Albion Hockney

I'm sure this was shot on a sound stage, just because of practicality for a tv series. Often times sets are built with ceilings, but they can build in mounting points or in some cases even remove sections of the ceiling if needed for lighting a certain shot or scene. I just saw the trailer and its clear they are using a lot of practical lights, the DP probably worked closely with the art department. That said you can also see that there is lighting to manage contrast ratios and light the talent in some shots, its likely most of this is coming from the ceilings or units outside of frame from the ground on stands. All the techniques you mentioned are possible to use in different ways to create a similar look, but yea Litmats would be a popular choice for soft light motivated by lamps and to create low level soft fill light.

ask david attenborough

If you start getting called for union gigs and have to permit in that is a good time. I feel like most DPs these days get an agent before they go 600 so that gives you an idea. depend on the type of work you do though

Every AC works different. Not every high end AC uses a focus assist tool and those tools are only aids anyways ...some do like working off monitors. most veteran AC's have a 9 or 13' 1080 display these days.

Both the techniques you mentioned along with a handful of others are regularly used for just this...very popular for the long lens b-camera side angle. it helps to have time to play with it on set and its easier on longer lenses. usually you just use vasaline for the filter thing, but it really does just blur the frame. sometimes people just to place a glass of water in the edge of the frame, that gives a similar effect to prisms. backlit helps with all of this sorta stuff usually. There is even some kit you can buy of prisms and various objects you can place right on the edge of frame

most of the time its a vfx comp

I don't find this to be true. LED to HMI efficiency seems pretty similar. I find the 600d close to as bright as a joker 800 a 1200D is like an M18 bulbed with a 1200W bulb...again maybe a touch less?

exciting! looks great.

woah, so many good things in this thread. thanks! here is a long doc about bergman making on winters light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOebK7UTUgc

to me it looks like the face is underexposed. You prob want to overexpose a portion of her face 1-2stops. also this is very much about make up and sheen. you want the lights to be reflected by her skin. your model is also white and white people don't really reflect light unless they have a lot of makeup/product on. Jennifer Lopez's complexion is also apart of the look.

its going to be very expensive thats for sure. the stabilized head on moving vehicle wont be very clean or consistent unless you did it as a slow move on a very long lens so the car can maintain a speed and circle the vehicle easily...you'd also need a huge road with open space left/right of it. ...and even then that's just a super tough shot to operate. would need to be cineflex or shotover. and to do that safely too.... its basically a stunt in itself. the jib makes the most sense to me. some Russian arms could shoot this shot on the car....but if you need to mount that sorta setup to a normal car....I donno you could build track around the car and suspend it off the roof maybe with some sorta robotic dolly underslung. to get a clean look for a shot like this is a very large scale production...especially on 35.

reverse sky panel bounces for fill? and some sorta very large source as moonlight frame right. Would love to see some breakdowns of setups on Filmlights.

no other frames, but one 12x20 solid? bold.

If you want to be a Gaffer/Truck owner I would buy industry standard fixtures like an M18 which people will request, though the 1000W plasma light which I have never heard of sounds interesting. Also at this size the vehicle and organization systems start to matter quiet a bit. You would ideally want a small cargo van fitted out with shelving and ideally a lift gate. Also Carts. If you can't afford that I'd scale back. I have seen some gaffers with ultra tiny packages work out of Mini Vans or Hatchbacks, but at that point you can really only fit enough gear for interviews or very small setups and with out a vehicle renting it out can be challenging.

Hi Edith, your inspirations and approach are great but every project is different and the lights and gear needed do vary quiet a bit. If your interested in owning this size package w/ grip gear is your plan to work as a gaffer or rent it out? If not, I would suggest working with a lighting rental house if you need this big of a package. With grip gear and that many fixtures it sounds pretty much like a 1/2 ton or a 1 ton package which is a small truck or vans worth of gear.