[LucaM]

Yuki Seto Hang Chi wrote:

Hey James, Really hoping to grab a signed copy here in the UK – any chance Roger might pop by the BSC Expo? That would be amazing! Also, gutted to report that my Amazon pre-order (placed ~6 months ago) just got cancelled out of the blue. Got an email saying earliest delivery is now Feb 2026, even though it was meant to ship today (Nov). Already spoken to Amazon support but they seem clueless. Any chance you/your team could nudge Amazon about what’s going on? Would be hugely appreciated! Thanks so much and congrats on the book!

As i suspected i think that on Amazon they confused publishing date in US and Europe and they didn’t consider ghe shipping cost from US to Europe, so now they are noticing the problem.

Since James mentioned the possibility (if i understood correctly) of an european signed edition we (in Europe) can either order directly from US or wait next year for that edition.

Any other suggestion? 🙂

[LucaM]

Remember to do some test with the led lights to avoid light flickering, It’s complicated to get rid of It in post.

[LucaM]

Roger, David and the others can answer better than me but I the impression i have had reading the forum and many interviews is that there’s not right or wrong answer, you have to choose based on what works better for the narrative point of view, not only aesthetic. I think Roger moves the camera instead of changing the lens (or, in theory, using the zoom) to put the audience where the action is and to create a more intimate relationship (if i am quoting him correctly) with the actors: it’s different to sneak from awar away with a longer lens (or zooming in) and to stay in front of an actor for a close up. Besides that i think that keeping the same lens create a more homogeneus look for your scenes: a different lenght changes also depth of field, angle of view, distortion, proportions of the face, etc etc, so it can offer you the way to create a different effect and a different relationship between the character and the landscape,  but if It’s what you are looking for.

By the way, isn’t it a bit unpractical to change the lens for a close up in a dialogue? If it’s a OTS shoot you’ll be close to the other actor, so it seems more practical to simply move the camera, unless there’s something that forces you to do that.

[LucaM]

Thanks again Stip! Somehow, even if with my poor camera and poor technical knowledge, It’s (more or less) what i did for my short, i did many test, set the picture profile and in camera Rec709 preview  (it has no LUT preview but somehow i built it with settings). Little knowledge but a bit of  old school common sense, ah ah!

So the LUT Is created from the initial tests in pre production, is It correct?

[LucaM]

Thanks David, you’re always very kind!

 

You are right, my poor phrasing made the question a bit confused. I was referring to this thing Stip explained to me in another post:

Stip wrote:

Look development of a project is usually done before shooting. Colorists call this “Show LUT”. The main driver is mostly the contrast curve and saturation, then there might be some hue rotations or tinting of shadows, highlights. This ‘look’ is applied to all scenes. The LUT is loaded into cameras/monitors and the project is shot under it. Costume or set design choices should be made under the show LUT as saturation and density changes can change a color’s appearance…

So, if i understood, the show LUT is loaded in the camera and the scenes are shot with the LUT on, to obtain in real time an effect close to the final one.  What confuses me is that, being little experienced and self taught, i noticed a common trend around the web, i mean the suggestion of use a LUT for post production (what i roughly called “look LUT”) to speed up the grading (or at least have a decent starting point), but i’ve seen really rarely mentioned the show LUT created. It seems more reasonable and logic to have a “pre” LUT and work around that, instead of altering everything with a “post” LUT (you know, those like “Famous Movie Look LUT” that are everywhere around the web). So my doubt is that if it’s a common practice to use both a “pre” and a “post” LUT, or if the latter is just an unprofessional quick turnaround.

[LucaM]

Experiment! Get fun and see what works better for the story you want to tell! When i asked on the forum for some example of “good” cinematography Roger told that i should focus on the “right” cinematography for that particular story instead.

I was thinking about your shot and i think that i’d try with another solution : rotate the scene of 90° (so your talent is facing one wall and has the window on his side, instead of on his back). Of course you couldn’t show the entire room with this approach, but it would offer some interesting opportunities:
– if the window is on the side you can have some side lighting for a better contrast ratio, shooting on the “smart side” (with a negative fill on the dumb side to decrease the bouncing on it, or adding some bouncing in the dumb side to decrease the contrast ratio, according to what is best to create the mood of the story)
– you can shot your talent from the side within the frame of the window (instead of a frontal shot) , i think it would create a quite interesting composition
– if you can find a way to create it, you could add some haze to create a ray of light from the window. Think to “True Grit” scene in the court for example : perhaps not something  so strong and powerful as in True Grit, but it could create a quite interesting shot (if the story needs it) . Experiment and have fun!

