the center. And finally used another kino flow placed as close to the actor as possible without getting in shot to key her hair it was a nice choice because i used tungsten globes and the hair kind of reflected each globe in the kino. Ill see if i can get some pictures and post them to get some comments.

ok well it is not letting me upload the picture So basically what the setup looks like is their is a backdrop of satin heaped together that is white for the dark haired girl and the oppisite for the blonde girl ie black back drop. The shot is a medium close up for both girls. SO do you suggest that i put lights on the edge of the backdrop at the same height as the girls head?

Ok ill atempt to draw a picture of the setup and show you what im doing.

Im really disapointed that i missed this film on the big screen. I am really looking forward to seeing it. Being a socialist myself i feel i will go into this film with an element of respect and pre judgment of the Che character but i still have heard from countless sources that it is a very well put together film and is definetly worth a watch. After all Che is one of my idols (hence my avatar) so i suppose it would be an injustice if i didnt see the film.

Very high production value your camera operaters work i really enjoyed i like your choice in music as well i thought it was very effective. i dont know wether it was the size of the display i was watching it on or what but i didnt understand where the dress got caught? but good work i really enjoyed it.

Not as such im Australian so their may be an eliment of slang involved. Also im incredibly bad with spelling definetly not my strong point. Both girls are in different shots for the first two sequences in the third sequence they are in the same shot. Everything will be shot behind the grils so their faces wont be shown and i am planing to contrast their clothing and the set to the colour of their skin. Ie white girl wearing black dress and has a black satin set, and black girl has a white dress and has a white satin set. The shot is say a fairly wide medium CU down to just above her bum and maybe a handspace above here head.

Exactly what im saying the technology is improving daily meaning everyday it is catching up to the quality of film and everyday it is getting new features to make processes using film easier and easier. Very true also reinforcing my point that film cameras have hit their peak because 20 year old cameras are still being used digital will hit this point somewhere in the next 50 years where the improvements made to the digital cameras will be so petty that noone will bother upgrading. I feel this is true to a certain extent but technolgy will be released for digital cameras to almost exactly replicate the style of film. Possible effects will be created so this can be added in post-prod. The same thing is happening with digital to some extend. Your wrong about this one i would pefer to be using film my self it is just that economically for me that is not possible so i use digital. I mean sure it doesnt look as nice and it doesnt have the classic sort of feel to it but im sure learning alot from it and realise that their is a good chance in the near future that clients will be looking for a more digital feel for their products. (this is when the technology improves) and allready some clients cant pick the difference. Take for example this situation. Steve was telling me that he was doing a big job for farm safety a few years ago and for reasons out of their control they couldnt get access to a film camera or the processing or whatever screwed up ( not important) so the ad was shot on digital but the client was under the impression that it was shot on film and was not any wiser after the Ad was relased. It goes to show that allready some people do not realise the difference between the product. I would say the majority of people would be like that. It is only the ones with the trained eye that realise. I want to get it straight that i am not trying to bash film in any way. I am merely saying that digital technology is pushing forward so quickly that it will be recognised as an equal to film in time and because of the bonuses of digital i think it will become pefered to film. I think you might say we agree to disagree on this one Richard.

Im Glad you believe it richard. I think it is good that people have faith in the original medium. By no way am i trying to dishonur film but film stills cameras are becomming more and more unpopular and due to the fact that digital has the potential to A. becoming more high quality then film. Digital is by far cheaper then film because stock does not need to be processed. Basically what i am trying to say is the technology is still relativly new of course the quality is not going to be as good as film YET. The potential that digital has means that it is very possible that film will eventually become obsolete. Digital can be smaller, Digital can be cheaper, Digital can be more accessible, and eventually digital will become better quality. much like that old hair commercial it wont happen overnight but it will happen. Richard you have to understand the potential that digital has. You are completely right at the moment it is nowhere near what film has but you said your self that some of the entries in sundance were digital. i can almost guarentee five years ago the amount of digital films in sundance was alot less. year after year the digital phenomina will increase untill the point where shooting on film will be so expensive and time consuming )comparred to digital) that it will not longer be used.

Im Glad you believe it richard. I think it is good that people have faith in the original medium. By no way am i trying to dishonur film but film stills cameras are becomming more and more unpopular and due to the fact that digital has the potential to A. becoming more high quality then film. Digital is by far cheaper then film because stock does not need to be processed. Basically what i am trying to say is the technology is still relativly new of course the quality is not going to be as good as film YET. The potential that digital

Yeah my main issue is that one girl is aboriginal ie. Dark Black hair and the other is almost arean (is that how it is spelt) anyway blonde hair. I was planing on backlighting it how would i go about hiding the lights from shot? have it slightly off cente long lens?

I also agree with this but there is alot to learn about film rather filmaking that you do not need a camera for ie. Language of film (i know this is basic stuff but it is esential) dealing with producers, Clients, butts (no offence intended mere personal experiance) composition, Angles, budgeting, lighting (to an extent) lighting techniques, teamwork, OH&S (unfortunatly) general filming experiance. I beleive if i try to apply for AFTVRS or work experiance, clapper loaders positions, with knowledge and experiance in the above areas then i am far more likely to gain the position as opposed to not having that experiance. Im sure that with conducting shoots as profesionally and practically as i can then i will pick up the differences with film very quickly. I also believe that film (you may disagree) is coming to an end and digital will be the standard in the not to distant future. regardless i have spoken to steve and he is going to supply me with one of his old film cameras as well as workshops in using film. I can afford the camera i just cant afford the processing. I live in the country about 5 hours from Brisbane and 6 From Sydney so the stock will have to be sent away to be procesed in one of those places, meaning as well as processing costs i will have to pay postage. For me the most sensible option untill i start earning more money is digital. Renegade indeed that avatar is actualy a picture of won of my idols Che Guevara but i do strangely look quite similar to him, so much so that i have a picture of him on my wall and my (sortof) Daughter points at it and says Jake. I suppose that is a compliment hehehehe.

