Tom Banks

Very good stuff in there! So to be picky here is my criticism: - there's a lot stronger rap material that happens later in the reel, I would rather see only this and take out some of the rap material at the begining - I guess that above comment applies to the whole reel in general. 5 minutes bordered on too long, I found myself wanting to fast forward at about 3:30. I think you could move some of your flashier stuff to the beginning to give it a stronger start. From what I've experienced I'm much more impressed by what I see in the first 30 seconds and make my impression then, which is hard to turn around 5 minutes into the reel. And don't get me wrong, the reel looks great. Maybe just shortening each piece will help... I know its hard to eliminate good footage! Anyways hopefully those minor comments helped. I'll be happy to PM you with more specifics if you'd like.

The most organized I've seen is the milkcrate method with individual cardboard tubes cut to about 3 or 4 inches high in which each rolled up gel would fit into. That way you don't have to c47 each roll and if your crate isn't full they won't all fall over. I haven't tried this yet... I just end up reorganizing my gel before each shoot. It keeps me up to date on inventory too

I would recommend just having a grip walk holding a china ball just above camera. It will give you the soft look you need and it should give enough light to adequately key her. As for the changing color, I guess you could gel your china ball. My only other thoughts if you want the light to change color in shot is look into the LED stage lights. They are more directional units that would probably have to be mounted somehow. But they basically mix primary colors to any color you'd like. They also require to be controlled via DMX so it could add to the complication of the setup slightly.

Looks great! Seems like you hit the nail on the head with the soft glamour look you were aiming for in the apartment shots. HVX+35s look great too! Looking forward to seeing the complete video.

I did a large amount of car chase scenes over the summer for a feature I shot. This was the first time I had done anything like this or worked with a stunt team. I guess our resources were slightly larger than what you'll have available but perhaps I can offer some more ideas or perhaps a workflow to come up with your own sequence that works. In my situation we had stunt drivers, the town police, and a few sections of downtown that we had the option to block off. But due to our shooting schedule we were still under huge constraints to shoot an impressive car chase. Like others have mentioned above, your biggest learning tool is to watch and break down previous car chases. Take note to specific shots and how they are cut. The philosophy I used when going into shooting and coming up with shots is figuring out first the most complex shots that will sell the chase. For example, the shots where two cars narrowly miss each other in the same frame (stunt drivers obviously!). Then with the money shots in place we shot an ample amount of "filler" to cut to, these shots were actually the meat of the sequences. While we still used stunt drivers, they were less complicated to the extent that there wasn't any complicated choreography. We rigged our two cameras onto our stunt cars. One sat right infront of the bumper of the picture car (so it was out of view), and the other sat atop the hood of the camera car. So in effect we got a POV of the car being chased, as well as a shot of the car from behind. Along with these shots we also shot the cars rounding corners. If you watch Bullitt you'll notice this makes up a large portion of the film. The good thing about these shots is that it involves fairly simple choreography. The primary safety concern is making sure your driver is experienced and that you have traffic control. Combine all these shots with some reactions of the driver and you've got a fairly decent car chase scene! In your situation I would seek out low-traffic areas, check with the city to see if they allow intermediate traffic control, and see if you can't plot out a car chase that make makes sense with your location. oh, and I shot undercranked most of the time, usually 18fps but sometimes lower.

