stephen lamb

Hey all, well its in the can! im super tired and off to bed, but though i'd let you all know it went off without a hitch, although i suppose we'll know that for sure once i get footage back...heheh. thanks for all the helfp, i'll post pics as the post process continues. Steve

Today is the day! this afternoon im finally going to shoot this thing. I decided on Blue backing, and i feel i have enough kino-flo lighting units (the backing area is quite small) to keep it even. I've decided on how the final scene will look, and i think my simple plan for lighting the actress will work well. In the final scene she will be running through a dark concrete corridor ala Juarassic Park when Ellie is restoring power to the park. The hallway will have a few small lights on the ceilling directing light straight down. The entire hall will be added in CG, (not because i can't find a concrete hallway, but because this is the whole point of this shoot, to see if i can do it), including lights, and for simplicities sake, i am not going to have her interact with any CG obejcts. I will never show her feet touching the ground, and she won't bump into the walls at all either. My plan for lighting her then, is quite simple. Above her i am going to mount a very small fresnel, probably a 150w, on an ANCIENT light stand that our school has sitting around in the dusty corners. the great thing about this light stand though, is that it is BEEFY. Im going to crank that thing 10 ft high, and extend it's boom right out over the actress. (tested this, know the boom can support it just fine) then im going to spin the boom back and forth, while turning the lamp on and off, thus creating the illusion of her passing under lights. crap, i forgot to add that she will be fake running, ( my bluescreen space is WAY too small to have her actually run) and like i said earlier, i won't show her legs or anything. I will probably also add some VERY dim and very large diffused light in front and behind her, just to give her some illumination besides the overhead lamp. I'll put a fan on her hair, and presto! instand girl running down a hall. hahaha, thats the hope at least. if that description made any sense to you all, what do you think? as for testing out shots first with the compositor, i am going to be the compositor, and this whole thing is sort of a test. So i guess you could say im jumping in way over my head...but i find i learn better that way anyways. I know my wording can get confusing, so after the shoot i'll try and post a few pics of my setup, and then as i get my footage back, i'll post some stills as the process moves along. appreciate the input guys, Steve

Hey guys, once again, thanks for the replies. Stephen, i checked out that website and it is terrific, three great threads already just about lighting backing. neat stuff, eye color, i had read that before but eh, forgot about that. thanks for the reminder, it can become easy to overlook details, thanks guys! Steve

Stephen, You seem pretty savvy in the green/blue screen process, and i really appreciate all your help so far. more questions though of course, Do you know of any good website forums that are oriented more towards the CG/VFX part of the process? Thanks! Steve

Hey all, thanks for continuing to give input, i appreciate it! Quick question, Stephen Williams, i am trying to decide between blue or green screen. I believe the acter will be in dark colors, probably black, he is caucasion. I have access to the same size backing in either color...not very big unfortunetly, but except for an excerpt from the ASC manual that says blue screens generally work better in post for caucasion actors, i haven't seen much saying one or the other. Thanks! Steve

Hey Guys, Well I'm starting to pull it all together, and once i figure out a few more details, i should be able to post a full plan for you all to look at. I'll keep you posted, thanks so much for the help! Steve

Hey all, thanks for the replies, looks like our school's Kodak Film catalogue is a little behind the times eh? Thanks for the input, looks like I'll be using the 100T, or if i can't get enough light, the 200T. For Stephen Williams and anyone else who reads this. When you said minus green filter was that for the crystal speed camera, or for the lights themselves? I am going to use an Arri sr2 converted for S16. I also have access to some KinoFlo units. If i used those, would i need to gel them to match the backing? Thanks again for your help. Steve

Hey All, Thanks for the tips so far, i forgot to add that i will be shooting on film, most likely S16mm. Does that change your lighting advice at all? Thanks! Steve

Hi all, I am a studend doing a small green/blue screen test on my own. I have access to a Super16 camera, so i have to do it on 16mm film. As of right now I am thinking about Kodak EXR 100T, or if i think i can get enough light in the studio, using Kodak EXR 50D (that one is going to be TOUGH though) I know kodak makes a SFX 200 film, which i would love to get my hands on, but they only make it for 35 mm. Does anyone know of either some incredible way for me to get my hands a SUPER CHEAP 35 mm rental, (not likely, but gotta dream dream dream right?) or does anyone make a 16mm roll of the SFX 200T film? It's a short test, so im only shooting a few hundred feet of film max, this test is all about can i do it and make it look GOOD? What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Thanks for your help, Steve

