John Sharaf
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Terry,
I feel your pain, although it was 35 years ago (or more) when I was in the same spot as you. Since then I’ve bought, owned and used more than 150 lighting instruments; Tungsten, HMI, Fluorescent and recently LED, but in all that time I never bought a “kit” other than a two-light Joker 200 kit and a four-light Dedo kit.
Instead, I used to buy kit boxes, mostly the red ones from Mole Richardson, because they were nicely squared and stacked and fit on my shelves and in the vehicles I used at the time.
Now, because I work out of a 20000 lbs truck with shelves and a liftgate, I use large carts (Backstage Studio Equipment) populated with lights in milk crates.
I guess what I’m suggesting is that you buy particular lights in the order of necessity and design you own “kit” in the process.
Obviously the first light one needs is a “key” light for portraiture; for this, the choice of a 400 Diva is a no brainer, although if price were no object I’d recommend a PRG TruColor HS LED Light instead (I recently bought two of these and they’ve become my first-choice go-to unit, although they’re expensive and the kit box is large).
Both of these lights share the requisite features of daylight and tungsten interchangeability, soft and bright source light effect yet with dimmer capability without changing color, high efficiency and low heat. Tungsten lights have none of these features.
As with all lighting equipment, it’s best to buy like Noah did with his Arc, two at a time, so you have an instantly available spare and backup.
You are clearly interested in lighting the background next, and this is a good strategy, although many times you can pick a proper background from the practical set and just light the person in the foreground to the proper ratio. In that case the next most important light would be a backlight or scratch light.
The Arri 300’s you mention are very good backlights; they are bright enough to take a CTB gel to correct for daylight use (with your Diva in that mode) and still have a usable effect. They can also make a pattern on the background (although relatively small) or light an object in the background to create depth. Gain, if price were no object, I’d recommend a Dedo kit (3 or 4 lites) and the dichroic filter accessory they offer.
In fact, when pushed (like traveling very lightweight) I often go with two Joker 800’s with Chimeras (for Noah’s Arc backup and use as key and background) and a set of Dedo’s; it’s amazing how much damage one can do with these three kit boxes (plus of course stands, sandbags and AC extensions).
Another excellent choice for backgrounds is the ETC Source Four Leco. This is a relatively cheap unit, can use 575 or 750w globes and with choice of instertable “gobo” patterns is very flexible and creative. It’s only tungsten, but that’s often a good choice with a daylight key to create color contrast in the background quickly without even putting on a gel. The one drawback to this unit is that it’s difficult to case and/or transport.
I could go on and on to describe the use and necessity of owning a hundred different types of lights, but I believe I’ve covered the basics here.
Additionally, I’d just remind you to seek out buying used lights of the type you want to save some money. There are many sources of used gear and these types of motion picture lights are designed and built like trucks, meaning for a long life of hard use, so there’s no reason not to buy used if you have the time and patience to wait for the right opportunity.
Good luck!
JS
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Matt,
Motion picture projection is at 24 fps in a dark theater where persistence of vision (which is the minds ability to merge the separate frames into a smooth moving picture) makes it work. A conventional TV display works at 29.97 frames per second, with each frame made of two fields alternately showing half the screen height in alternating odd and even lines. This allows both interlace (where each field has a separate timebase) and progressive, where there are pairs of the same field.
To convert 23.97fps to 29.97, some frames are repeated twice and some three times (thus the 2:3 reference) in a cadence designed to be as smooth as possible. Simply put the 24 frames are extended to 30 frames within the same second. This was originally designed to exhibit programs shot on film at 24
to be shown on television.Nowadays displays are capable of operating at many different framerates, but if they were to reproduce 24 at 24 you’d see a flickering image. So they basically double the sapling to 48 or 96 to fill in the blanks.
Another benefit of using 24 (assuming you like the film look of the motion) is that it uses less storage space. You can save as much as 60% when shooting 24p vs 60p (as in the original Panasonic Varicam).