I have a project coming up that is actually an aboriginal health commercial but we are comparing and contrasting between a cacausion girl and an aboriginal girl. The whole ad untill the final shot is in black and white and mimics the styles of a hair commercial. My question is how should i approach lighting the hair using the lighting setup that is available to me? 4 Parcans spot 4 Parcans flood 3 redheads 2 KinoFlos (daylight or tungsten bulbs) and of course the Wonderful burning ball of gas in the sky the sun. Will be putting the pressure on my teacher to get some blondies soon maybe some other lighting equip too.

You said that the light is harder when the fresnel is wide and softer when it is spotted when you say wide do you mean flodded? or do u mean the bulb is further from the lens? in which case it would be spotted correct? I Wouldnt consider a KinoFlo hard if it was further away from the subject it is very soft in my oppinion no matter the distance from the subject a KinoFlo is still soft.

The Issuse is that to cater for 60 students using film cameras is a tedius task. The first year in this school is desgined for people with little or no knowledge of film. There is alot of students that are interested in alot of other film areas other then cinematography (unfortunate for me). The Tafe system will only fund money to us if we are spending money in areas that will benefit not only our students but students from digital media graphic desgin audio engeneering ect. (its the unfortunate way tafe works) I would love to buy a film camera but, as all i have been working with is digital im unsure as to where i would look to buy a second hand camera as my budget is beond tight. I will do my best to try and get us a film camera at the school maybe from the profits we are getting in from doing promotional and to some extent community work. We have just about finished buying our audio gear which is good seeing as we have some orchaestral filming to do very soon. So the bottom line is digital is working fine for the students unless they are aspiring to have the best job in the industry DOPing like myself. On the plus side more time to work on my shot composition and get a better understanding of lighting setups. If i can get some stills of the stuff i have been working on ill post them here and hopefully get some feedback. Thanks again for your support. The Film Cameras will hopefully be on the way soon. (crossing my fingers)

Try using dust instead of smoke. For low budget stuff use like an old blanket or something instead of the smoke machine. As a matter of fact i like that effect more then the smoke but i guess it depends on the effect you are looking for an old factorie or something the dust is great but for that beer ad i dont think it would have worked.

Thanks for your support guys Yeah it is unfortunate that we can not afford Film Cameras as i am keen to learn to light for film. Buying a camera is not the issue as allready mentioned the issue is paying for the processing and film that we use. At the moment we are doing alot of television style shoots ie. Multicam setups. As you can imagine doing a 7 camera shoot on film is alot more expensive then using digital. Personally i belive the distant future in filmaking will become digital so i suppose alot of the work we are doing is relevant in that form. The money to begin working on film would be great but realistically it is out of the question at the moment especially when considering that we are doing close to 20 shoots at any one time. Thats alot of film stock. It is great that you have heard of our school and that we are begining to become noticed, steve and the students have put alot of hardork into this school and it has the potential to be one of the largest film schools in Australia it is definetly growing at a huge speed. The school started with 30 students (roughly) This year it has doubled meaning that we are getting even more exposure and work. Allready we have filmed commercials and one awards for our work. In fact i have just finished Doping a film clip for an up and coming country music star named Brock Colley (Bad Name but still a good artist {sorry Brock}) His clip will be screened on the country music channel very soon. Check it out tell me what you think. This clip was shot on our digital equipment the same as our commercials so their is potential for digital products. Thanks again for your support.

Hello All i am new to this forum and trying to get the word out for a film school that i am a part of. BTW great forum i will learn alot from here. Anyway I am Part Of The Armidale Film and Television School in association with TAFE. The school is a reasonably new school and is the only film school available in the Country NSW region. If by any chance their is anyone reading this post and is intrested in learning filmmaking and lives in the New England area of NSW i strongly recomend you attend this school. This is my seceond year at the school and i am extremely impressed with the progress the school has made. Unfortunatly at the moment due to budget constaints we are only using mini DV 3CCD cameras but eventually with more funding and more projects we will be able to upgrade to film. We are using Final Cut Pro, Motion, Pro Tools, Livetype, Soundtrack, Imovie and DVD pro on G5 imacs. The school now has 4 teachers. Stephen Dobson A.C.S, Stephen is an extremely talented DOP who won an AFI award for his work in the film Ground Zero, He has also worked on Moulin Rouge doing the DOP for the minitures, Heartbreak Hotel and various other films, A very talented enthusiastic caring and intelligent man. Peter Lawless who is also a teacher at the school is quite popular in Australia for his talents in location Managment. Peter has worked on The red planet, Eucylyptus (cancelled), Babe and lots of other features. Paul Fogo, Paul has worked for many years teaching at UTS and producing documentaries for Museums internationaly. He has also spent time in Tibet teaching Monks the art of filmmaking. This is just a quick intro about the school if anyone is interested send me an email and ill tell you everyhting you want to know.