[John Sharaf]

Chris,

The magenta (aka minus green) gel can help, but the best way to avoid spill is to maximize the distance og the subject to the screen. also the darker “digital green” screens bounce back less color.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Mathew,

Thanks for taking my remarks so well.

You’re right that being delusional is not necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, the video you show to which you aspire was particularly a “high key” style. This was accomplished with very extravagant sets and large source lights. For example the shots of the three dancers required a light large enough (like a 20k fresnel) to backlight the width of their action, perhaps 20-25′ wide. Needless to say this can not be done with a 1K.

All I can suggest, knowing your “hobby” status is to keep it up and have fun. Perhaps one day you’ll get a budget and can apply your ideas with the proper “kit” (as they say in the UK).

Best regards,

JS

[John Sharaf]

Mathew,

There has been a lot of discussion lately (and in fact over the years here) about lighting “kits”. What’s the best kit? Can I light something like this with a kit? Etc.

Lighting “kits” were originally designed, invented and marketed for news crews and other traveling cinematographers. At best they are a compromise in terms of size, output and weight. For purposes that mimic what a news crew does, namely an interview and a stand-up, they are barely adequate and for every other purpose, especially production lighting as in the music video you cite, are in my opinion worthless, except perhaps as “worklights”.

The video you refer to was shot on a stage, were most of the time you are forbidden to even bring on your own lights, you must use the lights that the stage rents or sub-rents on your behalf. Unless you are a feature film type gaffer you wouldn’t even want to own the 20k and 10k Fresnels, 5k’s Skypans, and multiple PARS, Lecos and Moving Lights, etc. that most certainly were used to light that and other music videos, not to mention the cable and dimmers that would go with them.

If in fact you are shooting that type of video you should cultivate a relationship with the rental stages in your area and big lighting rental companies, for the same benefit or owning lights, namely to make money off them, can be realized by earning commissions from these companies when you bring them the big jobs.

I’m not saying not to buy an Arri kit or two for when you do a talking head on location, but to think you’re going to light a big time music video with lights that come in a travel box is delusional.

JMHO

JS

[John Sharaf]

Todd,

That’s about what I pay for a complete Source Four!

JS

[John Sharaf]

David,

My understanding of “gobo” is anything that’s placed between a light and the subject, i.e. “go-between”, so technically the “patterns” in your picture that you use in your projector lights are gobos too.

In addition a cook, cookie or cucalouris is a more practical shadow maker placed at some distance from the light to create a broken shadow pattern, along the line of Dennis’ broiler pans with holes punched in them, or black wrap used the same way. Commercial cooks are made from wood or cello and can be purchased from grip equipment manufacturers and have the advantage of being predictable and reusable, although they are difficult to store and transport unless you gave a grip truck.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Not an open face as much as a point-source!

JS

[John Sharaf]

Yes. Arriraw should be enabled with SUP 3.0 which we initially exected this December, then January, now they’re saying 1st quarter 2011. It will be a real party when this upgrade finally arrives, there will be something for everyone.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Gary,

According to the 2.o and 2.1 manual and the actual readout of the recoding format display on the camera the 12-bit 4444 IS fully implemented and functional on SxS cards. I’ve been using it almost exclusively.

Empirical proof is that in the 10 bit 422 setting we’re getting 21 minutes per card at 23.97 and in the 4444 setting we’re getting 14 minutes. This indicates if nothing else a fatter recoding with more data and information.

The ARRIRAW on the other hand, which is also a 12 bit 4444 format has not been implemented although I’ve seen beta version that works with the S.Two recorder as recently as last Thursday at Band Pro’s open house. This is an eagerly awaited feature on the Alexa as many high end users would like to have the full sensor readout in an uncompressed format for the ultimate quality.

For me the economy and ease of the various ProRes formats enabled on the SxS recoding is so much better than what we’ve had up to now that I couldn’t be happier or more thrilled.

JS

[John Sharaf]

Hi Chris,

I’m sure you know by now that the SUP 2.1 has implemented 60fps on all ProRes versions except 12 Bit 4444 which is limited to 40fps. this is the major feature of the upgrade and a few bug fixes. The next version 3.0 will have many of the features we’ve been waiting for like audio, exposure indicators and mirrored SxS card recording. I hope they also implement the SxS card spanning, but for some reason this is still meeting internal resistance within ARRI.

John Sharaf
Alexa Owner/ Operator
Pacific Palisades. Ca.

[John Sharaf]

Because the audio on the Alexa has yet to be implemented, for now you have to basically treat it as a film camera and “shoot” double system. Where a client wants playback, or instant dailies, I offer to record the monitor output (which is set to Rec 709 with the TC embedded) and the audio from the recordist into a seperate outboard recorder (like a Nanoflash, Ki Pro or even XDCAM deck). This way you can record C-Log to the cards and still have immediate playback/dailies of the 709 pictute with audio and matching time code.

The one inconvenience is that there is only one monitor output so you’ll have to loop back to an on-board monitor if you’re using one, and you should remember to tiurn of the framelines and on screen monitor displays.

John Sharaf
Alexa Owner/Operator
Pacific Palisades, Ca.