Following KG?s shots wee did two performance setups that were great fun to light. The first took place on the grand staircase. Just about the same units were used (5k key w/ backlight and fill) and about the same color scheme. The beauty of this shot was the mural and wall sconces on the wall behind the artist. I especially wanted to vignette this setup in camera as much as possible so I flagged everything off the outside of the staircase and spotted in special illuminating the mural. Here's an uncorrected framegrab Going in for a CU The next performance I was most apprehensive about, but it also came out better than I expected. The setup consisted of Keaton standing in the front row looking up at the screen, with the camera facing towards the audience. In a lot of references of theater shots, there was always a soft, cool, low key look (which is completely appropriate). But this style was a little against what we were going for in the other setups. I decided since this was a music video I had the freedom to go a little warmer and less motivated in order to keep this visual scheme in sync with the rest of the video. We used the 1k Arc light gelled with 1/2 CTO shooting just above the performers head. Then my crew had the genious idea of just using that light off an 8by bounce to illuminate the artist. Originally I was planning on a 5k off the bounce, but the arc light provided the perfect source. To warm up the bounce a little more we shot it with 2 1k lekos which were already staged in the balcony for a following shot. We used the 380w cans gelled with some sort of red to compliment the practical lights that were on the back wall of the theater and then 2 2k's on either side to illuminate the seats. While I didn't want the projector beam to backlight Keaton I wanted to compliment it with something, so we brought in 2 1ks gelled with 250 and CTS (if I remember correctly) which also helped to warm it up. We also shot 2 1k cans with double Bastard Amber up at some practicals on the ceiling to supplement their light and warm up the frame. Finally with some haze to catch the projector beam this setup came out better than I had anticipated. For the shot, we had a guy dance his fingers in front of the arc light to simulate an actual projector. The shot setting up An uncorrected framegrab A rough composite of the theater The final setup took quite a bit longer to perfect. First off I started keying with the 2k chimera and 10 minutes in realized it just wasn't enough punch to do the job (the HVX with PS Technik is only rated at 80asa!) So I brought in the 5k w/ dif., used the 2k as fill and started working on flagging off reflections and keeping that center focused vingetted look. We were shooting from the orchestra pit which provided for some nice visuals as we dollied past the ornate lip of the stage. We came up with this performance setup when we were doing the tech scout, which just goes to show how you can make the most out of your location. And a martini shot we figured we'd get just for the hell of it while the crew was loading up. We got it just around dusk with a little light left in the sky. The neon lights and tungsten bulbs underneath really sold the shot. Needless to say my job was made very simple ;) Well that about wraps it up. We wrapped out of our location an hour early! thanks to a great crew!!! I'm looking forward to hearing any thoughts or questions anyone has regarding the shots or setups. Thanks for reading! Tom

Day 2 Day 2 was also a lot of fun as the location was great and made my job a lot easier. Here we would be shooting the shots with KG, 3 performance shots with Keaton, some b-roll of the theater, and all the plates that our greenscreen required. We had an ambitious day but I talked in detail with my gaffer Chris Pritzlaff and Best Boy Adam Richman about the schedule and keeping everything moving. We routed power to accommodate every setup around the theater without any rewiring. That way the crew could be pre-rigging some of the larger setups wile others were shooting. I had done 2 tech scouts of the location so I had a good idea of what to expect from the location. The tech scouts also helped me get a better visualization of what I wanted which I always find is key to getting the most out of your setups. The morning started off with KG. We had a few shots of him opening and closing the theater doors, then some b-roll of him rockin out with his broom. I didn?t have as good of an idea what I was going to do here but I kept it warm with Bastard Amber on his key (5k through 4by4 diffusion), 1k ¾ backlight with Straw, then just filled in the space with the 2k Chimera and another 2k bouncing off a wall. In the nook with the double doors was a 650 with Bastard Amber shooting up into the ceiling. I also had the camera on a 4ft. slider plate which came in very beneficial to keep the camera moving when we didn't have the time or planning to set up a short dolly shot. Here's an uncorrected framegrab Then we moved to the other side of the double doors to get the shots of KG locking up, then opening up to discover whats going on inside. The main difficulty I had on this shot and others in this location was minimizing reflection of the units on surfaces. This shot specifically there were major hot spots on the doors reflecting KG's backlights. In other shots the walls and surfaces had a semi-glossy paint that gave way to reflection whenever we used any larger units or diffusion. Again on this setup we utilized the camera slider to get a quick push in or out on KG.

