Search Results for 'no'

[aemon123]

Hey all,

First time posting here so forgive me if I missed some of the forum etiquette. I’m currently in pre for a short and I’m looking for guidance on picking the right flashlight for a particular scene. It’s a night exterior in a forest, where the character will primarily be light by a practical flashlight (some shots will be silhouetted, some are the bare bulb shining onto his face.)

I was having a look at some references, and I came across PRISONERS– the scene where Paul Dano is lit by a police officer’s flashlight in front of the RV. It got me wondering how you guys go about picking the right flashlight for your films. It seems like the one in this scene is around 6500K.

Obviously getting the right white balance and spot/flood is important, but do you also try and find a high-CRI light for these types of shots? Is that crucially important for these? Are there specific brands that you gravitate towards? What kind of output are you typically looking for?

Due to the limited budget, I’m not able to test all the possible variations, so any guidance on where to start would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Aemon

[schaefferdop]

Understood.

I am going with Spacelites. as i have a couple a derig and rig days to different stages thoughtout the shoot. building boxes or riging spacelites.

I really like the spacing you have done in VEGAS EXT & ANNA’S LAB. To have more light intensity on the outer edge. (and it’s the opposite for Jarhead dawn scene where you ahve them in the middle of the stage).

Less overhead, is what I like for my setup. I guess I am mixing that idea with your circle overhead rig of 350s in BR-2049. Turning on and off, dimming up and down, and what you need. and doing it with a ring/oval of spacelites. that I can dim up and down and

I will let you know how I get on the lights are landing on floor the 1st week of July.

Thanks for your input.

cheers

Joel

[dmullenasc]

I pick a color temperature setting for the scene and then light around that. In a room of mixed daylight and practical sources of different colors, you just have to pick what setting gets you close to what you want creatively.

You start with what you can’t control easily, like a bunch of daylight coming in, and then work on what you can control. But there is not right or wrong choice. You may decide on something in-between daylight and tungsten so that the daylight is cool and the tungsten is warm, but to which direction you lean (4800K? 4300K?, etc.) is up to you creatively.

In situations that you have more control over, then yes, you pick something and light to that. Maybe in a day interior on location you pick 5500K and use powerful tungsten lamps outside the window for a warm sunset effect.

Again, you start by considering what you can’t adjust or control or turn-off and how you want that to render.  Maybe you are using a lot of old Cool White fluorescent tubes, which are around 4800K with some green in them — if you want those to render more of a cyan, then you have to set the camera closer to 3200K — if you use 5500K on the camera, then they tend to look slightly warm-green, a yellow-ish color.  I’ve even gelled daylight windows with Full 85 correction so that the Cool White tubes would render cyan compared to the daylight.

[TBunker11]

I’ve recently been struggling with how to approach white balance when working with multiple light sources on set. I’m unsure whether to base it on something specific, like skin tones or a key light, or to just keep it constant—say, at 5600K—and build my lighting around that.

My main goal is for the viewer to experience the lighting as it is, not have a warm light appear neutral just because the camera’s white balance is compensating for it. When you’re working with a mix of color temperatures, do you usually white balance to match the dominant source, or do you prefer to keep it fixed and let the lighting speak for itself?

[Jouka]

Thank you for answering! Hopefully we can see proper 4K version someday supervised by you. For now, the standard 1080p Bluray seems to be the one to watch!

[Roger Deakins]

I am not aware that the two versions of Sicario are so different. That the highlights are at 1000 nits comes as a shock. I would not sanction that.

[Roger Deakins]

I don’t want to give specific advice for something I am not familiar with. Your gaffer obviously has something specific in mind.

An array of Spacelites is an option that has worked on a great many films over the years and with LEDs can be even more versatile. Not sure the blue screen would need additional light either.

[Jouka]

Hi!

I just listened to your latest podcast with Steve Yedlin about deliverables and found it super informative and interesting! I signed in just to ask you a question related to that topic. Lately I have been comparing SDR and HDR versions of multiple movies to compare the differences between them, and I’ve noticed some interesting stuff.

While comparing these versions of Sicario (2015) on a calibrated screen, I noticed there to be quite a big difference in both color, brightness, and overall tonality of the image. The HDR version looks noticeably less warm and way brighter, and also the highlights go above 1000 nits (very bright).

In 1917, Blade Runner 2049, and Skyfall, for example, both versions look pretty much the same with only very minor differences. Color in these looks exactly the same to my eyes, and the only small differences seems to be in the brightness. Highlights stay mostly around 200–300 nits.

So I’m just wondering what makes the 4K Blu-ray version of Sicario look so different to its SDR 1080p Blu-ray counterpart, and are you aware of this?

The disc came out when HDR and 4K Blu-ray had just come out (2016), so I’m wondering if it was done without your supervision, or if there was some technical mistake in transferring one color space to another or something else?

And don’t get me wrong, the 4K Blu-ray looks very, very good and is still considered to be one of the best-looking 4K discs out there. I’m just very interested to know where the difference comes from, especially compared to other releases.

[schaefferdop]

Hello, everyone.

I am working in India on a feature film that is heavy on VFX; we are doing large-scale war scenes with 200-300 extras at times to be extended to 1000s. The stage has a full blue screen wrap curtain.

