Search Results for 'no'

[James Parsons]

Not to speak for the DP, of course, but I find that questions like this are just as effectively answered by asking yourself, what effect do those different perspectives have on you, the audience? Do you react differently to each of those shots, and if so, can you pin your reaction down to the framing alone or are you combining input from the frame and the story beat and the performances and the background and etc.?

Authorial intention is dead! Long live the New Criticism! 😉

For me, assuming I’m not restricted by a tight location, I’m mostly influenced by how focused I want the audience to be on the principal actor’s face vs how much I want to emphasize body language and allow enough of the OTS character’s reactions.

[sanghamithran]

Hi master Deakins,

here in one of the behind the scenes in no country, the monitor shows more of a square image with guideline for 2.35 aspect ratio for the final film.

Is it not distracting to see the full frame for you when framing for wide screen aspect ratios or is it how you prefer doing, was it not better to black out the top and bottom of the frame if the final is 2.35.

Thank you .

 

[Davinki]

So I was reading about the cinematography of a complete unknown, shot by Phedon Papamichael and he discussed using higher ISO levels to get deep depth of field while shooting at night with custom panavision anamorphics and while hearing about that I remembered another film shot on anamorphic taking place in New York. Manhattan, shot by Gordon Willis. In an interview he talked about how depending on what you were shooting, you’d still have a shallow depth of field no matter what (and this was on 35mm film, let alone the full frame that a complete unknown was shot in). I know you’re not a big anamorphic guy anyways but what are your thoughts on the idea of shooting for deep depth in the anamorphic format?

[Jenko2049]

Dear Mr. Deakins,

Denis Villeneuve is the perfect director to bring Miyamoto Musashi’s legendary story to life. His signature slow-burn intensity, breathtaking cinematography, and deep philosophical themes would make for an unforgettable Samurai epic.

Why now (or soon)?

• Musashi’s story has never been truly brought to Hollywood in a major film.
• Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel „Musashi“ is one of the most celebrated historical books in Japan.
• Hollywood is bringing back grand historical epics (Gladiator 2, Nolan’s „The Odyssey“).
• Villeneuve is already a master of visually stunning and deeply philosophical cinema (Dune, Blade Runner 2049).

Would Denis be the right director for this? I think yes! What do you think, Mr. Deakins? Any chance you could pitch that idea to Denis or discuss it with the right guests in your podcast?

P.S. I hope I was able to spark a fire inside of you for that idea!

[RoberttorresDP]

Hello Roger and forum members!

I was wondering if anyone knows the effect of clustering 1200Ds, or similar sources, to create one large point source light without multiple shadows.

We are shooting on the second floor of an old barn, that has slats where light can punch through, ideally we want rays of light shining through as the sun and haze illuminating the rays as a backlight to the talent.

Ideally I would put a 12k or 18k tungsten fresnel outside of the space on a condor.  However due to budget constraints I don’t believe this would be possible.  The main problem is that we are shooting on the second floor of a barn, so without a condor any light would have to go on top of a matthews mambo combo at 24 feet, which would have to be a much smaller light than a 12k, physically.  Unfortunately a long john stand will be slightly too short and would end up too head-on.

Thus, I was thinking a lighter light such as a 1200D would work on the mambo stand.  However, that light would not be bright enough.  So, I was thinking of clustering 3 or 4 of them together to create one large point source, but I am worried about having multiple shadows in the barn.

Do you think clustering these lights would lead to multiple shadows, or is there maybe a different solution here?

Best,

Robert

[Max A.]

Hello Benja and Mr. Deakins, I wonder If I can ask you some other questions about this shot.

Specifically, I would like to ask you if these kinds of shots (like glass reflections) are something storyboarded in pre-production or something that comes from you (or maybe from Sam Mendes on this movie) on the day during the shooting of a scene.

In my poor experience, I’m a very meticulous guy about pre-production and shot-list but on set sometimes things call my attention in framing so with the script “in mind” I let some inspiration come to life and present those to the director.
I write this because this kind of shot, since you don’t light it with an artificial point source, is something that I think has to be planned to have the sun in that specific position to create this kind of quality in her face but also in the building behind.
Even if I think it is a noon light, this is something that (if storyboarded and planned) has a little window of time to set up and shoot, considering also the other shots of the scene (since it is not a single shot like part of a montage but the end of a previous scene), so in a quite big set with great actors, etc. this can sound “scary” for a cinematographer to miss the moment.

I apologize for my bad English. I wish you a nice day.
Max.

[gx42]

That’s great to know!

[mskb]

I was wondering if we could have a turning the tables episode with Team Deakins, by our own David Mullen ( @dmullenasc ) ? 🙂

Thank you for this awesome movie and podcast, Team Deakins, and thanks to David Mullen for his educational commentary and knowledge sharing.

 

 

[gabj3]

Not Roger. Colour correction is ultimately just digital signal processing, which eventually is just a ton of discrete arithmetic transforms on your image (pixel values).

Both operate with 32-bit floating point precision, so the decider is likely the preferred user interface and the post workflow.

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Gabriel Devereux - Engineer

[markycohen]

This was a morning hallway shot for a short film I made a few years ago. I believe I had a light bounced off a wall in the small room to the right of the actor, and a light pushed through a small diffusion to camera left (probably flagged off on the sides to make it more window-shaped).

In general with hallways I’ve found lighting through side doors helps me get things looking right. I don’t know what I’m doing though: I probably I lit this with either incandescent clamp lights, home depot led shop lights or some ungodly combination of both! Roger knows best.

[rama lingam]

Yeah it’s not cost effective idea. I am worrying about how to convey long time passage in this door time lapse.

[Roger Deakins]

I am usually informed when a film is going to be remastered. Is it a good thing? Most definitely. Some of the original scans are very poor quality, besides which, there is nowadays a greater technical ability to match the image to the original intent.

[Roger Deakins]

I was a great admirer of Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. I didn’t ever meet Coquillion as I was only just entering film school when Straw Dogs was being filmed. I remember all the gossip from that set as it was in the daily papers. Straw Dogs, for me, is Peckinpah’s worst film. That and Cross of Iron. I did get to know Dan Melnick quite well by the time I had shot two of his films.

[lukas_hyrman]

Also not Roger. But I did shoot a 70’s disco short and I had a similar idea. I used a similarly large soft source off to the side of the dancefloor but just for a little bit of fill light to pop the central characters, and I’m not sure I needed it honestly. You have to be aware that you are lighting a big area, so even an 8×8 is going to feel sourcy and the falloff will be noticeable. The things that I found handy shooting this scenario were when in close ups diffusion frames on those pars to soften them, and my own RGB panel to augment the pars from the floor.
Good luck it is a tricky scenario

[Stip]

Not Roger but one thing to consider is that different colors of light can be more or less flattering on skin/subjects. Red light e.g. is very flattering (hence ‘red light districts’). So maybe a good idea is to start by choosing appropriate colours/gels for the par cans and go from there.