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The key fob was just what is was whereas the oil lamp was rigged with a small quartz bulb. I could film by the light of the key fob but, for Jesse Jesse and shooting on film, I needed more light than what the real oil lamp would have given me.
For color temperature the oil lamp was rigged with a high wattage bulb than I strictly needed so that it could be dimmed down and appear as the color of a flame.
You choose the practical source bearing in mind how its light will play in the scene. In neither of the situations you refer to would it have been possible to add additional light, whether to dummy the practical or as a totally separate source, without changing the feel of the scene. Inside the hole there was, by definition, no other source. And a moonlight for the train sequence? A very different scene.
I’m sure you could calculate it. Simply use as a reference a series of household bulbs on a batten strip. Relate the distance between the bulbs to the distance to the subject at which the multiple shadows appear negligible and then scale up. I’m sure you could make the definitive graph in this way but I just make a guess based on my past use of multiples.
The numbers of lamps and the distance towards the subject were calculated to minimize the multiple shadow issue. If you looked at the light on your hand you could see every shadow but when there is movement etc. that is not noticeable in the frame.
The doubles, singles etc. referred to scrims, or wires, that act as an ND in front of a lamp and which I used to reduce the light at the ends of each row. The middle of the row was always at full intensity and slightly spotted in. The outsides were slightly more flooded out and contained progressively more dense wires. I felt this technique softened the shadows, while the length of the rows ‘wrapped’ the light around the subject.
Most of the close shots of Mattie were lit using a bounce source closer in. The lights set for the main action would not have reached her as we shot her at a different spot which was easier to access. Some close shots were made later in a studio.
The fight in Vegas was shot to be a little longer and there were many more lighting changes during the “show” but slapstick? I don’t think so. And I have no memory of a “magnificent aerial sequence” in the rain. I will have to ask Joe when I see him.
I think it is lazy to simply put on a longer lens without thinking what the effect will be. I usually use a slightly longer lens for a close shot, shooting an over on a 32mm or a 35mm and a closer shot on a 40mm or a 50mm. That seems to me more reflective of the human view. But I have no rule. You may indeed want to shoot a close up on a 28mm or even a 25mm but, as David says, the eyeline becomes a problem. But an actor may need to look at a mark on the matt box to get a close eyeline even when a 40mm is on the camera.
Well, I wish I could give you a number. It seems to me that you loose saturation immediately you overexpose a surface, whether it be skin or not. The effect of color loss might only become noticeable once you get above a certain level, perhaps a stop or two, but anything above key appears less saturated than at key. Just look at your hand being lit by the light from a window. Take your hand closer to the window and the highlights appear less and less saturated. I’m certain someone will have a more scientific answer. Maybe the magic number!
The original florescent fixtures in this location were very old and stained and I decided I liked the effect. The walls were a warm off white. We added a fixture in the interrogation room and found a stained diffuser to match the two existing ones. We also made sure that all the florescent fixtures in the hallway matched those that were slightly yellow and added a light gel to some that we couldn’t find the equivalent diffuser for. We changed the tubes so that they were all warm white and that was basically it. There was no correction made in the DI or an adjustment to the white balance on the camera. That would have been set at 3200.
The priest was the subject of the ‘doubt’ so there was some reason to compose more formal shots with the nuns but less so with him. I wouldn’t think about it too deeply though. Such visual distinctions between characters can become too self conscious and distracting if rigidly enforced.
No one has made a comment so I will say that it is the collaboration between people on a film set that I miss most of all. That is what I have learnt while not shooting.
I think you can only use your intuition. Do you feel the director is a collaborator? Have they the same view of the material as you? It is amazing how two people can have an entirely different take on a script. I have certain questions I ask as I always operate the camera myself and, as has been the case, the director operates the camera as well. So that won’t work. I don’t like using multiple cameras other than for specific circumstances, so that is always a topic for discussion. One director I worked with usually shoots with multiple cameras and I asked specifically about that way of working. The director had decided that on this one film he would shoot with a single camera and that is why I was being asked to work on the film.
Good comments. Yes, you pick your battles. Never, and I mean never, be critical of a director’s choice without offering an alternative you might prefer. If you don’t see eye to eye with a director then you make your decision to either be there for them regardless or find a tree to sit under instead.
Tri-X and Ilford FP4 were my go to. It was more a case of what was available in the local photo shop and I’ve never been too fussy about a particular stock. These days I shoot digital. Why not?
I don’t really interact with anyone that happens to be in a photo I take. Sometimes I stand for long enough that a person within my view can make a choice whether to be photographed or not but I only rarely specifically ask their permission. That being the case, most of my pictures these days have few people in them or just figures in the distance.
