Dimitrios Koukas

Nick, Can u bemore specific? I am confused.what has Brian eno has to do with this? I went to the link but I can't find a connection... Dimitrios Koukas

Just don't quit m8, Have faith and believe on what you are doing. Some patience is required and also collect info about production companies , renting houses and go door to door and ask them. Dimitrios Koukas

we did once some great shot of a piano falling and how this would look from the piano's view.You see that piano was falling on someone's car, so we wanted to see the car from above. We used this very simple but very sofisticated method: we have attached an arri 435 on a heavy chain and thru a big sprocket . We measured the chain's weight and the camera's weight.As the camera was falling from above the chains weight went bigger till it stoped the camera! We have hanged the camera from the hand grip (top). U can stop the camera's rotation with a rope somewhere attached in the camera's mounting plate. Be sure to leave enough chain on the other end. So u will need a crane (maybe like the ones the builders use to carry things from level to level), a sprocket and some heavy chain. If you want I can make a drawing for u. We first ofcource tested all this with adding some sand bags with same weight as the camera's weight. Dimitrios Koukas

All aircrafts have pressurised cabins, If your can will blow, then u will blow too. Only in case of sudden cabin pressure lost you will have this happen, but then who cares? It would be to late for all. But if the regulation don't approve it, then buy one can at the next location. No problem if you fly bellow 10,000 ft. Dimitrios Koukas

Latest movie with big scenes of Day for night is ''the phoenix fly'',or ''fly of the phoenix'' or something.... It's in the desert, but it's a good reference. Dimitrios Koukas

All has to do with how much quantity of light u let pass thru your lens, In Greece I ve done this many times, but I prefer sunrise or sunset when the sun is bigger and not so bright ,so you will need a smaller focal distance lens. If you are going for screen then u need a big telephoto lens (2000mm), but if you are going for TV then u can zoom in in the post approximately 20%. Just take an ambient light reading and underexpose 2 f stops. Use your photometer to look at the suns direction and not your lens. Also use a UV filter on,most common used are Skylight 1A,2A and UV 15,16, because telephoto lenses suffer image detoriation due to haze,heat waves etc. , The shooting thru a darken glass or black mirror will do also, but u need to be accurate on how u re positionning the lens opposing the reflected image. I believe that 45% will do. Don't worry about burnning anything and always point the sun with your iris close to your actuall f/stop. Don't worry so much about nd filters just use a low ISO stock like 50 ASA or so. If you use a telephoto u will probably start with an f/stop of 5.6 or bigger. For 50 ASA I believe that 22 f/stop will do the job in the sunrise. Do u want to have the surface of the Sun filmed? Then we are talking for astronomers job, so better buy some footage. ALWAYS USE BIG F/STOPS WHEN U POINT AT THE SUN.(or with the magazine removed.) Dimitrios Koukas

What excactly do you want to simulate with this? A bird's view? or something ''unreal'', or an object falling? Dimitrios Koukas

Go for the Arri SR Why buy an old camera like S? Have some patience and collect more money, unless you want the camera as a vintage collector. It will be a pain to get things workin and u can get a lot of trouble with turret and lenses. Sorry for beeing so bossy, it's just that for this days you can get good prices for SR cameras. U can still shoot S16 but use the 16mm frame. Dimitrios Koukas

Chuck, I believe both replies covered your questions, the only think that I have to add, is that it's the subject that orders your lighting, the specific DP at the specific shot believed that he needed more diffusion for her face so he added some more. A shadowless light source was probabaly his approach. Do u have a frame of it? I am curius to see the results. Sometimes we come up with weird things in the set that pisses gaffers off, but it's the result u want that counts first. Dimitrios Koukas

Hot? I didn't change the colour, just added more highlights. ( brighten the whites) Dimitrios

Santo, Even that I don't like your avatar m8, at least we ve found something in common. Dimitrios

Stephen, The reason I am trying to alert for the details is that you and me maybe know how to do it, but what if someone doesn't? And yes u were right, I believe I ve gonne too far ;-). And another thing. Rosco paint comes in different colours , if you have tables or chairs on the set that you want them to be matt out in the post, then Rosco suggests u use a darker blue on the top surfaces and the lighter one for the surfaces that facing the lense. I ve done many Green screens Blue or white ones even black screens sometimes, depends on the subject.Since 1988 that I ve started working the compositing technology have changed a lot, so there are some fewer things to worry about, wich is good. Dimitrios

Laurel, Very well puted here, that u can turn the meter away of the camera to do any measurement, I am using this teqhnique a lot, it's just it's (as u say it) a matter of experience. U see what lits the dome so u can tell what u read...I do the same with backlights too, But if you want to be more accurate I am suggesting to use a flat disk, instead of the dome, for separate readings. As for the lights that overlap when less than 90 degrees,it's something that happens but, if u have a face looking towards your lens, it's nose will block the fill off for example, or if the fill is placed at 90 degrees then they mostly don't overlap. You see we are talking about general principles here, so all the comments we make have a subjective nature. Everything is about what you are shooting, and where, how many lights an actor crosses, and how many ''key'' lights or fills will cross in a scene. I can guess u walk the scene with your photometer and u get a tracking readiing like most of us do. Then u correct any hot spots if u don't want them, or u add some more. Dimitrios

Well, look at another colour timing option, I did this for fun, sry I am messing up with your job, just playing here. Dimitrios

