Leo Ticheli
Forum Replies Created
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You might consider another option for your key light; a 500W source behind a Chimera is pretty wimpy, and is tungsten only. A poor choice for shooting in rooms with daylight windows. Your color pallet will be mixed unless you gel the windows, a labor and time-consuming process.
I would recommend a Kino Flo Diva 400; it’s nice and soft with a bit of very light diffusion and can be tubed for either tungsten or daylight. We very rarely go with tungsten tubes, by the way, so you can buy those only if really needed.
You can pick up a Diva 400 for under $800.00.
Another choice, although a good bit heavier and more expensive, is the Mole Richardson Biax 8; it’s around $1100.00, but is powerful enough to shoot with daylight windows in the shot without unacceptable blowout. It’s my favorite small key light for location shooting.
Except for shooting in the studio and some night interiors, you should find daylight-balanced fixtures far more practical. Since HMI’s are terribly expensive, fluorescent fixtures are a great choice.
In addition to the ability to do either tungsten or daylight, the fluorescent lights burn cool and draw very little power.
You might rent first and give your options a try.
Good shooting!
Leo
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Trying to put a battery on a camera-mounted Panasonic 8.4″ monitor is insane.
Make a short cable bundle with video and power from the Anton Bauer plate on the camera. I alway travel with two of these, just in case a connector pulls loose.
With the heavy-duty arm, everything will be dandy.
Good shooting!
Leo
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Simple; both.
We mount the 8.4″ on the camera with an Israeli arm and use the 17″ for the client.
We just put in a couple of the new 26″ Panasonic LCD’s; wonderful.
Good shooting!
Leo
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Hi Mike,
I’m not sure we need to do things the way we formerly did.
In the field, you don’t need to record the bars to setup the monitors; if you need do much at all. We’re using the Panasonic 17″ LCD’s in the field and they are very stable.
In post, the monitors are setup by the engineer and we never, and I really mean never, have any kind of system drift from job to job, much less tape to tape.
I intend to continue recording bars at the tape head, but am switching to :10.
If I were shooting on rental gear or for post outside my own shop, I would record a full :30.
Good shooting!
Leo
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Hi, John!
I suggested in a professional forum that we do away with color bars with our HD cameras and was soundly hammered into the ground by other forum members.
We are indeed slow to change in this business; I think the :30 color bars at the head of the tape are a hold-over from two requirements; the need to set up analog machines and the old film days when scratches and damage was more likely to occur at the head and tail of the tape.
I’ve never seen any kind of drop out or other problem at the head of an HD video tape, but I still slavishly record the :30 color bars.
Perhaps I’ll show some real courage and move to :10 of bars!
Good shooting!
Leo
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At the risk of over-simlifying, you have to find someone willing to hire and train you.
Now, here are some of the skills/attributes I believe are necessary to be a good colorist:
1. The ability to listen and understand what the cinematographer wants; obviously, there is no one right look and you’ve got to deliver what the director and cinematographer need to tell the story. Of course you have the opportunity to take things further than they’ve imagined, if you’re good enough.
2. A great eye for color as a design element and an understanding of the psychological aspects of color.
3. An uncompromising demand for technical excellence; you can never deliver a job that is out of specification.
4. Remarkable people skills; you will be working long hours in an environment that is sometimes highly emotionally charged. Projects take on a life of their own, they are much more than a piece of film or digital content; they are someone’s baby. Furthermore, you’ll probably hear a lot of life stories in the telecine room so you’ve got to part priest or bartender. Sometimes you even have to be a mediator when there are differences of opinion among the clients.
5. A broad general knowledge of both fine art and cinema; you will often be asked to deliver a look that is derivative of a painting or film.
That’s all I can think of for now. Some of my fondest associations in this business have been with colorists, and camera assistants too; I no longer shoot film, so I rarely have a dedicated AC, and we do our color grading in-house, so no more hours in the telecine for me.
Best of luck in your quest.
Leo
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This was recently asked here at the Cow and the answers varied; some preferred to dye coats a grey color.
It may be a matter of taste or style, but I’ve always preferred to allow a little clip in the whites for this kind of work; it seems to put a nice bit of glow into a clinical setting that suggests, “clean” and “high-tech.”
I very often do not use a kick light, but adding a very noticeable edge in this case seems to motivate the burn out.
Back in the bad old days of video with cameras that couldn’t hold detail in the whites at all, we had to use flags just to shoot suits in white shirts. The standard prescription to the talent was to wear light blue shirts; today, it’s just no problem at all, even with individuals with very dark complexions. VariCams and others I’m certain, have no trouble holding detail in the highlights, however, I still like a bit of burn out for the reasons above.
If you’re shooting with a less capable camera and you’re on the run with limited crew, equipment, and time, you are faced with three choices:
You can hold the detail in the whites and have talent resemble burned matchsticks, you can replace the lab coats with something darker, or you can enjoy some degree of detail loss in the whites.
Obviously, I prefer the latter.
If you have the time & flags, you can pull down the light on the whites, but that really liimits the movement of the talent.
Hope this helps.
Good shooting!
Leo
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I’m using O’Connor heads on Vinten carbon fiber legs.
The early Vinten legs were terrible, with broken locks. Still not crazy about the mid-leg spreader operation; it ratchets in the wrong direction for my tastes.
I strongly advise you to try the fluid heads for yourself; some, me included, prefer more drag than the Sachtler offers. Others like a lighter range. It’s very much a matter of feel and you’ll be living with your fluid head for a long time, so try before you buy!
By the way, I think Sachtler now owns O’Connor; thankfully, they did not change my personal favorite for dolly use, the 2575. It’s a great head, but far too heavy for most tripod uses unless you have a couple of very beefy grips!
Good shooting!
Leo
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For a first attempt, it’s not bad.
You did do a lot of things that could have been done much better, but rather than give specific advice, which I feel is probably obvious to you anyway, let me give you something I think is more important when approaching any project.
Create consistent with the resources you have!
Just an example:
No professional voice-over? Don’t use one; go for music and let the pictures tell the story! Use text where you must. I think your script is unnecessarily wordy anyway; sounds like it was dictated by a client who wanted to make every point they could think of!
Words need white space too! It’s very difficult to sell more than one idea in a spot. Don’t be afraid to ruthlessly cut copy!
You chose one of the most difficult situations to shoot; not just food, which is hard enough, but pizza, which is very specialized with those dramatic “cheese melt strings” shots.
I’m not advising you to lower your sights, but to simplify.
Congratulations on your efforts; I think you’re on the right track.
Good shooting!
Leo