Don’t be confused by the whole number vs. fractional framerates; in the US (and other 60hz countries) 24fps really means 23.97, 30 fps means 29.97 and 60i means 59.94. The small fractional amount between the NTSC speed and the whole number is the area origionally in the TV signal that contained color information, and has carried over to this day. In PAL countries the frame rates arer whole numbers (25p and 50i).
Hope this helps,
JS
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Matt,
You’re asking all the right questions!
When you shoot at 23.97, 25 or 29.97fps to recreate the motion effect of film, you need to turn on the shutter to 180 degrees (or 1/48, 1/50 or 1/60th respectively) to mimic the motion of film cameras. To leave the shutter off makes for a more blurry look that will look in error.
JS
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Matt,
The reason there’s no 24 is that audio would not sync to it. 23.97 is a convention that is really 24fps but allows recording and playback with sync sound. The KiPro does not record the pull down cadence, that is usually created in playback off of the finished timeline.
25fps is the frame rate used in countries with 50hz electricity vs 60hz here in the states, where it would be a mistake to shoot at 25fps.
Hope this helps!
JS
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Hi Matt,
Even though we’re many years now into the transition from analog to digital video, your question still comes up frequently.
In the old days (analog) the bars and tone were recorded so as to have a standard audio and video level for proper lineup when copying or digitizing. On the receiving side there was level controls to assure an accurate audio and video level.
This is not necessary with digital signals as the levels are imbedded to “nominal” or standard already. There are no level adjustments downstream and the “file” is copied exactly as it was recorded. any further adjustments of audio or video levels are done in color correction and sound sweetening.
Another reason with tape for recording bars was to advance into the roll past any dirt that might be at the head; and again in the digital realm this is not necessary.
So save yourself and everyone else a lot of thirty seconds worth of time by forsaking bars and tone.
Cheers,
JS
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Seth,
The Go Pro Hero 2 has pretty much taken over for POV and small “lipstick” type camera use. It’s cheap, easy to mount and now has WiFi control. Check out their website:
JS
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Dennis,
An informed answer to your question would be to calculate how much action you wish to compress into how long a shot.
For example if you wanted to show the band setting up, which might take one hour in 30 seconds, first you calculate that 30 seconds equal 900 frames (@30P), then divide the one hour ( 60 minutes x 60 seconds = 3600 seconds) by 900 and voila: one frame every four seconds! This rate could also be described as 15 frames per minute.
Different sections of the show might last different lengths and the air time you want might change too, so different settings might be appropriate for different parts of the show.
JS
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David,
The shot you’re describing can really only be done with a “motion control” camera, where the movement of the camera for the foreground can be recreated whilst shooting the background and then composited together.
You would of course use a green screen (or other color) to hold the window out and I like your idea of some intermediate foliage behind the window and in front of the screen (thus requiring another color other than that in the foliage).The only other alternative of course is to shoot in a house in the jungle with three windows!
The use of a Steadicam precludes the ability of recreating the exact movement for both the foreground and background, unless you use plan B (shooting in house in jungle), although the motion camera movement can be programed to recreate a floating or handheld quality if that is part of the illusion.
Sounds expensive in any permutation.
JS
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Pan slower and/or use a wider lens. Settings sound correct.
JS
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Bo,
29.97 is not an interlaced format, it is either progressive or PsF. the only interlaced framerates are 59.97(aka 60i) in NTSC and 50i in PAL land.
29.97P is however an ideal format for the internet, with smooth motion and repeated fields that allow slo compression schemes to keep up.
As far as what frame rate to shoot, it is not really the camera-persons choice, although he or she should be capable of explaining the choices and offering a suggestion to a technically-challenged producer.
Ultimately, especially is there is confussion, consultation with the editor or post-production supervisor is universally the best policy (if possible) as this will preclude any blame falling on the camera crew.
JS