Max A.

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  • in reply to: Unbroken – Stunning night interior scene #215680
    Max A.
    Participant


      in reply to: Unbroken – Stunning night interior scene #215677
      Max A.
      Participant

        Thank you very much for your reply Mr. Deakins! The shot (as for the entire movie) is fantastic!
        It seems to me (and maybe it is something that I would do in this case) that the two practicals at the center are the “strongest” ones and make possible the pool of light, the one on the left frame in the background seems to me less bright that the one in the center. Do you remember if you put the 1k clear bulbs in the center practicals? I also love the color quality of the tungsten source, do you remember if, during the DI process, you reduced the red channel?

        And If I can ask another question, for the other shots of the scene (I attach frames below) do you still use only the practical lights (maybe dimming or turning off some to create shadows area), or did you “argument” those practical lights with external sources (maybe the overhead close-up have some “special” lighting)?

        Thank you again for your reply Mr. Deakins and I apologize for my bad English.

        I wish you a peaceful day.
        Max.

        Max A.
        Participant

          I’m sorry for the delayed answer. Thank you very much for your reply Mr.Deakins.

          If I have to guess which shot has a bounce source maybe I would say the one of “True Grit”, but the fact that to me it is not so evident is proof of the natural result of the other shots that I uploaded as reference.

          Thank you for your lesson about the blocking and the “right” time of the day to have the “right” light, I also think it is the first aspect to consider during scouting, the second step is to talk to the director and “suggest” the right blocking for the light.

          If I can extend this topic, I would like to ask you, if it is possible, your narrative point of view about the choice to have one character backlight or full sun or backlight, etc.
          Of course, there is not a single formula or a single “convention” and more often (as was for me also if I have shot only two low-budget features) the story suggests inspirations, but do you always think about the narrative point that you want to achieve when choosing to have a character in a position related to the sun or sometimes (maybe if that point of the story doesn’t seem to request a “precise dramatic light”) you think about your subject and background to have a shot with a “nice light”?

          For instance, (and this is only an instance) why do you choose to have the character in a 3/4 backlight in the last still of NCFOM?

          As always I want to thank you for your time and patience, it is priceless.
          I apologize for my bad English.

          I wish you a peaceful Sunday,
          Max.

          in reply to: Godland (2022) #215622
          Max A.
          Participant

            Hello Francesanna, If I can join in this conversation, I saw the film yesterday after reading your topic. In my opinion, the movie is really great. The slow pace gives the whole movie a narrative depth (always in my opinion). Some camera movements are really intense, especially for the long pans or tracking shots.
            The locations are insane and while I saw it sometimes I thought about the difficulties they faced in making those shots. I’m not a purist or film critic, I simply react to what I see, and looking at everything that is produced today for platforms and for high consumption, I find that it is quite rare to find producers intent on producing a similar film, it was absolutely worth it.

            About cinematography, always in my opinion and to talk together about the movie, actually I’m not a huge fan of 4:3 aspect ratio, because I think that is a sort of “trend” that cinematographers want to follow (I really don’t love trends) but, in this movie is part of the story and to me enrich the narrative of the movie. I think that if the film had been shot in 1:85 or 2:35 it would have lost a crucial feature of the storytelling, so in this case, the aspect ratio (in my opinion) is really at the service of the story and enhances the narrative.
            The compositions are really awesome. The movie has a photographic world in which it always remains faithful without betraying it, and this for me is the highest value. There is (in my opinion) always the cinematographer’s research to have the right light and not the “beautiful” one. It’s a very subtle step to think of a shot to make it aesthetically “beautiful”, then losing what should be the photographic essence of the film. I think Maria Von Hausswolff really nailed it!
            Some interiors remind me of some paintings by Carl Holsøe. I loved also the color palettes of the scenes as well as the stunning weather conditions of the exteriors.

            So this is just my opinion, thank you for suggesting this movie, I really enjoyed it!

            I apologize for my English.
            Have a nice day,

            Max.

            in reply to: Creating dark shadows on subject #215598
            Max A.
            Participant

              Thank you so much for your reply Mr. Deakins! It’s always fantastic to read from you.

