[Bob Cole]

And remember… by mentioning this on the COW, you’ve already told the world about the footage.

“Talk to an attorney.” Good advice, but don’t waste time or money talking to anyone but a specialist, imho.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Duke Sweden] “Well? Wasn’t that idiotic of me!?! ;-)”

Tough crowd! If you want to see some stupid questions, just wait until I get started. Wait, I already have…. Don’t look me up, please.

Okay, here’s a bonus stupid question: How does “Smooth Cut” work? How does it differ from a dissolve?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

John – After using the ReLamps for another year, how do you feel about them now? Have they held up?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Nice shots. I don’t think you need any advice about lighting or exposure – or any reflectors or other folderol. I really wouldn’t change a thing about the way you’re shooting. Especially if you add log shooting for the video, you’ve got this!

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I like the Tota’s too. That puts us both in the uncool club. But they really do throw out the light. I use them when I have to go somewhere by airplane; I put them in Chimeras and have beautiful, soft light – and lots of it.

The cheapest LEDs tend to have lousy color rendition. Do not go there. Bi-color sounds great, until you realize that in order to use all of the diodes (?) you will have to shoot in-between tungsten and daylight, at about 4300K.

You’re right about batteries: Some lights (not all) can be powered and will last a long time on a relatively small battery. That is just fantastic.

No first-hand experience here, but on my wish list is the Litepanels Astra 6x. Powerful, though it will chew up a lot of your budget. The battery plate is extra, and has to sit on the light stand, I believe.

My direct experience is with Dracast and Arri/VisionSmith: I’ve been happy with my bicolor Dracast 500s, occasionally on sale at B&H. If you have certain fresnels on hand (Arri Plus, Mole, maybe more) you can relamp them with VisionSmith’s LED product, creating a daylight-balanced fresnel for relatively low cost. But it’s not battery powered, so it’s only okay, not AC-free battery nirvana.

I’d recommend something like an Astra 6x daylight and a couple of Dracast 500s (I think there are several different configurations of Dracasts – you’ll want barndoors, I think). The reason I recommend the Astra 6x daylight is that you said you wanted lots of light. Converting a daylight source to tungsten only costs you 47% of the light; converting tungsten to daylight costs 64%. You can usually cheat a bit, and use a 1/2 CTO on a daylight source, which only costs 27%. So you wind up with a more powerful tungsten AND daylight source.

What I’m really looking for is a powerful battery-powered LED that will replace the Tota’s in my Chimeras. So far, no luck. Recommendations are welcome!

EDIT: look on this forum. There are several great suggestions in the CAME-TV thread, and others.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

You don’t know if you’ll be forgiven until you break the rules in the first place. But if you need to see their expressions, you’re right — you’ll need some fill. For a bent-over worker, shot up close, a small white reflector near the ground would probably give you just enough to show the detail without looking “lit.”

Again a risky choice, but you could go the other way from “Unforgiven.” In backlit CU’s, you could expose for the faces and blow out the background. That might enhance the feeling of heat and alienation. If you shoot in a log format with an extended range, you might still retain enough detail to identify the location.

What you don’t want, imho, is to “normalize” the lighting with too much fill.

You don’t say whether you have the cooperation of the workers or the supervisors. You’ll affect their productivity (and income) if you get in their way. Filming this up close is very different from filming at a distance.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

SUBTLE bounce.

Or look at Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven.” iirc, his answer there was: nothing. Backlight the scene, and let the faces go dark. Of course, it worked with his story.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

I second this question. Although Mark is right to advocate studying the greats, it would also be fascinating to learn just HOW the lighting effects are achieved. I often freeze frame a shot on TV to look at the lighting; but that doesn’t tell me as much as I’d like, regarding the sources, distance, filtration, etc.

I sat down once with a friend who had just graduated from the AFI cinematography program. He had a notebook with page after page of hand-drawn lighting diagrams.

Once, when I asked a similar question, perhaps on this forum, one answer was to subscribe to American Cinematographer. I looked at a couple of issues but didn’t see the level of detail that I wanted.

But I don’t know how relevant the Hollywood approach would be to me. I had an accidental meeting with an eminent Hollywood DP (I was shooting an interview with his daughter), and asked him what lighting instruments he used. He looked puzzled at the very question, before answering, “Everything.” With a tone of voice that implied, “of course!!!”

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks!

I don’t understand exactly, how Scopebox would help me. Can you please explain?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Usually it’s not a pooping sound — more likely a farting sound.

Bob C