Day 1 was spent onstage at Video Pro Matrix in Orange County. For the first part of the day, we shot Tom and Ivana act out the diegetic movie against a black drop. Technically this was fairly simple. I just kept hard light on Tom, about ¾ front and ¾ overhead to give him an ominous look with some deep eye sockets. I stuck a 650 directly under camera, since during some rehearsals we discovered he liked to get very close to the camera! Not only did it keep him in the light but gave him another style of ominous lighting that the director had wanted to get in another setup. I lit Ivana with a 2k chimera and kept it fairly frontal and gave her a soft side light. These shots will be corrected to B&W. Director Joe Dietsch! As you can see this part of the day was a lot of fun! The second half of the day was all greenscreen. For this we had already pre-rigged the spacelights. I was surprised at how effectively the spacelights worked. I had never done any large greenscreen setups so I wasn?t sure how much work I?d have to do to get an even spread. But my gaffer Chris and the crew got it down to only about a half stop difference which I wasn?t worried about. The director and I were both aware of how much we could key out and to what level of variation we could have on the shadows, etc? I walked in a 2k to give a little front light to the subjects. The hardest part about these setups is what we were shooting had to match up with plates. We were very careful to notate the focal length, focal distance, and lens height of each setup, which would be matched the following day when shooting plates on location. Otherwise I always find that greenscreen can get very monotonous and unrewarding. It?s important not to get restless. Although what?s in front of the camera might not have changed much, it?ll come back to bite you in the ass in post if you aren?t completely attentive on set! This setup was for the plates of the dancers dancing around KG in the lobby. In post the bodies will be taken out and the backs of the clothes will be painted in where they would've been to create the hollow effect. The solids in this shot were used to block out any green reflection on the drums. It wasn't completely effective but it helped quite a bit. The effect of this shot is for the gloves and hat to be playing the drums without a body (hence the greenscreen suit)

Keaton Simons ?Nobody Knows? This was the fifth music video I have done with director Joe Dietsch. We had been in talks for several months about doing a video for Keaton Simons, jumping between several songs in the process. The final concept became a blend of several ideas brought together via circumstance, location, and access to talent. The video takes place in a 1920?s movie palace where the artist comes alive from a pile of clothes lying on the stage. As he gets off the stage an old B&W film starts up that slightly interacts with the artist as he performs below in the audience. All the while a janitor cleans in the lobby, oblivious to what?s going on around him or in the theater. During the performance setups and the janitor?s shots, clothes dance on invisible bodies through the frame and around the characters. The latter was a major selling point for the video, bordering on what you could call a gimmick to keep the audience?s attention. This video was especially exciting as it was our first for CBS Records and Union Entertainment Group and is hopefully the beginning of a good working relationship. Also through some connections via the artist, we had a good deal of cameos come into play. For the film that would play on screen in the theater, we landed Tom Green and Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale, Witless Protection). And to play the part of the janitor we had Kyle Gass (KG of Tenacious D). Both Tom and KG I have always been a fan of! We decided to shoot on the HVX with the PS Technik 35mm adapter. I have used this system several times and found it would give us the best picture per price and allow us to keep up with a heavy shooting schedule. I ended up going with the Zeiss Super Speeds since I new the adapter was going to be sucking a lot of light and we were already maxing out our electric budget in a fairly dark location. We rented all camera and support through Indie Rentals. I had a fine experience with them in the past on an out of town feature, but this time I was not happy with the service I was given. Without going into too much detail, there were a few pieces of equipment that were not exactly in working order in which I had to fight to get fixed during prep, and the attitudes towards their customers were very lax. We got our G&E Package from Acey Decy. I have used them several times and I have always had good experiences. We got their 2-ton grip truck for a very reasonable rate, which includes just about anything you?ll ever need on a midrange-budget shoot. Our electric package consisted of almost all tungsten units: 4 6k spacelights, 1 5k, 2 2k?s, 2 1k?s, 2 650?s, 2 300?s, 2 Lekos (10, 19, and 36 degree lenses per each), 2 800w par cans, 8 380w par cans (compliments of my gaffer Chris Pritzlaff). For the projector beam gag we added on a 1k Arc Light. Our geni came from TKO Generators (.com) which I would highly recommend if you?re down in Orange County area. For the video, I wanted to maintain a golden look with deep reds and oranges that complimented the theater?s architecture and color palette. I primarily used Bastard Amber and varying levels of CTO. Occasionally I would use some Straw as a backlight or a less prominent playing light. I referenced some of the previous Coca Cola contest films, as many times they take place in movie theaters and maintain that color pallet. But otherwise, the director and I had a pretty clear idea of how we wanted it to look based on the location.