[LucaM]

James wrote:

The supply of signed books for the ASC is NOT limited. We are visiting there often to sign yet more books.

I apologize, it seems i misunderstood what they wrote on the ASC page dedicated to the book, but anyway i meant that usually the signed copies of a book are, for practical reason, in a smaller number than the ones printed and sold around the world.

James wrote:

We hope that some signing events are organized locally since we do enjoy meeting the people. But I haven’t been contacted by anyone who wants to organize that.

I think that the more the book will get popular (and from what i’ve been seeing around the web, people are looking forward for it everywhere) the more you’ll be asked for that! If there will be one within reach i’ll pack the family in the car and i’ll be there for sure, ah ah!

[LucaM]

They are not and it’s a very nice thing. Only problem could be, for many readers, that since they must be shipped from US the shipping cost is quite high (to Italy it equals the cost of the book). So for many people it could be an alternative to order a regular (not signed) book directly available in their countries. And maybe wait for a local signing event! 😉  Also considering that the ASC, from what i understand, has a limited stock of signed books, which is perfectly normal.

As for me i asked the signed one to my wife as Christmas present, ah ah!

[LucaM]

Richard911 wrote:

Would be really happy to buy this book, but unfortunately physical one only sells in the USA. Quite sad.. I hope It will be possible in the future! There are a lot of people around the world who are interested in Rogers work.

Do you mean the signed copies or the “regular” ones? The signed ones can be ordered from ASC site and they ship worldwide (i think), regular ones should be available in many other countries. Did you check on your country Amazon for example?

[LucaM]

I leave the technical answer to the experienced people on the forum, but what i noticed – as potential viewer of your short – is that the two rooms gave me two completely different feelings. I know nothing about the story of your short but they tell me two different stories. The guy living in the pink room bathroom can’t be  the same one living in the creamy one. What do you feel is the actual bathroom of your character? Are you going for a very armonic shot or for something with more color contrast?

By the way, i don’t how much my opinion is relevant (very little, i am afraid) but i prefer the pink one, the window behind the actor creates a nice effect around his head and i like how the stripes on the wall point towards his face. It seems a more interesting composition. So i’d go for the pink one with some light on the mirror, i don’t think it will be very complicated to add them, if you are allowed to do that. But the lights in your shot is nice as it is (again, my humble opinion) , did you experiment some solution with that window and the mirror? You could color somehow (with a gel for example) the light entering from the window to reduce the pinkness of the walls  or coloring the light from the mirror to the face. Perhaps it won’t solve your problem but i think it could offer some interesting effect.

[LucaM]

A good advice i read time ago (i can’t remember if here or on another website) is that darkness and shadows appear darker than they actually are thanks to contrast with something brighter in the same shot. You could use this trick, if you can sneak something bright in your dark scenes.

I think a black satin/silk fabric could be useful to create some discernible texture, they have a deep black color but with some reflectivity.

[LucaM]

Yakov10 wrote:

How to remove the darkness?

With some kind of…uh…light?
Lame jokes apart (but i suppose you’ll have to use some kind of light to make the abstract texture noticeable), it seems a very interesting project. I’m curious to know what Roger would do in this case.

But if i didn’t misunderstand what you were describing, isn’t it a bit risky to get so close to complete darkness for so much time? I mean, if one will watch it not on a perfectly calibrated monitor but on a tv or a pc with a slightly lowered brightness or, even worst, on a tablet with a variable brightness, would he still be able to discern something in the almost complete black of the screen?

[LucaM]

I don’t know if it’s an useful information for the other european forum users, anyway i wrote to the ASC to ask about the shipping cost to Italy for the signed copies of the book. They said that the shipping cost to Italy, through UPS or DHL, is something around $46. I suppose that will be, more or less, the same shipping cost for other european countries. I hope it helps!

[LucaM]

Daniel wrote:

Did you get your copy?

Looking forward to read it but it will published on november 11th and won’t be here sooner than next month (but i am a bit sceptical about that, we’ll see) . 🙁

[LucaM]

Thanks Stip, i think It’s a good advice to see what wins at the end, their emotional power (i like this way of thinking!) or the annoyance for their imperfections.

I am afraid that i need to become a way better cinematographer but also a less finicky person at the same time,  ah ah.

[Author]

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