Matthias Claflin

Thanks Bruce, Thanks for the tip. I think i'll turn off one of the 1k fresnel lights so the soft zip acts more like a key. I have the green screen lit with two 500w lowel omni lights at the moment. I think I want to pull the output down on those lights a bit. Do you think that a diffusion gel would get the desired effect, or maybe just stick to buying some scrims? I'm just not sure what would be best (without buying new lights) to knock down the exposure of the screen. Just a bit.

I don't know how scientific this website is, but I've used this before to help with pre-planning. Worth a look. https://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Backstory: I work with a company doing corporate video work in my area. We recently moved into a new office where we were able to dedicate a 12x12 wall for green screen. We just finished painting it with Rosco DigiComp Green. I lit it for the first time yesterday and though I think the wall looks great, I'm not thrilled with the way it's lit. This is what it looks like: Lighting Diagram: Canon C100: ISO: 640, PP: WideDR, WB: 2900k, Lens: 35mm Rokinon T8.0 My Concern: I think the green screen itself is too bright. I find it easier to key (personally) if the screen is a little darker than the subject, I was going to just bring the lights closer to the subject, but I had a few people say they didn't like how bright it was already to look at. My next thought is that I could back the Lowel Omni lights off a bit, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to control them enough to keep them off the subject and I don't have a lot of space left. So I think I've settled on buying some 24x24 diffusion gels (so I can use them on any light later on, as opposed to buying some specific for the Omnis). I'm just not sure which ones to get. I'm not really familiar with using diffusion gels, so I'm not sure how much light I will lose or how much it will change the quality of light. Right now the Omnis are just bare bulbs. The only alternative that I've considered is buying lower wattage bulbs for the omni or perhaps investing in scrims for them. I'm just not sure what would be the best way to reduce the light, but also be versatile in other applications (scrims vs lower wattage bulbs vs diffusion gels). Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to lighting so I appreciate any advice at all.

I personally chose to switch from Premiere last year to Magix Vegas for almost the exact opposite reason. If you aren't running an Intel/nVidia rig, the optimization for premiere is terrible. I prefer Ryzen processors because of the sheer "bang for your buck" difference between them and the Intel offering. That said, Premiere runs poorly on AMD so I made the switch to Vegas which has better optimization for my hardware. I don't really recommend Magix Vegas because it doesn't have the same codec support that Premiere, Avid or Resolve has. That said, I do recommend at least installing and testing Avid on your system as it is similar in price to premiere (if I'm not mistaken). Resolve is a bit resource heavy, if I'm not mistaken so that likely won't be a good choice to switch. If you don't need raw support, Vegas may work for you (as it does for me). As Aapo mentioned, it might be best to just try working with proxies if you don't already.

Just wanted to add a quick resolution to this. It does appear all I needed to do was cut the cord a bit further down the line. I was able to get a few butt splices and got it working consistently again! Thanks everyone for the help!

Awesome. I'll grab some of those butt-splice connectors and have another go at it. I'll shorten up the wire (it was 8' when I got it I think so no real loss there) and I may take some of the white wire back (from where it burned). Thanks for all the help!

Well my wife is going to hate hearing that. I had never soldered before so I bought the soldering iron and solder for this specific task. I also spent all last night practicing it and then finally soldering the wire when I thought I was adequate to get a good connection... Oh well. That said, what is a crimp splice? Is this it? Also I cut about 1/2 inch off the cable running into the unit. How much would you recommend cutting? Should I take an inch or so? The cable did have a strain relief outside, perhaps cut off everything that was previously in the strain relief? Thanks for the advice!

So here we go... Last summer I started picking up some tungsten fixtures on ebay. The first one I got was an LTM Pepper 420W. I quickly realized I wanted more power and picked up a Mole 407, Mole 2581, Lee-Colortran 1k Fresnel, and finally a Lowel Omni. Everything has served me well except the LTM. So basically it started acting up shortly after I bought it. The connection to the GY9.5 socket was obviously wearing thin and in an effort to fix it, the connection broke off. So I bought a new GY9.5 socket already wired and rated up to 525W (if I'm not mistaken). So I went into the LTM and stripped the wires, soldered them together, applied heat shrink and re-secured the wires. I also used a brand new 420W GY9.5 bulb from impact. Turned it on and this happened: It seems like there is some issue with the constant stream of power. I'm not sure what to do next except to replace the cable- is this the right next step? What can I do to ensure a continuous flow? TL;DR I replaced the GY9.5 socket, stripped and re-wired the unit, and for some reason when I move the bulb from spot to flood the light flickers on and off. Any ideas what to do next?

Hey Eric, I shoot primarily with the original C100 and I shot the following whip pan with it. It was shot at 24p with a 180° shutter. if you pause it as it whips, you can see some distortion, though I'm surprised it wasn't worse than it was. That said, if you want to see the original clips, I'll see if I can find them and upload them.

Thank you! I don't know why I had such a hard time finding this. I appreciate it.

I totally understand that what I did in the picture above is not safe enough to use. I really don't know anything about this side of the business as all my previous light experience was with LED panels, CFL or full size fluorescent fixtures (which all draw far less power) so I never learned anymore than I had to. That said I may just buy the arri rocker because it looks closer to what was on before. Thanks for the advice and patience. I'm entirely uneducated on the electric side of filmmaking.

My concern is the exposed wires that I may come into contact with after wiring. I know the switch works, and I know how to connect it to the cable. I don't know how to safely cover the wire that remains exposed. I bring this up because I've read online that I shouldn't put electrical tape directly on exposed wire. How do I go about insulating it or covering it? 20181031_002136 by Matthias Claflin, on Flickr 20181031_002145 by Matthias Claflin, on Flickr

So I have a Mole-Richardson 1k zip softlight (got it for less than $100 on ebay). However, I accidentally stepped on the switch the other day. So naturally I called up Mole, gave them the exact model of light I had and asked about replacing it. They confidently gave me a part number and a (semi) local store I could get the part at. So I went to the website of the store, bought the part and when it arrived, I was completely confused. Below I attached a picture of the broken rocker switch and the switch that came in the mail (Mole 400-16) which is exactly what Mole told me was the appropriate replacement part. I have little to no electrical knowledge so here I am asking for a bit of advice. How do I wire this correctly? I've searched around the internet and can't find anything on how to wire this piece? Especially since it doesn't match my previous piece. Any advice at all is welcome. I'm at a total loss. 20181029_184904 by Matthias Claflin, on Flickr 20181029_184840 by Matthias Claflin, on Flickr