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Its always more important to prioritize the fluidity of the film over any one particular shot. And film is a collaboration. I wouldn’t say it is up to one or the other.
I can’t recommend more highly The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The film will be released shortly but in the meantime you could watch any of the director’s previous films. His name is Mohammad Rasoulof and among his earlier work is Iron Island, The White Meadow, Manuscripts Don’t Burn, There is no Evil and A Man of Integrity. Mohammad Rasoulof and Andrey Zvyagintsev are making films that illustrate what power film can have.
It was a long time ago I last looked at a Hazeltine. I remember looking at the screen to judge the timing and I also remember a Synex strip. I might be spelling the word incorrectly (or have the wrong word entirely) but it was a ‘wedge’ of frames along a short strip of print film, each frame exposed to a different timing light.
The LUT transfers from the dailies to the timing suite. I rarely do a ‘power grade’ on set. Maybe I adjust contrast or saturation a very small amount on set and that will also transfer to the timing suite. But I do very little timing and that probably comes from shooting film for so many years. For film you have RGB. Otherwise you have to shoot and expose it the way you want it to be in the final grade.
Yes, I often use a series of narrow vertical flags in front of my bounce to cut down the light that is emitted to the side
Both scenes were shot on set and I was balancing to tungsten sources. The flashlight was a warm LED bulb and the bunker was lit using dimmed down 500 watt tungsten globes that registers at around 2200K. Setting the camera at 3,000 ‘ish gave me the final color I was after for the final grade.
Brushed silk will stretch the light directly perpendicular to the striations in the gel. I use this effect to widen a source, in effect softening that source, in one direction.
On those HMIs it stretched the light across the landscape without loss of too much light. I was working with very little latitude in that situation.
If a lamp can only be rigged too close to a bounce source it can help, as in that kitchen.
Well, we did add a very light smoke haze and back lit this with lamps below the parapet. We had rigged the festoon lights along the promenade (the town had them in the past and most seaside towns have them now) and this was the main source that allowed the separation between the characters silhouettes and the background. Our lamps enhanced the effect. Of course, without the festoon, the smoke and the lamps there would have been little separation.
A monitor is just a guide, an aid to the discussion between a cinematographer and director. In terms of what I do technically, it is only a reassurance. It wouldn’t make any sense to adjust its brightness or color to match its surroundings.
On a Coen Brother’s film most of those basic decisions are made during pre production. I think the ability to move the camera, as we do with the combination of a remote head and a jib arm, influences what we might choose to do. On the other hand, No Country for Old Men, was shot with less camera movement than many of their films. The style of the camera is guided by the story and the way the director wishes to interpret it. True Grit was more of a ‘fairy tale’ than No Country, which was set in a more harsh reality.
I believe the camera was level in that yellow room. Maybe a mistake! I really compose instinctively. On ‘Kundun’ I was aware that Marty wanted the shots to be quite formal, and I have conversations about the overall approach with any director, but, for the most part, the composition is usually arrived at instinctively on the day.
The weight of a simple fluid head is an advantage outside when moving around difficult terrain. I do prefer operating with a fluid head for long lens shots when I am panning with uncertain action, for instance.
I have very rarely used a scrim overhead and rather choose a time of day. If you have a background it always seems odd that a character is standing in a different light.
