Justin Hayward

For some reason I always associate low sun with softer-around-the-edges shadows. Not sure why. Of course you're right, though. Thanks

Yeah, that would have done it. It feels like mid-afternoon here. Thanks

Shoot. ?

I know all that is true Gregory. I hope you didn't take offense to anything I said. I'm fully aware of what the DGA has to offer me, and a lot of it is very good. I'm just joking around with Richard, who I know and love. ? Except the part where I said I'll PA. I have no ego anymore. I'll take whatever I can get. ?

I know very little about this, but from what I understand, you can pay for Amazon Prime to host your movie if you want to. I thought that's why so many movies that go totally unnoticed at festivals and by other distributors tend to wind up on Amazon Prime eventually.

I don't like it, but it's the process. I do get particularly upset when I think something is really working, then someone points out a glaring mistake that can't be fixed. And I don't mean some technical issue, I mean a creative choice I made that somehow contradicts the needs of the overall piece and hurts it. I get mad at myself for having made that choice or not catching the issue when shooting, which is worse for me than an objective little slip up or something... if that makes any sense.

I need to work, though. Tell you what, Richard, give me a job on your next movie and I'll thumb my nose at the DGA. I'll take anything too. I don't think I'm too old to PA. Not yet at least. ?

I'm talking more about personal projects (although I've had some rough commercial shoots) But yes, I have some pretty critical filmmaker friends. It's tough love, though. Need to hear it. Makes me try harder next time.

I’m not a cinematographer, but one of the most things I’m afraid of in any creative endeavor is being told that I didn’t do a good job. People telling me that my work is not good either directly or indirectly, is not only hurtful, but embarrassing. When someone tells me something I did is bad or doesn’t work, I feel embarrassed I didn’t know that before they told me. Like I should’ve been smarter about it, or I should’ve known it didn’t work because this was my field and I should know when something doesn’t work.

I did a job a little while ago where I had to light a day exterior of a miniature football field. I bounced four 5k's gelled with full blue into a 20x ultra bounce that was about twice as big as the tiny football field. Then I raked the whole thing with a 10k gelled with half CTS. Now that I look back at these stills, I feel like I could have softened the "sunlight" just a little bit more to feel more like sunset. I don't know. What do you guys think?

No question about it. I really like the contrast between sunlight and shadow in this movie. Those stills are misleading, the "sunlight" doesn't clip like that and the ambient isn't that dark. Obviously this is a taste thing, but almost every time I see a Wally Phister/ Christopher Nolan "sunlit" scene pop up on TV, it catches my eye. (I asked a friend of mine that actually worked on the movie and he recalls them using 100k soft suns for that bank robbery scene, which sounds about right.)

And also at the same time, I have to acknowledge the fact that there were certain groups and certain people that thought I was helpful enough at what I do to recommend me. So thanks to them. I don't mean to complain by any means.

I will say the amount of money taken out of my first DGA check including taxes was kind of shocking. More than half... And that didn't include the cost of joining. Ah... it's what it is.

I hear what you're screaming, but from what I've learned from talking to other DGA members, if I'm caught working on non-DGA projects, I can be fined big on my next several DGA shoots... almost to the point of not being paid at all for multiple jobs. Since I need the money, it's something I can't risk right now. But I've heard of some run arounds when it comes to ultra low budget shoots. I'm just now learning about all of this so forgive me for being such a newbie.

To follow up, because of the commercial I did last week, I was forced (if I wanted to take the job) to join the DGA. Not that it matters for operating camera, but I'm officially in a union which is new to me. And I'm not sure how that will affect directing the super low budget movies I was hoping to do in the next few years. We'll see. But hey, now I can change my signature to Justin Hayward DGA! But I won't. ? Thanks for all your replies.

All good points. Big lamps, far away are a must, but I never thought of the angle of the fill in the room. Interesting. After looking back at this I think what strikes me about the sun lighting in this movie is it's often almost coming from the angle of a key light, which is so rare. In that last frame, the sun is hitting Heath Ledger's face directly. Interior sunlight in movies (and exterior for that matter) is almost always a backlight or raking walls or whatever. If it ever hits someone directly, it's usually flagged off their head and shoulders, so hard light is only hitting their body. Obviously I understand why this is done, but I wonder if that's why the sun lighting in this movie feels more real to me... because it's unusual to see in a film?

Yes, that's a great way to put it. It is, of course, not simple in execution, but so simple in authenticity.

I stop and watch "The Dark Knight" pretty much every time it pops up on TV (it's one of those movies for me) and it popped up today while I was cleaning the kid's play-do off the floor. These screen grabs were pulled off youtube, so they're not a good representation of the actual shots, but I feel like Wally Phister has a fantastic take on how to light and expose for simulated sunlight in my opinion. I've been simulating sunlight on many shoots for the better part of 20 years (and just recently on another commercial), but I've never felt I've gotten it to feel this authentic. Again, these stills are misleading, because the movie is not this contrasty (the ratios aren't this drastic), but I think you can imagine what Wally Phister does with sunlight in general with these frames. What are some of the ways you all have simulated sunlight and what do you feel are the most effective overall? Thanks!

Welcome back! It's funny, when I got my first PA job on a movie shoot many many years ago, my family and friends were most impressed by the fact that I was provided free lunch. They had never heard of anything like that.?

If it were me, I would start with not posting about anything I heard from other people, even if I heard it from five hundred other people. If it were me, I would start by only posting things I've physically dealt with myself and can speak to directly, without any hearsay. I think that might absolve about 90% of certain people's issues. In my opinion.

If you can't substantiate your claim in your own mind, why not research what you're unsure of substantiating in your own mind a little bit before posting it publicly?

Yeah that's probably true. Agencies have been so hard to deal with lately. It really feels like they think everything should be free. Like it should be my pleasure to give them free work. Although they've substituted the word "free" for the word "favor" because that puts the onus on me. "What kind of a jerk doesn't do a favor???" But their intention is to make money off of my "favor". Cutting your neighbors lawn because they have a sprained ankle is a nice favor... but planting an english garden in your neighbors backyard, because they don't want to hire landscapers, is a free job. If you can't tell, I'm struggling with my career right now. ?

No, it was totally my fault. (sorry for taking so long to respond to this). The production company didn't anticipate camera movement, because that wasn't the way it was presented to them by the agency long before I was hired. It was my instinct, on the day, to add camera movement to something that was clearly not working according to the agency's initial story boards. It was my idea when I got there. No time or budget to hire anyone else. All me just trying to help fix a problem that the client overlooked...

I like wider shots in general, but not on super wide lenses. Something I remember Adam Frisch (and others) mentioning in the past. I really like a longer lens "wide" shot if there's the space to do it.

I went to the movies three times this year and all three times I saw "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". But I totally understand every complaint railed against that movie. It just didn't matter to me, because I was too busy smiling. I also like hot sauce and chicken, so naturally, I really like buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing... Why am I always comparing movies to food?