Tiago Pimentel

Thanks Macks! I'll look into it. Maybe it's something I can fix with EQ.

Thanks Giacomo! I'll definitely look into those critiques on sound mixing. I wanted the sound of the door closing to be loud and full and really sound like an FX instead of a simple door closing. The idea of the little girl going off the door is scary, so I wanted that effect on the door closing. Maybe I took it too far... lol I also agree that this story could be shorter. But I wanted to create a sort of tone to the first part and then have a second, more realistic, segment to the film that would create contrast with the first. So the first, more oniric segment, ended up with a certain duration and tempo that I simply couldn't cut in post, otherwise it wouldn't work. lol Thanks for your critique!

Hi guys, Here's my lastest short film. Let me know what you think. This was low budget as it was paid from my pocket. A labour of love. Hope you enjoy. Pass: mhpshort Cheers

haha, that's the exact book I was using. It's a children's book that teaches basic stuff about space. About the lighting. It was much more about the flagging than about the lighting, I must say. Key light was a 500w tungsten through a big (can't remember the exact size) softbox with eggcrate to avoid spill on the wall and lamp. I had additional flagging on the left side of the frame to really cut the light from the wall. Then, since the mother will sit on the left side of the bed (not visible on that still I posted), I also had a 500w tungsten on the right side with diffusion paper and some ND, just to let the light fall on her right shoulder and kind of enhance the motivation from the lamp. Of course, more flagging to avoid spill on the wall and ceiling. I think I also had cinefoil on the mother's light.

Hi! I'm one of those guys that still uses tungsten fresnels because they're cheap to rent and they render beautiful skin tones. And, of course, they are incredibly versatile. But now that I'm thinking of actually buying a lighting kit, I'm starting to think more and more about LEDs. What are your thoughts about Led lighting? I mean, it's brilliant just to think you can dial whatever brightness or color temperature you want. But, I mean, are there any LEDs that can render skin tones correctly, be as flexible (able to spot or flood) as a fresnel, as don't cost 3x more? The only LED lighs I've used are from Rotolight. I really liked them, but they are floods, so they won't work if I need a sharp shadow... Of course, Sky Panels are great but completely out of my budget. Any suggestions? Thanks for helping!

Yeah, I changed location as I realized that in the original room, especially with the white stripes, would be very hard to pull off a decent cosy atmosphere. The impact on the story is minimal and visually it works much better. Thanks!

Ok, here's a grab of what I shot. It was so hard to flag that, but I think I got a good ambience. There's a lot of space to the left, because there's a character that will sit on the left of the bed. Maybe it's a bit yellow and needing of proper color correction, but I actually like the warm tone.

I think I'll change my location here: https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/b3/0a/19/b30a19be14a6ee2ff9b1a3585daf1dc7.jpg It's got more space (i'll probably change the lamp for something with shade) and the dark brown will definitly work better to create ambience. What do you think? Thanks

Sorry, I said practical with diffusion but I actually meant practical with shade.

Here's a still from ET that doesn't actually look that complicated but it kind of ressembles what I want to do. My shot will be wider and the dad will be in the place of the mother and the mom will actually be sitting on the left side of the bed, facing them (back against the camera). My lighting should also look warmer and softer on them as i will be framing a practical with diffusion. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZWmh-BaGMdU/UXJNkbUrSMI/AAAAAAAAAqE/DKVQDT1OSrY/s1600/Dee-Wallace-Drew-Barrymore-ET-photo.jpg

Anyone? I was thinking maybe getting a 500w fresnel on the left side, at about the same height of the dad and daughter, going through big diffusion. Goal is to avoid clipping of the practical and get good quality light into their faces. To light the mother, I was thinking maybe a backlight to silhouette her (simulate the light from the lamp, and then another light from the left to fill her left side a bit (as if it was the light from the lamp bouncing from a wall). The delicate thing will be to create atmosphere with so much light. A lot of flagging will be needed. What do you think? Thanks

Hi guys, Here's a photo of what I will be lighting: The scene will feature a father reading a story to his little girl, both in bed (the little girl will be lying in bed, while the father will also be in bed, but with his back against the wall). The mother will arrive after the shot begins, sitting in the bed, on the left side of the frame, facing them (so, back against the camera). Ok, I will be moving the bed from the left wall and place a small bedside table with a lamp to create ambience and also allow the mother to sit on the left side. The idea will be to simulate cozy lamp light. I'll be shooting with an Ursa Mini 4.6k at 800 ISO. I wanted some focus on the mother as well, so we're looking at a relatively deep focus scene here (perhaps T4). I have acess mostly to tungsten Arri fresnels (150 and 500w). How would you guys light this? I want this very smooth and ambient light on the characters, even though, the previous shot is the dad's shadow on a white closet reading the book. And the silhouette is well cut, so a bit of a lighting incoherence, since no soft light would produce a sharp shadow, but I think I can get away with that, for the sake of the look... Any suggestions? :) thanks for helping, guys!