Hi All, I am going to try out a small green/blue screen test (haven't decided yet on which color) and after doing some research i think i have an idea of how to light it. I don't have to money to rent specialized flourescent tubes, so im going to get commercial daylight tubes, or kinoflos, and filter them. My question is which gels to use to filter them. I have found several possibilities and i was wondering if someone could tell me which would work best. For blue screen work i have found the following, LEE "just blue" #79, LEE "true blue" #196 and Rosco SuperGel "Primary Blue" #80. For green screen i have found: LEE "Primary Green" #139, Rosco SuperGel "Priamary Green" # 91, and Rosco SuperGel "chromagreen" #389. What do you guys think? Any other tips/suggestions, the scene itself will be a man walking towards the camera with backing behind him, and thats it. In post i am going to add in a CG hallway. Thanks for your help guys, Steve

Ashely, I hate to bug you as well, but i am also considering Bono labs, thanks for your tips so far, fantastic stuff. Do you know anything about how good the DVCpro HD codec is? Any possibibity you could also email pics or just let me know when they get posted? stevie_o54@hotmail.com. Thanks for your help:) steve

Don't worry, not a snotty question at all. Two reasons though, one is plainly that i haven't asked them. The second reason is also the reason i haven't asked them: Most of my profs don't have much knowledge of the newer HD formats and the pipelines in place that handle it, and also none of the profs at my school know much about visual effects, it is not part of the curriculum here at all. i have spoken with several profs before this on related topics, and while helpful, my questions were not entirely answered. I guess i am opening myself up for attack against my film school, but i love it here, all my profs are great, but like all things, you can't know everything. And added to that, this is an extracurriclur test im trying out, and something that is definetly not part of our schools curriculum and so, here i find myself looking for a few answers or tips. :P anyways, yeah. Thats about it i suppose Steve

hey guys, thanks for the help so far! i looked fairly deeply into bono labs and they definetly look like the place to go to. What a cool lab to figure that not everybody has a super deck. i have access to a pretty good PC running an Athon x2 4800+ harddrive, 2 gigs ram, nVidia 7800 gtx graphics card and a 400 gig RAID array. I also have a Mac G5 single 1.8 ghz processor, 1 gig ram, standard nVidia graphics card no raid array, i assume that the mac would not work out so well for uncompressed or DVCpro HD. Do you think that the PC could handle uncompressed footage? and if so, what software would do it? Any ideas how much an online might cost and any good places to look into for it? Thanks for your input, Steve

Hey guys, thanks for your input so far, i guess i forgot to add that FCP won't be my compositing software, only my editing, i know i have access to at least after effects. I'm going to call the labs and talk to them, so you might hear more from me in the coming days/weeks as the test continues, any tips for the actual shoot in terms of information i'll need to record for use in the CG enviroment. Thanks for the book suggestion, i'll check it out. Thanks again, Steve

Hey All, I want to run a small test to try and learn some of the basics of shooting for visual effects work, learning the CG element, and learning the compositing element. I know that the better my master plates are, the better my composite will be. So my question here has to do with getting a high quality digital master onto my computer. The supplies i have/have access to. A mac G5 with FCP HD running a single 1.8ghz processor 1 gig ram 160gig 7200 rpm harddrive 16mm arri sr2 converted for Super16mm i have no advanced tape decks other than DVcam. The basic test i want to conduct is to shoot some footage of the dowtown where i go to school, and then composite in some CG elements, such as broken buildings, flying saucers or just whatever i feel like. I will be shooting super 16 film. Because it is just a small test, i feel like cost will not be a huge hindrance, and i can spend a few bucks. My questions is this: i know FCP can handle very very high quality images and video, and i believe my computer can handle it as well, but i have no way to get that data onto my computer as i have no fancy deck. i am thinking about trying to use the DVCpro50 HD codec, any suggestions there? Are there any labs that would telecine super 16 to a harddrive i send them, or onto some other data format like DVD etc? Any other suggestions that you might think i would need to hear would be useful. Thanks for your time guys! Steve

Hi All, I'm a student filmmaker preparing to shoot a five minute Super 8 film for class/festivals. I've got a few questions and any answers/tips/advice would be greatly appreciated. I am farily sure i want to shoot on negative film because i've read the negative comes across much better in the telecine process, also, negative film gives so much more lattitude for mistakes and for tough shooting situations. I have two main questions. One, the film involves present times, and 'flashbacks' and i want a distinctive look for each of the two time periods. I want the flashbacks to have full, rich vivid colors. I want the 'nowadays' parts of the film to be rather dreary, and unsaturated. I think the colors for the nowadays sections will be light greens/blues/tans etc. My question is what are some techniques i can use to pull off those color differences. Color pallettes in production, possible filters, lab techniques etc? The flashback sequences are all exterior, and no access to lighting will be possible, however, the nowadays pieces will have access to lighting, any tips there? the second question has to do with quality telecine transfer. I want the absolute best master copy i can get in a digital format. I have had rumors of a lab (don't know the name) who can telecine to any video format, put that format onto a harddrive, mail the harddrive, and then i can just click and drag the files. any truth to this? I guess basically i'd love it if i could get a 4:2:2 digital transfer onto my mac somehow. dunno if my questions made sense, but thanks for reading, look forward to your responses. Steve