              Max.

              in reply to: Creating dark shadows on subject #215595
              Max A.
              Participant

                Hello Mr. Deakins, I hope you and Mrs. James are well. If I can ask a question in this topic opened by Joshua, can I ask you how you achieved the light on the faces of the talents?

                On ‘Frank’ there seems to be a bounce right frame, if so, the bounce did catch only the light coming from the glass on the door or did you put a lamp to bounce from inside?

                For ‘April’, the light that reaches her face, was it coming from outside the glass of the door? If it is so, did you put direct lamps through diffusions or did you bounce also outside?

                As always, Thank you for your availability and your patience.
                I wish you a peaceful day.
                Max.

                in reply to: About low key lighting #215563
                Max A.
                Participant

                  Hello Stip!

                  I’m sorry for the delayed answer. Now I understand your process, it is interesting and I never thought about it in that way. Usually I “pick” an ISO level that “looks fine” to me for the project and stick with it (of course depends on the different situations and how I can control the light).
                  I will try your method and shoot some tests with my BMPCC6K which I usually use for low-mid projects.

                  To answer also to Jakob, I like the result of your framing. It is dark but I like the tone. It has some grain but I think it is acceptable.

                  What I understand is that low-key scenes (especially for not high-end cameras) are often tricky, what I often noticed is that a lot of cameras struggle in the underexposure areas (like when there is -2 to -3 STOPS in the reflected light) but in areas falling in the black looks clear.
                  As Stips says probably cameras like Alexa don’t have this problem, I never shot on Alexa so I can’t say but if I also want to refer to Mr. Deakins movies there are a lot of scenes in Skyfall, Sicario, Prisoners, 1917, The Goldfinch and Empire of Light (to mention some) with low-key scenarios and those have zero noise and stunning details! The unparalleled talent that has Mr.Deakins is the principal aspect of those results but I think also a great camera can help a cinematographer to “take his risks” and underexpose areas with an “extra pinch of serenity”.

                  I apologize for my bad English and I wish you all a nice weekend.
                  Max.

                  in reply to: About low key lighting #215543
                  Max A.
                  Participant

                    Hello Stip,

                    I’m interested in your process. Tell me If I understand correctly: you lit your scene and exposed it for the native ISO of your camera (let’s say 800) then you dial down one or even two STOP of sensitivity to 400 – 200 before hitting rec.?

                    The result would be underexposed footage that you can “digitally restore” in post-production, but won’t this result in a loss of details?
                    Maybe I don’t understand correctly your process because my English is not good enough.

                    Have a nice Sunday,
                    Max.

                    in reply to: About low key lighting #215541
                    Max A.
                    Participant

                      In my opinion, and this is only my opinion, this is a topic with a lot of point of view.
                      The thing I met in my experience (not a lot at the moment, I have been DP for only 2 independent feature films, a few short films, and some local commercials) is that is a “battle” to gain more information from the file (of course you have to know the camera you use, the pros and con.) and so maybe overexpose “a bit” or get “the look” in camera.

                      In the last feature that I was involved in, a data wrangler guy who was also a DIT often came to me and “advice” for overexposing a bit or pushing information in the shadows, so maybe in post-production, the colorist can darken with tools.
                      In my opinion, and I repeat this is my opinion, this is something that I never understand 100% because, if it is true that some camera has noise problems in underexposure areas (I was using a Red Gemini) it’s also true that if I want a “dim” atmosphere it’s is strange to put “fill” everywhere, this can change the “look” I’m after.

                      So, what I consider (and I ask also to people in this forum, I remember there was an experienced and skilled DIT that often answered) is to think about the “contrast ratio” and try to go for it, and maybe overexpose a 1/3 or also 1/2 or even 1 STOP (depending of the characteristics of the camera) everything, and not adding bounces fill here and there that I constantly see in post-production and “alter my look”.

                      I don’t know if there is a good solution, this is my consideration and I’m glad to read other opinions.

                      I apologize for my English.
                      Have a nice Sunday,

                      Max.

                      in reply to: Advices for an exterior scene #215495
                      Max A.
                      Participant

                        Hello Luca!

