My (not so) recent work

Satsuki Murashige · June 16, 2007

Thanks for the comments and criticisms guys, I really appreciate it!

Jonathan, I hear you about the bounce light looking artificial. Without it though, Jose's face was pitch black. Maybe I could have bounced another light into the wall in front of him for a more even, frontal fill, at say 2 stops under? That might have looked better. There's also the issue of his baseball cap, so it was hard not to fill from some sort of low angle to get some light up into his eyes.

The background is cyan because the red light is on a dimmer for a neon light effect, so it happened to be cycling off when I grabbed the frame. The cyan light is always there, motivated by a mercury vapor streetlight outside. I couldn't actually put the HMI on the sidewalk outside on 7th St. with all the crackheads and cops free-ranging outside, so I didn't get the shadows of the window panes on the wall, which would have helped to sell the streetlight effect, I guess.

I guess I could have moved the red light for Jose's MS but the geography of the space was already set up (ie. the red light is coming from where Jeff exits), so to not have Jose be fully lit as he turns to watch Jeff leave would have looked odd to me. Maybe not though, it's hard for me to tell how far something like that can be cheated. After I post the link to the film, let me know if you still think the red light could have been cheated. :)

Yeah, I'm into low-key, hard-lit lighting right now. Believe it or not, my previous film with Paul was even more low-key so I'm actually getting better at filling the shadows!

Michael, those LED lights are great. If you can get them cheaply in a 3200k color temp, they could be very useful. I didn't really care that they were bluish for this project, but it's not always an appropriate look of course. I initally got mine as an AC tool -- the light's bottom has a magnet, so you can stick it to certain parts of the camera and use it as a lens light. Then I thought, a mini-Flo/micro-Flo is really expensive to rent ... wonder what I can do with these little $5 lamps? :P

About the elevator lighting, what about the harsh toplight do you find potentially annoying? Too unnatural looking? Paul and I were going for a impressionistic (or is it expressionistic?) look throughout the whole film, so it's full of saturated unnatural colors, extreme contrast, halated highlights, etc. I understand that this could be too much for some people though. I felt the same way about the constant "fly's POV" camera movement in "Irreversible", another heavily stylized film.

Same with the green light in the car. We never see the source, but I motivated it as a mercury vapor security light, the kind you see on the side of some institutional buildings.

About Spielberg, if he starts with his "easiest shot", it's still got to be more complex staging-wise than almost everyone else's easiest shot! I just watched "Munich" and the two shots that blew me away were the "tracking with the reflection in the car hood" shot and the "multiple rack focus shot" from the backseat of the car. Does anyone have any specific info for either of these, how they were done, how long they took to setup, etc.?

Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful comments, and please keep them coming! :)

Matthew Buick · June 16, 2007

Wonderful wonderful work. I feel I understand lighting a good deal more just for reading those posts. I also plan to make about 12 Kleenex lights. :)

Fantastic. ;)

Jonathan Bowerbank · June 17, 2007

Jonathan, I hear you about the bounce light looking artificial. Without it though, Jose's face was pitch black. Maybe I could have bounced another light into the wall in front of him for a more even, frontal fill, at say 2 stops under? That might have looked better. There's also the issue of his baseball cap, so it was hard not to fill from some sort of low angle to get some light up into his eyes.

It seems between the hot toplight, red backlight (possible kicker) and the cyan background that you really didn't need to light his face too much. Keeping it around 2 stops under using some bounce might have worked, but I think with the other 3 elements going on, you had enough to make a nice silhouetted image to up the intensity of this mysterious perhaps unknown person attacking the man in the elevator...if that was indeed part of the story, ha ha

I look forward to seeing the cut! :)

Satsuki Murashige · June 17, 2007

Wonderful wonderful work. I feel I understand lighting a good deal more just for reading those posts. I also plan to make about 12 Kleenex lights. :)

Fantastic. ;)

What, no future ASC membership for me, Matthew? You've been doling them out so freely of late, I thought I might get one, too. :P Hope the Kleenex lights help you out on "Magic Mushroom."

Hi Jonathan,

I could have gone with a silhouette of course, but you know these picky producer types -- "We need to see the eyes." I'd love to pull a Gordon Willis on 'em but I can't get away with that yet! :lol:

Chris Keth · June 17, 2007

What, no future ASC membership for me, Matthew? You've been doling them out so freely of late, I thought I might get one, too. :P Hope the Kleenex lights help you out on "Magic Mushroom."

Hi Jonathan,

I could have gone with a silhouette of course, but you know these picky producer types -- "We need to see the eyes." I'd love to pull a Gordon Willis on 'em but I can't get away with that yet! :lol:

Do it anyway. I did just that on a short last year and the director/producer was pissed at me for about a month until he finished a cut and then, sheepishly, told me I did the right thing and thanked me. ;)

Matthew Buick · June 17, 2007

What, no future ASC membership for me, Matthew? You've been doling them out so freely of late, I thought I might get one, too. :P Hope the Kleenex lights help you out on "Magic Mushroom."

SLAP!

How could I forget. Seriously, I would bet money on you being president within 15 years. :)

Pff, Magic Mushroom. I wouldn't even disgrace Ektachrome 160 Type G with a title like that.

It's 'Sacred Mushroom'. I'm going to try and cultivate a breed of hallucinagenic mushroom sacred to tribes in the Amazonian Rainforest (if it's legal, if not Button Mushrooms will do :D) and eat it afterwards.

Smooth!

Kieran Scannell · June 18, 2007

Satsuki,

It's all been said, but i loved the look and everyone here would have done it a little differently i would imagine, but just the variety of lighting in

your shots show your skill, loved it! Post the finished product I'd love to see it.

I've also copied your c-stand drawings, really good!

Kieran.