[Ben Ferrer]

Hi Donald,
I would recommend going with the 6K because it will be more versatile.
The 2Ks might be fine for white limbo, but you may need a bit more fire power for darker colors that you want to pop or if you need to shoot at faster shutter speeds or use dark filters such as a polarizer.

I use nine 4K spacelights on our 30x60x17 cyc and find it to be barely enough for many shoots and not enough if I’m shooting around 1/100th sec.

The brand of our 4Ks is UltraLight. I think they only advertise the 2K and 6K, but you can ask for 4K. As a brand it is OK, but I think I would prefer the 6Ks from Mole-Richardson.

Ben Ferrer
DP – Transvideo Studios
Mountain View, CA

[Ben Ferrer]

Are you posting a job offer?

You may want to re-post your question in an appropriate forum. Perhaps Indie Film and Documentary would be a better place. Also check out the business forum.

Regarding your question – You may want to figure out what gear and equipment is required to do the job and what the daily rental rate for that gear is (or would be if you had to rent it). Add that to the day rate of each person on the team.

I believe this is the figure you are looking for. It is a starting point for you to negotiate with. Of course this doesn’t factor in expenses such as food, travel, permits, tape/media, etc.

If you don’t know the day rate of the team members find out what they would like to get paid and how low they can afford to go on that rate. This is the kind of information you need to have in order to negotiate a contract with your client. Also, find out the approximate number of days that production is expected to take. Many crew members will lower their day rate if they know they will have a large number of days of work lined up.

-Ben

Ben Ferrer
DP – Transvideo Studios
Mountain View, CA

[Ben Ferrer]

JCX certainly doesn’t charge that much per sheet. I would double check your quote.

Ben Ferrer
DP – Transvideo Studios
Mountain View, CA

[Ben Ferrer]

I’ve used the double net method described by Rick with very good results.
The shoot required a two person interview which forced using a shorter lens length and therefore increasing the depth-of-field. In order to soften the background a bit I placed an 8’x8′ ScrimJim w/ double net about 7′ behind the talent and opened up the iris all the way (of course). Exposure was managed by controlling the lights and slightly faster shutter speed (the lightest ND available was be too strong). Other considerations were to add a bit more light to the background than usual to compensate for the “filtered” background and added an eggcrate to the key to prevent front lighting the net. Using a 2/3″ CCD camera also helped.

-Ben

Ben Ferrer
DP – Transvideo Studios
Mountain View, CA

[Ben Ferrer]

If you are using a soft source such as a Chimera, consider using a grid or eggcrate to flag the spill. A large solid by itself won’t be enough to keep the light from “wrapping” around the flag and spilling onto the background unless you are able to work at very great distance from the back.

My preference for black limbo interviews is a small or medium Chimera with an eggcrate rather than a KinoFlo with a grid. Although I love my Diva 400 for daylight interiors, I find it a little more difficult to control spill when shooting black limbo because of the way the grid is designed and mounted.

One other consideration is to set your gain to -3db, if your camera has this capability. This will reduce the appearance of noise in the dark areas of your image, however you will lose overall sensitivity and some shadow detail. But this can be managed with opening up your iris or a slightly brighter key and fill.

Here is a good article about camera gain.

https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/aadams/story/no_pain_no_gain/

I hope this is helpful.

-Ben

Ben Ferrer
DP
SF Bay Area

[Ben Ferrer]

Thanks Jefferson.

-Ben

[Ben Ferrer]

I recommend covering inkjet labels with a strip of transparent tape. This will protect the type from rubbing off.

-Ben

Ben Ferrer
– DP – SF Bay Area

[Ben Ferrer]

Rick,

I agree with John that creating a mood is a combination of many elements brought together to tell the story. Color can be a powerful part of the visual communication, but should be approched carefully. Many colors have more than one implication. For example, yellow can imply hope, but also caution. In the Wizard of Oz both the Emerald City and the Wicked Witch were dipicted as being green. An interesting book on this subject is If Its Purple, Someone’s Going to Die by Patty Bellington.

Another thing to think about is using filters or gels to promote color can sometimes look forced. Consider using your color choices in the set and wardrobe.

I hope some of this is useful.

-Ben

Ben Ferrer
Director of Photography
Transvideo Studios
Mountain View, CA

[Ben Ferrer]

Hi Sean,

I’m guessing that is the texture of the ground glass inside the lens adapter. That is, if a 35mm lens adapter was used to get a 35mm fisheye lens mounted onto the camera. I don’t have much experience with that kind of setup, but I would suppose that the adapter was either of lesser quality or the motion of the ground glass was on the wrong setting for use with that lens.
Also, the camera may have had the detail setting on, which might cause the camera to add detail to edges including the visible texture of the ground glass.

Perhaps you could layer the footage on your NLE timeline and add a gaussian blur to the bottom layer. Then try keying out the blue sky as much as possible to reveal the softened image underneath.

I could be completely wrong, but that would be my first guess.

-Ben

[Ben Ferrer]

Hi Bruce,

Phil is right. Farther from the prompter is better. I find placing the talent about 10 to12 feet works well. Any farther and you have to make the font ridiculously big. Less then 10 feet and it becomes obvious that they are reading (even if the talent is a pro).

Best,

-Ben

Ben Ferrer
Director of Photography
San Francisco