I just saw the film and really enjoyed it! The New York Times review was pretty harsh so I was prepared for the worst, but I was happily surprised and entertained. At times I found myself wanting to get out of the first person POV camera and into a more conventional filming style, but those moments didn't last long. I agree with Christian in that I could take more of this shaking camera than the Bourne or 24 style filming. There's also a very interesting use of color in the film. There are several instances when color is completely opposite of what would be natural, for instance I believe in the subway station the fluorescent tubes are of some metallic orange color. I really liked the use of light towards the end of the film, I dont' want to spoil anything but for those of you who've seen it I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I was also curious, and maybe someone on here knows, about what camera they were shooting on and how the operator(s) worked with the actor who was supposed to be holding the camera. There was a degree of operating and zooming that went beyond belief as a DP, although I'm sure the majority of the audience was unbothered. The effects were also completely seamless which is one of its selling points, but they really did a good job with it. Anyone know how they went about the process? I know that the street scenes were filmed on location but there were a few scenes here and there that made me wonder if they had done it in a studio just because the actors were completely surrounded by effects.

There's a great Q&A with Roger Deakins in the October issue of the ASC Mag. There's one bit I specifically remember that touches on what Michael was talking about, having to do with placing lights as practicals and/or suplimenting them. On Jesse James theres a scene in which Jesse stands on the tracks waiting for an oncoming train. The only two sources in this scene were an 5k Par mounted on the front of the train and some lanterns using 300w bulbs. With some atmosphere added, it created a minimal, but very realistic take on the scene. As far as No Country, I was fascinated in how Deakins created the morning glow on the horizon by shooting 8 18k's to light up the dust in the air behind the trucks parked on the hill. Despite the Muscos this scene struck me as being completely realistic and I think it really helps the viewer become part of the action when they can visually relate to a scene. I'm sure most of us know what it feels like to be in the middle of the outdoors at night with just a flash light.

John, (I think) You're going to need to get your back light at least a stop over your key for it to really play, especially if its mimicking the sun. If you're working with a 6 light Maxi Brute and 1.2k HMI you might be able to do a few things. The number one thing to think about is that if your character is out of sunlight, is in what direction is your motivation coming from and of what quality of light (direct, soft, warm, etc.). This is something that usually is determined once your on set and see what your working with, but you will probably find yourself with several options. As for using your 6-light, 1/2 CTB would be nice. If you're shooting daylight film then it would render the tungsten source as a nice, warm source much like the sun an hour before sundown. But you might not get enough power out of your 6-light to make a strong enough back light. One setup you could think about doing is shooting your 1.2k as a back (or 3/4 side) light and bouncing that back to wrap around the subject, you might want to have some 1/4 or 1/2 CTO handy to try out. Then come around with your 6-light on the opposing side with either full or 3/4 CTB and shoot it through a frame of dif., that will give you a soft fill thats a little cooler. Anyways these are just ideas. I'm sure you'll see whats right once you're on set and you can dance your lights around. PS - shooting in Rio sounds like a dream! I've always wanted to travel down there.

