Chaz Olivier

Im up to DP my third feature and we are shooting for 20 days. Its pretty ambitious for the budget but we arent doing anything super crazy - it is very much like the movie Prisoners in tone, story and cinematography. The Producer is wanting to shoot single camera, as to not have to spend money on the extra B camera, crew and post costs that come with more footage, and instead is in favor of getting more gear to make a better A camera. My initial thought was that we would need two cameras to make our days (I shot two cameras on my last feature, which was a comedy, and being able to leap frog with setup/shooting and get extra shots in when needed I felt saved us alot of time, and that is what I am pretty comfortable with. my first feature was single camera, but it was all handheld and a much much smaller scale.) This show is 100 percent sticks and dolly, some jib with occasional steadicam. Another thought was to shoot single camera mostly from a small technocrane (thinking the mini 6'-12' technocrane ,moviebird 17 or chapmans Hydrascope 15', I want to use it for interiors and my thought was anything larger might be too large for int scenes.) now I have never used a technocrane, but from what I have read and talking with my Key grip, I have heard they can save alot of time on set, and much are faster than dolly and sticks because I could get most if not all all my shots from a single setup. but they are expensive for sure.. Something to consideration is that I am working with an awesome first time director, but for his sake I thought single camera might be easier for him so he can focus on the one frame and not have his(and my own) attention shift between two cameras, so I feel the end product could benefit from single camera. And making him as comfortable as possible is high on my priority list (I normally operate, but Im choosing to get an operator so I can be with him at video village and support him the best I can) Another idea is having a remote head on a fisher 23 Jib arm on the Fisher 10 dolly in place of a technocrane like deakins does. I have my own thoughts, but in yalls opinion, how would that compare to the technocrane approach? I would love some opinions and advice! Getting a 2nd camera package and crew for it, or single camera on a small technocrane or remote head on jib? The producer is pretty open and trusts me, and I know if I make my case for either one, there is a good chance I'll get what I ask for. Thank you all so much! Chaz

Hey so I am DPing my second feature, and it's a road trip comedy- and we are considering shooting all the car interior shots on greenscreen as it would save the production money. How should I go about this? I don't have much experience with greenscreen and I would love all the tips and tricks I can get to pull this off so it's Believable. My thoughts My plan is to shoot the car against the green screen outside on a large greenscreen, I'm thinking 20'x40' backed off around 40 or so feet to minimize green spill. I'm planning on shooting east so the sun acts as more of a backlight, and at high noon, flipping around and shooting west to continue the back light I'm seeing if I can get some larger HMI units for add some light to the interior, because based off a pretest I did with a dslr, it's hard to get the car and screen exposed right without loosing one or the other, I'm thinking getting a 2500 or M40 unit, as that is what my budget would allow. What camera should we use? We have a red scarlet we can use for free- as well as red pro primes and zeiss cp2's I'm thinking of using the rpp's because they are sharper in this case. But I'm seeing if we can use the dragon because of More resolution and extended range. But budget wise it looks like I can get a better camera or better lenses(s4mini's, maybe ultra primes) - not both.Should I push for a better camera and use rpp's?, or better lenses and scarlet? Which is best for greenscreen ? Or should I just stick with what I have and save money for bigger lights/larger G&E package? The plan is to do all the greenscreen first, keeping notes on camera height and orientation, and focal length and stop- and replicating these when we get the plates I would love all thoughts and opinions as these are uncharted waters for me Thanks!

I have a set of Red Pro Primes that I have been renting out with my Red Dragon I am considering replacing- but I wanted to get the opinion of more experienced DP's - I am considering selling my RPP's for a good zoom lens. I get the feeling that people renting a Red would rather rent other lenses than RPPs. Here are some lenses I was considering buying in place of the RPP's Cooke 18-100 T3 Cooke 20-100 T3.1 Cooke 20-60 T3.1 Cooke S4i 15-40mm T2 or a set of 5 Zeiss Standard speeds T2.1 Which would you all prefer for your shoots, or would it be best just sell the lenses and rent the camera Body and accessories only. If you have other suggestions for great zooms or primes, I would love those! I would love to hear your thoughts! and insights! Thank you so much!

Yeah, I've seen those kino flo cfl! Are they small enough for standard household lamps(and not too tall as to stick out the top?) That hair dye tip is great, can they be sprayed with the dye? I'll use that for sure! How long to the photofloods last? Any tips on candlelit scenes? Or other combustion based/enhancing lighting

Thanks Mark! I thought about that, but we are shooting the film(90pages) in 12 days, and I wasn't sure if At my current skill, if I would be able to spend the time lighting the set and still get the shot and performance. And we are getting an insane deal on the camera package from our rental agent Ric Halpern at Radiant Images. Also, the way the script is written, it's mostly day exterior, some day interior, one night car interior and three night interiors for the crazy scare scene at the end. So I thought it would be best to get a great camera, rather than top notch lighting due to the set up time and a minority of the shots require lighting. Although, I do have a gaffer as well as access to a 1.2k HMI, 2, 2'4bank, 2, 4'4bank kinos, and arri fresnel lighting 150w lights up to 2k from a friend of mine, so if I'm in a pinch, and I forsee that I cannot do something practically, I can use those and hopefully get by But due to time, I'd prefer practical lighting. But then again, this is only my first feature, and have only done shorts up to this point - looking at my circumstances, do you still feel it would be wiser to shoot on a lesser camera in favor of better lighting?

thanks Adrian! Great idea - really appreciate it!(as well as a lot of your other posts, I have learned a lot from you!) Have you ever tried(or heard of) people glass painting incandescent practical bulbs, and after tests, finding a color that could better match daylight, so that I can have relatively consistent color temp when the key is natural light? Could that work?

Hey guys! I'm new here, so hello! I am DPing my first feature(horror genre) and due to the fast pace schedule we have, we will only have time and budget for minimal lightning - so I want to rely heavily on natural,practical and modified practical lighting, working with the PD to light the scene- a lot like what Dallas Buyer club did. I know that a lot of the work will be in finding the right locations, but setting that aside, what are some tips you guys have, or innovative ways you guys have lit practically! Currently, I have thought of the possibility of using oil/Gas lambs, multi wick candles, china balls, replacing bulbs in household lambs with higher wattage ones, replacing standard fluorescent tubes with kino tubes Any other ideas or great ways to use these? We are shooting Alexa with cooke s4(f2.8) lenses btw Thanks guys!

My friend is in their Cinematography program and he really likes it My other friend was in the program(he wants to direct tho) and he hated it to the point of dropping out after his first semester and is freelancing. The down side is that I hear you don't get to use the "good gear" until junior/senior year - which for me is part of appeal of school - access to gear. But you will go through school, have a great time, and once your out, you will start as a PA mostlikely doing what ever I would say get on pro gigs while in school, so you have some real world experience. You will be successful because of the connections you make. I recommend getting on as many sets as possible, starting in G&E and learning how larger professional productions work, and personally I would consider LA schools as well - so many great opportunities/connections in LA! What did you end up choosing?

How about "Director of Photography:Lighting". I know it's not a real term, but There was an instance where I was on a set, and the DP was not comfortable lighting at all, so they "promoted" me from gaffer to DP of lighting, and he became DP of camera(he didn't want any credit for lighting). He was solely focused on camera, and I was solely focused on lighting.(having complete creative control.) I suppose it was a co-DP senario.