Eduardo, I couldn't find this meter in the sekonic's site, is it an old one? If it does flash readings, then u can measure a strobe light when u have it flash in big intervals, or you can use a simple photometer (not a flash meter) if you have your strobe running at 50 or 60 flashes per second. Is it going to be your main light source or a secondary somewhere in the background? If you just need the effect somewhere away of your subject, there is no problem beeing so accurate, u can go ''by eye''. I hope this will help you, Dimitrios

Downix, Good luck with your project m8, optex and century optics are doing the most conversions for lences mounts e.t.c. Try visit their sites, maybe you would find information about calculation and mount depths and distances there. Dimitrios

Ashley, If you haven't finish your production yet, Go and get for free some calcolor samples, they come in a small booklet, from a gel store, and try to put one green infront of your lens while white balancing. See what happens. The only problem is that if you want the actors to look normal lit, then u definately want to use gels.On the house lights. Regards Dimitrios Koukas

Mario, Always it depends of what subject you are shooting. As you have allready noticed, enchancing filters are magentaish, wich means that they will take out some of the green of your scene that maybe is good for some emulsions, enchances the red's and blue tones of every source. In a skin, it will pop out any skin dirts or things that maybe an actor never seen in a photo of his/hers before. A pola on the other way will do a job neutral in colour. Regards Dimitrios Koukas

Use fluorescents at 8 banks, and if you want to do it yourself use digital ballasts, you can even dim the fluo's with this.Use some short of cardboard paper to hook the lights on it. Dimitrios Koukas D.o.P.

I agree here, Check Behringers small sets with parcans and dimmer packs as for a console, it will get u to 2k.Not so easy to control though so u definately need flags e.t.c. Dimitrios

Friend, If you point to the camera and get a reading, you just get the average reading of the lights, based on a surface that reflects 18% of light.(skin) It is the total light we may say that falls on your subject.This will get you out of your shoot safely. If you want to know the key/ fill ratio then u turn off the fill or block it from the photo dome, you read the f/stop , u turn the key off and u turn the fill on and u get your reading.This will give you the ratio. A reading pointing the camera with all the lights on, will give you an average light reading of all the lights.Usually I block the backlight from the dome , and also the skylight, overcast sky. It's good to know the lighting ratio of a scene, especially if you are in a weird schedule, that u have to match a scene of same sequence after three months. e.g, the actor (in real life)is on coke and he has to go in a hospital to get rid of his habits and then come back to continue... Hehe, just jokin here, but you never now. As all people do and suggest, I will suggest to you too, to do your tests, and don't rash in a production before knowing your film, your lenses, and the laboratory results. Make some film latitude tests, grey scale shootings, and see some of this projected. Like Mr. Nash said, eventually u will know it ''by eye''. Other things u see in the scene, others thru the eypiece and others the emulsion sees. For a normal observer, some things that you are shooting look much like the set is lit for a comedy, but the result is the drama u wanted in the first place. All has to do with what point of the latitude u put your exposure. I don't know what excactly do you mean by saying ''the contrast won't be so big''. Do you mean that it will be soft? normal? or hard? You can change the films contrast by only overexposing it (make it harder). With the same lighting ratio, but different f/stop.How much? It depends from the film. I hope I have been helpfull. Dimitrios

Try to now what are the colours the actor is wearing, not only the skin colour, do you have close ups and he has blue eyes? Or green eyes? Take care all the details. Dimitrios

U are saying VFX, do you want a 3d moving background? Then u need track balls or just some trackers for the guy in the post. Ask him too. Dimitrios

Use a rosco paint or similar that has excactly the colour a green or blue screen needs, keep your subject away from the background, it is a good advise. That means that you have to make your background bigger, so consider this you should talk with the production, If you are going on tungsten film, I suggest that you use tungsten lights for the backround, with some 1/4 or 1/2 C.T.B. , try to lit it even, carefull that your lights do not overlap so much , wich will give u a hot spot. Any light that u add, in the background, will overlap with another, so this will be a pain if u don't be carefull. Use flags on your lights to avoid blue colour from the gelled light to fall on your subject,in case you are doing a green screen then either add some plus green gels or some CalColour green gells. Light your subject with same temperature lights as your film, and only correct the background. One other thing that u maybe want to be aware of, is becarefull that the light form your subject falls too much on the background. Gool luck, I hope I have helped. Dimitrios

Hello Ahmed There is no problem using only the flat photodisk to do measure the light, it's just that u have to make more calculations. Flat photodisk is been used rarely by me, but sometimes when I need to match scenes or sequences that I want the same light ratio then I use it.It's been used for helping the cinematographer to be sure about his lighting ratios of a scene, by getting separate readings from the subject. U can do the same though in a dome photodisk, by covering with your palm the light that u want to exclude from the reading. (all lights are visible on the photo dome.) With the photodisk:Measure your key light and then your fill light, right down or memorise the results, Usually in a daylight scene I ll go with the fill light reading, and for night shots I will go with the key light. But that's a general rule, and depends of what u re shooting. Other wise u can just use an f or T stop, that comes excactly in between. Let's says f/5.6 when your key is 8.0 and your fill is 4.0. But this is also a general rule, cause u see i have no idea what is the subject u are filming.Also what are the lighting ratios that u want to use. Regards Dimitrios Koukas