Corey Bringas

Paper tapes for the floor and gaff/cloth for a variety of other things. With the advent of hd i use gaff far less. Also don't go out and spend hundreds on tape. Its considered an expendable and most productions will purchase it for your work. To start off buy some paper tape and a roll or 2 of gaff. After that you'll start acquiring more from productions.

Michael- Thanks for the quick reply! I forgot to add a picture of the space- http://coreybringas.com/location.JPG As you can see there are beams overhead. They are at the height of roughly 13' and about 21' apart. So the band will be spread over roughly 12-15' from drummer to lead singer back to front and roughly 12' right to left from bassist to guitarist. Do you think bounced light will be as easily controlled? I also think it will be best if the lights are rigged so we can shoot 180 degrees without seeing lamps. Also we would like the BG to fall to black.. Stop- The HVX is roughly rated @ 320 asa, with the adapter you loose roughly 2 stops and I will be shooting on super speeds (T 1.3). So roughly I'm looking for a shooting stop of T 2.8 with a rating of 320 asa ( & 180 degree shutter). I've shot with the HVX MANY times and the adapter MANY times as well, and each time I'm surprised by just how much light that dang adapter takes away! I would have the space lights with the full black skirt and some sort of diff could always be added to them if the light quality is too hard... Throw some more ideas at me! This is definitely helping.. Thanks, Corey

Hey Everyone- I'm shooting a music video in about a week and am trying to figure out my lighting setup. First I will describe the space and what we are looking to achieve. There are 3 black walls, and the band will be situated in the center of the room. There are overhead beams and I plan on rigging speed rail to add more lights. There are 4 band members. The director described the look he is looking for as "soft top light" He wants the light to fall off as it goes down their faces and create the "sunken eye sockets" type of look. The background also needs to fall to black. My initial thoughts were to create an overhead soft box of some sort, but then I thought that the over all ambient light would just wash out everything and make it too bright and too hard to control. My next thought was creating pools of light, via par cans punched through a silk. (I have a VERY VERY small budget). I have also thought of using Kinos or Image 80's for strips of light, as they will be moving. My final solution is to use 2k Space lights, hung over each band member (So 4 2k space lights total). I think this will be the easiest rigging job, no big 20x silk to hang and should provide a proper pool of light. I've never used Space lights- will this achieve my look? The last kicker is that I'm shooting HVX + mini 35. Do you think the 2k space lights will be enough light? Or should I bump up to 4k's? I appreciate your thoughts and help, and thanks for reading! -Corey

thanks for the correction on the image size. you're right in fcp its 960x720, for some reason in QT it tells me its 1248x702. Still looking into this. Yeah Michael, try the ipod thing. Its not my invention, but my friends-they shoot a lot of music vids that I am usually Ac'n for. Thats how they've always done it. You'll still need some sort of playback system- i.e. 2 or 3 speakers + a mixer. Be careful in your planning on how you will route the cables and test it before hand. That's always an issue on set. You have to go from Mini plug on the ipod to 1/4 inch on the mixer, or sometimes we've put it in a splitter so you have 2 channels. This system does work really well though. When the director tells you to start the song @ 1 min 48 sec, just spin the ipod dial! Very easy. -Corey

Hey Michael, I had to look at some files to double check, but shooting @ 720p24 is actually rendering you a 1248 X 702 image size. For most things shooting 720 will do just fine, and on most projects I work on the DP shoots 720. Saves a lot of room on your P2's. You should not -need to shoot 720p24N. just shoot 720p24. Here is how we always sync up sound. Take the song into FCP-add black for the video section and use the video filter that generates timecode. Add 5-10 seconds of countdown for the artist at the beginning of the song. Then export the video to either an Ipod or a Laptop (Ipod is easier, though smaller to read). Then while on set you actually will play the song out to speakers from either the ipod or the laptop. Use the Ipod/Laptop as your slate for wherever you start off the song. Then when editing you can easily sync it up. Let me know if you have any other questions. -Corey

Does any one have a manual for this camera? http://www.photosonics.com/actionmaster_cam.htm Thanks so much! -Corey

DO NOT use magic! EVERRR! I have seen SOO many student films go through there and they always have a bad transfer. Bad color rendition also. My professor did a one light there because of cost and because it was just for tests and the whites came back looking pink! Terrible. Some places i've gone and gotten good results: CCI Digital Laser Pacific Encore and some others I cant remember... I usually go out to HDCAM tape... Its an HD transfer out.. Never tried going directly to HD. Some places will do it and I believe it's becoming more common.

the better of the two ;-)

i agree with this also. I too was told this and have followed this rule when shooting with this camera. All worked well with this method!

I got a great visual from what you described, "dreamlike" with the white billowing curtains. What format are you shooting on? This dictates how much light you will need... From the visual described above I get the feeling that the light would be coming from the open balcony, beaconing the child to come towards the light, and eventually find his father. I'd almost suggest having little other light in the rest of the house, although one always strives to have some sort of depth in their image. If it truly is a surreal type of scene, how about having candles lit? perhaps this is a bit cliche.. I think i'd stick with my original thought. Moonlight coming through the balcony, very directional, soft lighting, beaconing the character towards it. I personally do not like over hyped blue moonlight as I feel it is not natural. Something like 1/4 ctb even would feel more natural to me then i suppose what is considered more traditional full or 3/4 ctb. I've even gone with just white light as moonlight, though this piece feels like it needs that blue. I'll think it over and see if i can think of any more suggestions... -Corey

all depends on your relationship with that particular rental house...as kevin said- if you were to some how "accidentally" schedule your shoot on a weekend where monday was a holiday, you may just et to keep the camera an extra day for free...

Do you know of any flashlights that can be plugged into a circuit and ran? I would have no problem running a power cable down the actors sleeves and hiding the cable out of frame... I've checked out this forum I found about people obsessed with modding flashlights.. They have some very viable solutions, but the shooting date is too quickly approaching and it seems they burn through batteries. Still kind of crazy what they have learned to do.

Michael- Does my solution seem valid?

Thanks for the advice guys... I was thinking of possibly using something similar to this :http://www.shipstore.com/SS/HTML/OPT/OPTGR100Y.html its a little large, but I think I can justify the use of it in an "abandoned" section of a hospital.. i'm not sure.. gonna take a home depot trip in a sec here and see what i come up with. Perhaps i can modify one of my large mag lights to use a larger bulb? any other suggestions?

Yah, I will have 2 HVX's- one running without the adapter. I suppose I'll just primarily shoot that scene with the 2nd cam. Is there a specific type of "bright flashlight" you recommend?