Albion Hockney

I don't know if there is a good answer these days. the old tv logics where accurate, but small and very dim. I feel like the quality has gotten better over the years and certainly much brighter, but if I want to really look at what I'm shooting I ask for a large panel onset and if we are shooting daylight it needs to be tented since none of the high bright monitors seem all that accurate. The small HD 703 seems to be the industry standard, but I don't really trust it. curious what others think.

Sounds like you have a good plan. Personally I would probably avoid 20xs except to knock out lights on the fill side and just get as a big a lamp as I need to over power the stadium lights. But hard to tell with out seeing the location I’d just say don’t forget all the 20xs are doing is knocking out stadium lights — so let your grips find the simplest solution to get those off the talent. I don’t think you should need the overhead one. id also say if you make this 20x box and have one big soft source on the ground. The ground might feel sorta artificially lit in the wide shot - which is why I’d try to work with the natural stadium lights as much as possible or plan to try to bottom off your key light so it’s focused on talent and isn’t front lighting all that grass. stadiums naturally are pretty contrasty Because it’s still night exterior. The only thing that can make it flat is the fact often stadium lights are coming from both sides cross lighting so if you get rid of that issue you will be in good shape.

are the stadium lights going to be in shot? I think the easy way to do this is just big neg fill from one side and then make sure any of the stadium lights go through the same diffusion the M40 will go through on the other side so you don't get any hard light on the front side of the talent. in that case you can get away with no more then 2 20x20 blacks..maybe just one ...and then just a big 12x or 20x diff on the other side. How wide are the interview shots?....do you need to create this huge box of 20x's just to cut the stadium lights....I'd just let your gaffer or grip work that out and see if there is an easier way.

Totally different career paths. I'd say in a small market maybe you could dabble and get color work on a home setup... but in LA, your not going to make good money on that if its a side hustle. if your a talented DP or Director its easy to find Jr colorists who already have those assisting jobs to take on work at super discounted rates as they are all also building reels. The only work left is the less desirable stuff with small budgets that post houses won't take on. I'd say if you really want to be a DP then you for sure want to get on set and be apart of production. Color skills are great and helpful to you as a DP and for your own work possibly, but as a career path its just so different. For sure easier to get a camera rental job and then work as an AC, that's a classic path for many DPs

any friendly Rental house you have a relationship or worked with before should help you out and let you play with one. If your getting this unit from a rental house deff ask them to spend sometime with it.

Build a reel from work you can find. Music videos, short films, etc. Maybe reach out to JR dp's whose work you think is great and try to color their stuff and then try to get a assisting gig at a color house or a post house that does a good bit of color work. Very many of the successful colorists started assisting at the post house they still work at, so that's the ideal pathway if you can attain one of those positions. I'd email colorists you respect directly for advice and share your reel with them.

The light on Newman is pretty dim. often dim subtle light is confused for a soft light. The vibe of this shot is more from the fact he is near silhouette in front of the window. the light on his face is just a subtle touch, if it was a soft light instead of the semi hard approach the look wouldn't be that much changed.

even with the dream vibes and small portion of the track I'd fight hard for a location with control of the stadium lights. They will bring up your background too...if you just have lights on talent and shoot at night you might loose exposure on background so all the production design you have left is the track on the ground and then blackness behind it, but maybe that is good for what you want? are you tracking with a moving runner on steadicam? I'd say even like an area of 50ft or so is a lot for one 4k. If you get a place with Musco's which are pretty common they should be around daylight balance I'd have 1/4 and 1/8 flavors of CTB/CTO Green/Magenta just in case. with only two on g/e even a couple 4k's is a lot to deal with, but a maybe one 4k could create a nice edge or wrap the stadium lights a little, especially as you say if your in a single position on the track. If you go with no stadium lights Maxi's are a great option, but you'll need a big generator and more then two on your crew for sure. just mounting one of those takes two or three people and very heavy stands or scissor lift/condor especially if you want them at all high up in the air. good luck, stadium locations are always awesome.

I think the best thing you can do is find a great location with stadium lights you can control. Shooting into the stadium lights is very dramatic and usually you can control each light tower individually so you can turn off the ones on the near side and shoot into them backlit. The real lights are great piece of production design as well, they look awesome in the deep background of shots. An M40 will do some work, but one M40 isn't going to light up the whole track. you'd need Dinos or 18k's to do that sorta thing way up high. that is a huge budget thing. If you need some fill or to shape the light on talent you could use M18's or M40's for tighter framings, but if you are shooting a person sprinting down the track I wouldn't count on lighting that with your lamps with out a very large budget or using a very small area of track. Another thing to consider is you may be able to shoot your wide shots at magic hour and get a little blue in the sky which is a very pretty look. Often the best solution is the most simple, don't over complicate if you don't have to.

If you work with same production team 2-3 times no one will be offended or put off by a simple email saying hey, I want to do what you do one day. Some people are busy or not helpful for sure, but some might be of some help. Or just going up to them during lunch or after wrap, building confidence in social/networking skills will really help you out...I know everyone says that, but unfortunately its true. that said lots of people who have no social skills manage to make it too so don't worry about it if you cant do that.

I can't remember ever seeing tree dapple over such a large interior space in real life. there would have to be a huge row of trees

Yea if you want detail on those items in the FG of your shot you need more light on them. Right now you have them right at the noise floor with what looks like slightly lifted blacks. Keep everything out of purple and crush a bit in post if you want clean blacks.

yea @Satsuki Murashige I think he's a control freak! I think there are good bits and bad bits to that, but I do miss the looks of his older movies. Even social network to me looked better then the newer ones even though Cronenweth shot both of those. @charles pappas Zodiac was shot on the viper (same camera as collateral) ....but Savides shot it and you can tell alot of his tastes are involved in how it looks....IE why it looks so good! It does have some of that cold fincher vibe that newest stuff has, But I think Savides added a sense of realism to it that meshed really well.

I agree with all of that, But I' i think Fincher is falling into the trap of being wowed by what digtal tech is capable of. its good at some things like the face replacements in social network, but not good at other things like imitating the feel of an old b/w film.