Albion Hockney

Hey guys just curious what your guys individual practices are when you book a job and then get a call for a much better one the same dates. Like for example maybe you get a call for something under your rate for two days and then a couple weeks out get a all for a 1 week shoot at your rate or above. Do you cancel the first gig? When is too late? This is specifically geared toward shooters as I find that crew does this quiet a bit and I have never minded but producers specifically requesting a given shooter is of course a bit different.

its an HMI through the window thing. its just about controlling the light so its only hitting specific areas of the frame. or coming through small windows. use what you have...bigger HMI's 4K-12K might be nice to have but you could get away with 1.2k's for sure. I'd also consider some light haze in the space. in your example frame there is one hmi through a window in the backround coming in very soft as "ambient daylight" and a 2nd light that making small spot on the wall as direct sun. one light giving a slight edge on the door frame. and what appears to be one light source coming through the window in the foreground coming through that curtain, but it could be more then that one source. just use light carefully and make sure to not light up the whole frame. be selective and subtle.

Since I have made this post I have been using 1/8th on pretty much everything and I did 1/4 on a more stylistic short film and on one music video and its been great. one thing I have found is that in high key situations it seems less useful as it does get kinda bloomy or just with a lot of bright objects in the background... I did one shot with a string of light bulbs in the background and even with 1/8th they started to look a little too bloomy. In low key situations 1/4 is really fantastic though, really helps give the picture some texture. Nice reel mark!

Exciting! can you say anymore? what led to the choice of 35mm

At the risk of taking this topic on a tangent... I think its important for all those in the bussiness to remember the part of this that art and not just craft. I find most AC's are "old minded" in that they get annoyed when you do things that are in percise and that push on the traditonal craft. Many AC's are rolling there eyes even if they don't physically do it everytime you say your not going to get proper marks. The reason I work with those who I do is generally because they have an interest in the result I am trying to get and not just in making prefectly sharp pictures. That said I do listen to them and want to hear there opinion, but I don't want to always be at odds, the goal should be to understand eachother and make the best product.

would be really interested to see those shots when the project releases Miguel. Donno if I have ever seen anything other then a bird shot at 3000mm haha. didn't know about that lens. F8.9 is a little tough! but at 1000mm I'd take it.

I agree with some of this sentiment I think that actors should still learn this part of the craft and this type of film making with strong marks and well crafted blocking is certainly a part of film and should continue to be. that said I think it is just one style and it is important to note that the more contemporary ideas of having less perfect marks and more organic blocking is also equally as valid and some truly amazing work has come out of this way of film making that would not have been possible if more traditional techniques were necessary.

Miguel what 50-1000mm lens where you using? and what was the 3000mm shot...guessing straight on car coming toward camera with the heat waves thing? is that a typical thing to shoot that long? Im really interested in use of super long lenses I haven't really gotten behind 800mm or so though because of logistics.

that seems similar to the red rock halo system, obviously a lower end solution ....I donno if I would risk using it but its interesting for sure. http://store.redrockmicro.com/halo.html

I made a post about IR ND right below this and Satsuki brought up the formatt Firecrest ND series. The reviews look very good

thanks much. the Firecrests look great from the reviews and very affordable. True ND's seem like the ones to really use but yes expensive. look forward to the day all cameras have internal ND or a better way of dealing with this!

And can you stack IR ND's or are you only supposed to use one IR ND and then standard NDs under that?

1. With tiffen filters what is the difference between the ir nd filters and the hot mirror ir nd filters? 2. With tiffen filters how do you use the non nd stand alone hot mirror filter. Is it effective to get standard nd filters and just place the hot mirror infront of them ? What strengths of ir nd work best with the hot mirror or does it work in such a way that it doesn't matter? 3. Does anyone use Schneider platinums with the red mx sensor and what do they think? I have seen tests and the footage that comes back looks super green I feel it must be losing Atleast some color information no? Is there an overall preference between Schneider platinums, tiffen hot mirror nds, and tiffen standard ir nds? Thanks for any insight, I know there are a lot of topics about these filters and no clear answers it seems.