I especially like Chris Soos's work on Glosoli. I read an interview sometime back where he explained some of the making of. Apparently they shot with just a bare bones camera crew in Iceland for a few days with local kids playing the parts. Soos shot 35mm with just two anamorphics and a few filters. It's a wonderful music video that shows you don't need a bunch of fancy camera gimmicks to keep the audience entertained. Not once did Soos move the camera in Glosoli. The framing and use of Grad filters work together to create some really beautiful landscapes. Anyone else have any information about this video?

So I've just wrapped the first weekend of production on a Chapman thesis film titled "Ridiculously Emo" As you might gather, its a pretty ridiculous dialogue driven comedy about a group of high school graduates in an emo band. For those of you who don't know what "emo" is, the pictures below will probably explain the small and silly subculture of "emo". Anyways, as the story goes, the protagonist develops a love interest, becomes distracted with his new girlfriend, misses a band practice, and the band kicks him out. Its dialogue driven in the sense that Superbad or 40 Year Old Virgin is. But some of the themes of the film go back to the style of the late 90's teen comedies (Can't Hardly Wait, 10 Things I Hate About You). So as ridiculous as I felt checking some of these titles out at Blockbuster, the director and I referenced them to gauge where we wanted to go with our project. We shot on Kodak's 7218 with the school's Arri SR2 and Zeiss Superspeeds. We rated the stock one stop over to pull down a finer grain structure. I tend to shoot typically wide open with the lens (coming from a video background) but this time I didn't hesitate to aim for closing down the lens a little more. We were able to maintain an f4 for the entirety of the shoot. I think this was a good decision, as the context of the film allows for a deeper focus, and hopefully the lens will perform better at an f4. The first weekend consisted completely of shooting in the garage where the band practices, a total of 10 pages. Initially I wasn't quite sure the style of light I wanted to go for. As this is where they practice, and although we never actually see them play, I was split between going for an emo-looking music video (more stylistic, top light, deep shadows) or the traditional comedy look. When we finally got on set I decided to do away with any top motivation and keep all the light soft and warm. Here's a rough frame of one of our setups taken from a D20 We started out the weekend keying with a 2k Fresnel shot through a 4x4 of Medium Gridcloth with Bastard Amber (Lee #162) gel to warm it up. I've found I really like this gel to use when mimicking tungsten sources. Clean tungsten comes out a little to sterile looking and CTO isn't quite complementary on skin tones. On even more candle-lit or warm scenes I've found doubling it works very nicely. We kept the Bastard Amber and 4by grid cloth for the entirety of the weekend, keeping it as our key and filling with various sources depending on the scene. For the band setup scene, I added the rope lights in the background to provide some motivation and it found it also allowed for a nice back-light to separate the actors and make their performing space seem a little more stage-like. I will provide more details and diagrams once the film is over, also some frame grabs once the dailies come back.

So I read over the post again and if I understand correctly, you want to film this late afternoon look during the morning and shoot matching CU's when the sun comes overhead... But you'll have to figure out exactly what your location can provide and how you want the light to fall on your subjects. Are you seeing them in complete shade or is the sun hitting their faces. I can see how shiny boards would be tough not knowing exactly what your location's going to throw at you... But if you're going to do CU's that appear like dawn you're realistically not going to have much directional light. You'll have to be careful of whats behind your subject in frame and make sure it matches exposure from your dawn shots. I would try to frame your CU's against shaded areas, maybe letting a little sunlight slip into the corner of your frame to provide some motivation for a nice soft side or back light. Depending on how big of a light you can get, I wouldn't recommend bouncing. You're going to use a lot of light that way. You'd need something like a 4k to give you a nice strong back light that you could bounce back onto the subject's face, either with a bounce or shiny through dif. But if you're only working with a 575 you'll have to keep your shots tighter so you can bring your light in closer. As for color, something like 1/2 CTO will warm up your unit enough to look a setting sun. If you're going for late afternoon you might try 1/4 CTO. CTO mixed with the coolness of the shadows will probably sell the late afternoon look. You aught to find some frames to post that show what you're going for.