I've noticed a similar problem when shooting against light coming through lots of haze. I don't even have to shoot directly against a light. If there's haze in there, it all turns into a big white blur. If i close down the lens or include nd filters, all I get is underexposed footage. It goes from white blur to underexposed in a single stop. Is this normal? Maybe it's the IR filter I'm using that might be bouncing light and creating this weird effect?

Thanks Brian. So the loss in contrast is attributed to lens flaring? I have a tokina 28-70 based on an old angenieux formula that i absolutely love but flares like hell. I once tried to use it for this kind of shot and it looked terrible. I will try my zeiss. Thanks!

Yeah, those were the lenses used on the Tree of Life. Since I don't have the money for those, I'm using a Sigma 18-35mm for this effect. I will try with my Zeiss 1.4 Planar 50mm. Maybe the results will be better.

Hi guys, Not sure if this is a question for the lighting forum, but here goes. When shooting directly into the sun (thinking mostly of Malick/Lubezki approach), while filming a face in between the sun and the camera (covering and uncovering the sun), I usually run into a problem of contrast and lack of sharpness and detail in the face. Almost as if the sun creates this glare which affects the contrast of the subject I'm filming. Is this just a matter of having the right lens and lens coating or are there any other cinematography techniques I should be using? Thanks

Oh, that setup was a challenge. It was really a matter of ratios. I knew I had to get the tunsgten higher than everything else and the blue fill had to be lower than the blue exterior. Fortunately both blue lights I was using were leds so I could dial in the brightness as needed without affecting color temperature. Blue window was being flagged from the right using whatever objects I could get (no space for a cstand and proper flags) and fill light was just behind camera bouncing on unbleached muslin. The tungsten was in front and high above the practical. It was challenging but it paid off :)

Guys, I remembered that, besides the contrast that I already got from the lights I used, I can also enhance this effect in Resolve (I guess this was what AJ Young was talking about) by using keyframes. I can start with a much brighter scene and, as lights start to turn off, I can do a keyframe sequence on the offset wheel (in Resolve) to further darken the image. Something to discuss with our colorist... Another thing that's bothering me is that the initial image seems a little too blue to me, even though the color temperatures were accurate according to the time of day (in this case, night) that this scene takes place. In post, maybe desaturating the shadows a bit to get a more neutral tone? Thanks!

Thanks. I used the rotolight anova pro which is essentially a led flood light (i had a 1/8 cto to match the street light since these leds only go as low as 3150k). A bit of an overkill for what I needed (it has lots of fx in there). A "poor" man's skypanel :)

That would've been a great idea. Unfortunately we already shot the whole thing. Hopefully it won't look too dull. Maybe adding that kind of effect with vfx?

Ok, I tried a lighting scheme that was a bit different that what I originally had in mind. I think shooting a plate would probably be the best solution, but a little out of our budget... I had two lights moonlight balanced (one to simulate a window and the other to fill) and a tungsten. I dimmed both moonlights, one at a time, leaving just the tungsten at the end. I also opted in getting the actor to kneel instead of rising up, which allowed me to close the shot a bit more. It didn't go completely dark, but the effect is there I think.

Thanks Miguel. Also, thanks for helping!

Took some Rotolights with me last night to shoot this and was amazed by the quality of these leds. This still needs to go through our colorist to be properly matched.

Thanks guys. I understand that it will be very hard to do what I want in this shot. I was wondering if it'd be easier if I start with a wide shot and then change to a medium shot to pull it off. I could also get a black carpet on the floor to avoid light spill. Maybe getting a 1/4 Hollywood Blackmagic in front of the lens to let the actors glow a bit. And then, in Resolve, really crush the blacks... I don't like to leave things to post production but...

Good point Bruce. Here's a photo of the room. I was thinking I can't go as wide as I wanted, because I still need to place the lights and tripods inside to simulate the moonlight, along with some sort of cocoloris...