Looks I need to create:

DAY- EXT/INT overcast (war scene), twilight, dawn/sunrise, blue hour, full sun 9am-ish angle.

Night – EXT/INT Moonlight, large Fire, explosions flash

I will be shooting @ 800 ISO ARRI LF. I want to light to 5.6 for the option of high speed. The directors have asked for 100FPS at times. I have explosions and fire ball that I want to create dynamic lighting with DMX and Pixel mapping. LED and DMX lighting is a must.

I have multiple large sound stages to light: 2 x (158 ft x 100 ft x 48 ft) and another 2x 100 ft x 70 ft x 40 ft).

My local gaffer has offered up a plan that I am NOT in love with:

Baselight: from above with 6 differnt  20′ x 20′ x 7′ soft boxes distributed overhead. with 12 x CreamSource Vortex Space X lighting each box.

Cross Key Light:  24x of 12 bank Maxibrute: FilmGear®’s RGB LED in different positions around the stage rigged at 35-40 ft. with diffusion in front.

Blue screen wash: with a cheaper light. that I am having trouble finding a good solution for. I want to use Kinos, but finding a good vendor to get the number of lights that is needed is tricky. Plus, I have been warned that the tubes will be fake and the light will be inconsistent. I need to test this theory. We have a quote to do it with ECL LED 1ftx2ft, but it seems a waste of $$ plus I need 170x for each stage.

My question is, why build those softboxes? if it means we have to light the blue separately, so why not just use 120x Vortex Space X build as a spacelite @ 10ft spacing and use the outside line of spacelites to light the blue screen? What is the downside to this thinking? What am I not thinking of?

This is the 1st time I have done this kind of lighting at this scale; please give me guidance.

I am coming to this conclusion. After reading the post by Rodger for BLADERUNNER 2049 – VEGAS EXT & ANNA’S LAB. I really want something simple, and the lighting plan that Roger did for that stage seems like something similar will work for me. He is not using Blue Screen, so I want to know if it would work for that as well.

I will have a working package of lights and can bring in extras for special scenes.

What do you think?

cheers

Joel

[BHGoddard]

Hi Roger,

I’ve really enjoyed the videos you and James have posted telling the stories behind some of your photographs, many of which capture chance moments of people in their element.

In my wanderings I’ve struggled a bit with the balance between taking photos of fleeting moments as they come and giving the subject of the photos – in many cases strangers – the courtesy of asking permission to take their photo and them declining.

This also relates to capturing something authentic as it happens and compromising a picture by intervening, because as soon as someone knows they’re being photographed, they – even if only subconsciously – will change their behavior.

I was curious if you could speak to this – how often do you let a moment be due to  consideration for your subject or do you pay no mind? Have you gotten any grief in the past for seizing a moment in which a stranger is the main focus of your photo? Or do you have a successful method for asking a stranger if you could take their photo?

Would really appreciate your thoughts, thank you!

[thegjuka]

Hello Hanno,

The book you are looking for is Film Directing: Shot by Shot, written by Steven D. Katz. In one chapter alone,  he presents 10 variations on staging for dialogue.

[Timur]

Thank You for taking the time to read and respond, Roger. I Have recently started taking photographs with an analogue Minolta X-700 to pause and take a break from the unpredictable world of digital to find me again, I guess.. I have also purchased an Olympus MJU II for my wife, partially because it’s a small point and shoot with a great lens and quality and partially because of Wim Wenders 🙂  Have a wonderful day and thank You again! All the very best. Timur

[M Ryan]

Get a fully manual camera app like the Blackmagic one to get familiar with the the different controls (shutter speed, colour temp, iso etc) – these skills will transfer to any camera.

Get some lights, reflectors for bounce and black fabric for negative fill.

Find out the focal length of your camera lens (or lenses) so you know the field of view you are working with.

Shoot alot of different stuff, but especially faces. One great quote from this forum was something like “if you know how to light a face, you can light anything”

The more you shoot and watch your footage, the more you will learn.

Work hard and have fun!!

 

[LucaM]

Anxyk wrote:

I could try that. I mean establishing shots. What do you think about static shots? For example, I imagine someone sitting in a chair in front of the camera, trying to convey feelings through lighting.

I suppose that would be a nice excercise about creating mood through lighting and framing a subject. To take the most out of it, you could choose a given zoom of the camera and keep it for all the shot and see how different camera movements and different framing of the subject create different effect (in other words, using the phone as a simulation of a prime lens: Roger often says that since prime lens have not zoom, when you use them you are forced to make decisions on how to shoot the scene, instead of simply zooming it). I did something similar but since i didn’t want to bother family and friends in my experiments i used a teddy bear as model. For ridiculous it may sound, it helped me since i focused only on the framing and the lights. When i found the light and composition i wanted, i put the camera on the tripod , i took the teddy bear place and experimented on camera angle, movement of the actor, etc. With a little creativity you can learn a lot even alone.

I have to admit that the teddy bear was a better actor than me, but that’s another story.

[LucaM]

From “Team Deakins Podcast – SEASON 2 – EPISODE 139 – Camera Movement”

• Trial of Joan of Arc
• Diary of a Country Priest
• A Man Escaped

(note: Roger mentions these three Robert Bresson’s movies as good examples of movies that manage to tell a story even with quite static shots and little camera movement)