If its at all possible, I would go with a shiny board through a 4x4 frame of diffusion.

Hey John, As for critique, there's not too much I can give. It has a very professional look to it, when I first saw it I couldn't believe it was a student project. Camera movements are great, I loved the shot with the blue pulse of light in the background (reminded me of West Side Story). Like Walter mentioned, the camera movement does a great job complimenting the dance moves. I'm taking a class in musicals and we just finished looking at some Bollywood clips so its interesting to watch this with that in mind. The only part I would offer critique on are the outdoor shots. I like the back-lit scheme but I would've liked to see a little more light thrown on the subject. Keeping in tune with the stage-like traditions can allow for more over-lit high key looks. But part of what works in the look you've created is that it's not your typical high key unmotivated look, but more of finessed natural light. I'd love to hear some of your technical specs, as well as anything interesting that happened on set. Its always good to hear what you were dealing with and how you actually made things work. Especially in student projects there's a lot of drama that goes on before the camera rolls.

Looks great! What did you do on it? Is this a thesis?

So I ended up using Google SketchUp. I read about the guys from "300" using it to previs some of their sets. I made this from memory and a few stills in about two hours. Its for an 8 min. steadicam shot that travels from outside, to inside and around the house. Its great to place figures, do 3d views, as well as some nice looking overhead diagrams to mark on.

Here's some information I got from Mike: "The project is humangas; INT./EXT, day, night, intersections, freeway, cars, many sets and big cast. I?m looking for help from people that what to work with me to bring back the old Hollywood. Full- Length Feature Film, 110-minutes, for theatrical release. Action ? Adventure ? With Comic Highlights. Shooting Schedule (timeframe): 36 days. Locations: Southern California ? Los Angeles, Malibu and Beverly Hills. ? Production: HD, 35mm photographic lenses, transfer on 35mm film. Script available: MGIF?s property. Sound truck available: MGIF?s properity. MGIF has all the production equipment, todo and it's brand new, no rentals needed. The story was review by: Mr. Ed Asner, Martin Landou, Charles Durning, ? ?very good story.? At the same time I?m working with Navajo Nation (Navajo Indians from Arizona and New Mexico) to get in production a major Western film."

Hah I smiled when I read "Entertanium". A friend and I stumbled upon this interesting place while scouting studio spaces in the warehouse district. At the time there was a zombie movie shooting outside the rather distinctive building (something along the lines of "Bloodsucking Zombies from Da Hood?). We decided to check out the studio and we were taken on a rather thorough tour of Entertanium. They were very nice and they had some good sets here in there. But halfway into the tour their purpose became very clear as we passed along a green, padded room named the "alien room". Suddenly the locker room, jail cell, and night club sets all became clear... We did a google search when we got home just to make sure ;) Anyways these guys were very nice and eager to help. But check into them for yourself. As far as ideas for locations, thats a tough one. You might have your best luck contacting people who do not normally get contacted about these things and are therefor less accustomed to higher rates. I'm sure its safe to say the farther outside of LA you look, the cheaper your locations become. The only other idea I have (and I'm not sure if its the best idea or not) is to look on Craigslist or something of that nature for houses or lofts either for rent or sale by individuals. They might be willing to spare a day to make a good chunk of change, and hopefully their place is still furnished! Good luck and I'm interested to hear how it goes.

Hey Alexander, That was all done in post. Originally for the forest scenes we wanted to go day for night, but realized on set that we actually liked the sunlight coming through the trees and the orange-ish grading the 85 filter was giving us. We added the rays, some orange grad to the top of the frame, and some particles floating in the air. I sat in while the effects were being tweaked to offer my two cents as for where the light rays were coming from and their strength.

