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February 23, 2023 at 8:28 am in reply to: Empire of light Hilary and Donald Ellis conversation #181220
The practicals have regular tungsten bulbs. There is additional lighting here. I was creating cove bounce sources to the edge of frame for both camera angles. I was using LED Fillex lamps with the Fresnel lens attached for my light source. Usually i would have used more traditional tungsten lamps in this situation but, for cost reasons, I was carrying few lamps in my floor package.
OK I will see what I can find.
I do use my camera to take reference images on set but that is all. Far too busy to think of anything else!
I mostly shoot with a Leica M9 these days with a 35mm lens attached, but I also have a Leica Q.
It isn’t that the director is not concentrating on the story, well it wasn’t in the case in point, just that in discussions we had agreed on a set of ‘rules’ and we each kept each other on track. That kind of back and forth exchange of ideas is when I am most happy on a film.
Yes, I was looking to direct a couple of projects but some years ago now. The problem is I love being on a set and working with a great team, so when offers came up that I couldn’t turn down I didn’t.
February 14, 2023 at 1:30 pm in reply to: Empire of light Hilary and Donald Ellis conversation #178899They had just been very close! Now, Ellis is feeling confident and satisfied while Hillary is a little confused, probably a little angry and also sad.
Firstly, we imagined shooting under a clear blue shy when we were prepping ‘Sicario’. The kind of cloud formations we had were unexpected, even for tht time of year in New Mexico.
The pacing of the sequence in Mexico is down to a combination of our storyboarding, what we ‘discovered’ on the day, and the editing of Joe Walker. We had to be quite prepared for the shoot in Mexico City as, for financial reasons, production only allowed us a very limited time in the city. We also had to be very very specific in what we asked the authorities for permission to do, what roads we need to have closed etc.. so the sequence was very well thought out in advance. The section at the border crossing point was also worked out in detail in advance as, again, shooting time was very limited. We scene storyboarded this section in great detail and the set was created, in a parking lot outside Albuquerque, with these specific visuals in mind.
Yes, I agree. Far too often the camera moves in a film with little regard for story.
I don’t like to do an overall color correction in the DI. I had a series of Maxi Brutes with yellow gel on them but the much larger array of Spacelites were clean. To gel thos lamps would have been expensive so I had the orange filter made specifically so that I would achieve the color combination I was after in camera.
Who is to say that an idea is better or worse? My ideas might be as bad as anyone else’s! A different idea may cause some change in the plan for the day but that all comes with the territory. It would be stultifying if we worked as if we were robots.
In my opinion being a cinematographer requires a high level of fitness. Age probably is a consideration when a producer and/or a director is hiring but, as I only learn of the offers that come to me, I have no idea if I miss out on a job because of my age.
If we are going to recommend books of any description here I will put forward ‘Nights of Plague’ from the Turkish author Oran Pamuk. This is quite a relevant read given what the world has been (and is still) going through.
It’s as well we all have different tastes otherwise every film would be the same!
We initially talked about the sky being empty and not very present in the imagery. However, we were shooting during the monsoon season and it became obvious that we would frequently get ‘interesting’ skies so our approach changed. Then the landscape definitely became a character for us.
I needed a lighting system built in to the sets that I could dim without a color shift and that didn’t create heat. Besides that LEDs are more energy efficient. There are also LED panels and Fresnel/open face lights that have a full color range and full dimming control. That saves time putting scrims in a lamp or adding gel to the barn doors.
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