                        If I can join in your topic, of course, I’ve not even a 10th part of the experience that has Mr. Deakins so my words are probably useless.
                        Reading your question, I’ve to say that maybe a cloudy day in the woods can help you a lot to avoid direct “harsh” sunlight. You can of course use a blue filter in front of your lens but usually cloudy light is already slightly blue (around 6000k) so I probably want to use the “full spectrum” of that light instead of limiting wavelengths of the red channel of the sensor. If your camera can record Raw it’s better in post to shift color temperature, if not it’s regarding to you and how “saturated” want your dusk to set the color temperature on camera.

                        For the second question, about the torch, my “concern” would be the total amount of natural light that you will have that day because sunlight is very “strong” also on a cloudy day, so your torch effect could appear not visible as you probably want.
                        For the volumetric effect, In my opinion (and I repeat I’m not as experienced as a lot of cinematographers over this fantastic forum) it will depend on how long your scene is. Temporary fog from a spray, in a wood, could be visible for a few seconds (if it is windy also less time) so maybe if you do not have so much budget to evenly “fill” your space with a haze/fog machine you could use a diffusion filter as you wrote to “bloom” that highlights and give a bit of “volume” of the torch.
                        Maybe it would be better if you test the two solutions to see the results, as I say, in my opinion, a lot will depend on the light condition that you will have that day.

                        This is just my opinion so it’s just for talk and learning. Apologize for my English, it’s not my first language.

                        Have a nice day,
                        Max.

                        in reply to: Merry Christmas #215402
                        Max A.
                        Participant

                          Merry Christmas Mr. Deakins, Mrs. James and to all the forum members!

                          in reply to: Moon light for exterior #215251
                          Max A.
                          Participant

                            Vanniyan if you search on Google for these words: Robin Barton beam angle calculator, you can find a page with a calculator of two scenarios, and roughly you will have an idea of the area that the beam angle cover at a certain distance (and a height).

                            But, in my opinion, you have to consider the diffusion that you would to use because, in my opinion, could alter your final beam angle and so the whole area that you will cover with your light.

                            About the conversion FootCandle/Lux to exposure, Mr. Deakins tells you that if you want to expose an aperture of T2.8 at 800ISO 180° ShutterAngle you need something like 12.5FC. With this in mind, you can consider if the amount of FC/Lux that you will have in your action area is enough to expose what you want to expose (If you want to shoot at T2 for example you need the half of FC because you open your lens by a STOP but if you want to shoot your scene at T4 you need the double of 12.5FC).

                            As I said before, this is what I think should be, but there are masters and legends on this forum like Mr. Deakins and Mr. Mullen that can be more precise than me.

                            I hope this can help you.

                            I wish you a nice day,

                            Max.

                            in reply to: Moon light for exterior #215244
                            Max A.
                            Participant

                              I would also share with you what I think is a powerful source and tool that helps to calculate beam angle/cover area/distance, height etc.:

                              Search on Google: Robin Barton beam angle calculator

                              Just for fun, I will try to do this calculation based on your situation, just to train my mind and also since I haven’t “DP” something in a long time (Lol but also sad😅).

                              As you probably already know, the photometric specs are without any diffusion in front of the lamp, and the light drop of your source will depend on how thick the diffusion is.
                              The same is applied, I think for the “spread”, a thick diffusion will spread the light more, basically changing the “beam” angle of your original source.

                              Of course, like you, I will wait for an eventual answer from Mr. Deakins that are way more experienced and talented than me in this kind of situation so I can learn from his words.
                              As I said before I’m only trying to train myself and my brain for a tricky but interesting lighting situation like yours so don’t be severe with me 😁.

                              If I can ask myself a question to Mr. Deakins or whoever knows the answer. If we have a lamp at a distance of 100′ but a height of 120′. At this point should we have to calculate the falloff based on the furthest point? I don’t think it’s possible that the fall is somehow “added” between the two distances.

                              Apologize for my bad English,
                              Max.

                              in reply to: Moon light for exterior #215242
                              Max A.
                              Participant

                                It seems I can’t able to post a reply with a link to a tool to calculate beam angle/distance.
                                I will retry soon.

                                in reply to: Moon light for exterior #215240
                                Max A.
                                Participant

                                  Hello Vanniyan,

                                  Here is the photometric chart of the M40

                                  I hope this can help.

                                  I wish you a nice day.
                                  Max.

                                Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 70 total)