This summer I got a hell of an opportunity to shoot my first feature, an accomplishment that happened sooner than I expected in my career. The production was a low-mid range budget action feature shooting around the outskirts of New Orleans. Ironically, I had my first job with the director as an intern when I was 15 and since then I've slowly made my way up the ladder. Sometimes internships do pay off! The director and film crew had come from a background of very run and gun shooting. This was the directors first feature with these specific producers where he was not DPing as well. That being said, the producers flip-flopped a few times during the month previous to production as to if they could afford to bring me out. Finally I got a solid confirmation and a plane ticket 2 days before our first tech scout, so I hopped on a plane out to Louisiana and read the script for the first time along the way. When I got into New Orleans I was surprised and excited to hear that Kris Kristofferson would be costarring in the film (playing a detective partner). Also featured in the film was DMX (fairly well known in the rap community). What was unfortunate was how long the production scheduled for the talent. Kris was only on set for 3 days! And his scenes amounted to probably over 35 pages!!! And although a smaller role, DMX was only on for 2 days. And he is notoriously known for not coming out of his trailer or walking off sets whenever he feels. He's even walked off the set of his own music video... Needless to say this was going to be a very demanding production. All together, we had a total of 15 days to shoot a 90 page action film. We had about five days of pre-production which was basically myself and the director in New Orleans spending our days going over the script, mapping out overheads, watching some references. The director wanted things along the look of Bad Boys, Swordfish, Gone in 60 Seconds. This was the first action film I've shot so these references helped a great deal letting us know what kind of coverage we could get away with for the action sequences. While we didn't have time map out a full shot list, we were able to wrap our heads around the larger action scenes. The script included extensive car chases with car to car shoot outs, a scene of a car flipping over and sliding down main street, several explosions, and not a lot of time to shoot! Our first day of production was possibly the most stressful day I've ever had on set. Not only did the producers schedule Kris Kristofferson's scenes to be shot the first 3 days, but we were also dealing with a major car explosion. Halfway through the day (after we had been postponed about 30 min. for rain) some of the remaining scenes started to be rescheduled. We decided just to get the explosion scene off before we gambled off to much more for our daylight. Unfortunately it took us until just after sundown to get the final explosion shot off just, when there was just a little bit of light left in the sky. As days went on our work flow definitely smoothened out. Kris's days were definitely the toughest. I believe most of those days were 16 hrs. But we were still doing anywhere from 8-12 pgs a day and at least 12 hr days. As far as the technical specs go, we shot on 2 HVX200's with the P+S Technik 35 adapter. To save money the producers opted to go with only one set of primes (12, 24,50, 85, and 285) so occasionally we were slowed down when shooting reversals. My gaffer was a great guy named Phil Beard (Sex, Lies, and Videotape) out of Baton Rouge who came with his own 5ton and geni. We had a good amount of Kinos and smaller tungsten units. As for our HMI's, our biggest was a 4k, then we had a 2.5, 1.2, and a joker. This was my first time working with lights of that size, but I did enough research (thanks to the forum!) that I felt comfortable when it was time to pull them out. I'll post some frame grabs once I have them and then perhaps talk about. But for now without further adieu, here's the trailer. (There's definitely some major color correction that needs to go on here) http://spotlight-pictures.com/lordstrailer.htm I'm curious to hear some responses.

Are you looking to place the camera inside the car, looking over the shoulder(s) of the driver or passenger and out the front windshield? Or are you looking to get a clean shot of the road? Depending on which camera you use and what shot you are really looking for there are several options. It might be reasonable to put an operator in the back seat and have the talent (or a double) drive the car without a process trailer. Or if you going for a basic car POV shot, a hood mount would do just fine.

I'm wondering if anyone uses any software during the pre phase for mapping out overheads, placing characters and camera angles? It is something I could do on photoshop, but there's got to be a simple program where you can add in furniture, mock people, cars, etc... to use as references when doing overheads. Anyone?