Satsuki don't most shoot like this on the highend incorporate some kinda laser focus assist system? I've never used it but I always assume that double barreled little thing on top of the camera placed right above the sensor was for that.

I think its important to have even balance on the camera. If you can get an external LCD and get the camera body on your shoulder. if you can't do that use counter waits on the back of some rods. The camera should be balanced just like a tripod head so it can almost rest on your shoulder without going backward or forward. Also as noted the easy rig is great. All kinds of manufacturers make stuff and everyone uses different stuff. Wooden camera, Shape, Vocas to name a few third party camera accessories companies. but there is many more of varying quality. Stuff is pretty expensive though if your not used to this kinda niche equipment the small runs make the machined pieces not cheap.

Yea for your reference I think the color is on point, but that reference feels like it has less exposure and the source is less directional/softer

I don't think the DP's role is defined but it would be very hard to bother direct and DP a movie. The DP is in charge of lighting and that takes time on set where the director has a million other things to worry about (talking with all the other departments....reviewing the dialog, rehearsing the actors) that said it can be done. Reed Morano just directed and DP'd a film I'd read an interview about that to get a sense of what it would be like, she designed her film in a way to make it work though. When you see a movie....lets take the Godfather, the director in this case Coppola is in charge of the overall vision of the film....he might know for example it should be dark (im sure he would say something more complex....but for the sake of the example...) the DP on the movie Gordon Willis will literally take Coppolas words and ideas and turn it into a literal picture. for example in God Father Gordon Willis used a specific style of soft top light to create the iconic look you see on marlon brando ....Copploa might have know Every film is different for example some Directors shot list with the DP and others do a shot list themselves. On the day some directors place the camera and suggest focal lengths for the lenses and other directors let the DP do that alone. Often it is a collaboration though ....sometimes a DP will suggest a different way to block a scene or even be given notes on performance to the director.

I think the color is fine, looks twilight to me, I would leave subtle color shift up to post.Personally I only use stuff other then the standard color correction gels if i'm doing heavy color like red from a break light or sodium vapor light. that said I think it could feel a bit more full and twilight like with more work to the lighting and additional control. the simple soft key feels a bit too straight forward. I would have tried to maybe control the fall of on the background a little more and brought out some 4x4 nets to work it on her a little too. I probably would have also had the source come from higher up as if it is the sky coming through windows. and then you'd get a more interesting cut on the background as well. the thing about twilight is it is also dark. I think your close but I'd probably push it a little farther. the brightest parts of the frame maybe at stop or 1 stop under even. and have her face maybe 2 stops down.

there is "heat shield" which is a thin clear gel almost like cellophane. as said it only diverts the heat so its good to protect things for example if you have a large light near a window you often use it to stop the light from getting to hot and breaking the glass.

Silks are pretty beat, they just kinda fill in around the shadow and keep shadow lines in tact. I'm sure somtimes there is a specfic use for them but generally diff is your friend. Arri has a photo metric calcuator you can check out (just google arri photometric) and you can get an idea of what stop you get at that distance. 250 cuts about 1 stop of light and 216 cuts close to 2 stops of light. I'd guess at 30ft away through 250 you'd be at something like a 2.8/4 at 800

super interested, could be used to great effect I think.

ah so wendy lights were just before people were using par 64's? I thought it was just the same as a Dino

Yea agreed. Its for sure just outside of frame looks too big to just be a kino through 4x to me though.

probably muscos.

^ i donno about that acutally. in terms of cinema lighting the practice of diffusion was not common till atleast the 60's there is an example during the filming of the igmar bergman movie winter light (1962) and the cinematographer sven nykist is using Wax paper for diffusion as no material and frames have yet been invented for the purpose. in early filmmaking the stocks and lenses were soft, often it was beleived you needed to create sharpenss with hard contrast. there was sometimes diffusion added to lenses for women and beauty but that is about it.