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Express learning from the greatest, emergency..


Mendes Nabil

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Hello all! How are you?

 

 

A friend of mine directs a short next week (Sunday) and his Dp can't finally handle it, i have been called today to help and replace him.

 

I never dp projects that i don't write / direct and edit so i really do that for my friend, the problem is that i exclusively shoot under natural and practical lights and my friend needs a more "conventional" cinematography.

 

I know nothing about "three point lighting", i never used a Kino or an HMI, in clear, i'll be out of my confort zone and it's pretty scary..

 

Do you know an online resource or a book? Something written by one of the the greatest? I need an express course and i have one week only..

 

 

Ps: i'm a newbie at using conventional tools but i'm not a newbie at Cinematography, so don't hesitate to be really technical in your advices..

 

 

 

 

Here are some of my favorites Cinematographers so you can know where my sensitivity stands :

 

 

-Christopher Doyle

 

-Masanobu Takayanagi

 

-Conrad L. Hall

 

-Jordan Cronenweth

 

-Jeff Cronenweth (for fight club exclusively)

 

-Benoit Debie

 

-Emmanuel Lubewzky (during his 35mm film era)

 

-Rodrigo Prieto

 

-Larry Fong

 

-Wally Pfister

 

-Sean Bobbit

 

..

 

 

Thanks all!

Edited by Mendes Nabil
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Having a great eye, specially one that is compatible with the director is more important than knowing all the technical things about the lights. Are you going to have a gaffer? He's going to be your best friend in this situation.

 

Other than that, some free resources online would be Shane Hurlbut's online classes, there are a lot of free video classes online and you can also subscribe to his "Inner Circle" classes.

 

There are also a lot of classes on YouTube which are really helpful, Arri's channel has some full lighting workshops which are great. You can also find some other lighting classes from pass accomplished DP's that you can find online.

 

There is also a YouTube channel by Tom Antos which is really great. His videos lately have been more based on tools and new technology but in his earlier stuff on the channel he mainly focused on very extensive and detailed classes on lighting, a lot of them music videos but they give you a great starting understand of lighting.

 

Hope that helps. But again, remember, talk to the gaffer, he'll be your best friend here.

Edited by Jamison Madison
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"Film Lighting" by Malkiewicz is a good place to start, but a week isn't enough time to learn how to use movie lights, so I'd consider hiring a gaffer to plan this out for you.

 

You don't have to think conventionally -- if you want a natural look but don't have the right amount or angle of available light to shoot, then your job is really about recreating the effects of natural sources. So when you are inside a room, you should be thinking about where you wish a practical source or window light was coming from and then first find a way of adding real sources or moving the action to the sources you want to use, and then secondly, finding ways to simulate the quality of those sources... For example, using a paper lantern to simulate an overhead ceiling dome light, using a bounced light to simulate a large window or soft lampshade, etc.

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