Rick Wise
1
COW Coin
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PARs come in several versions, but they all are essentially units that put out raw light, as opposed to the light from a Fresnel unit. Watt for watt they produce more light intensity than the Fresnels. Some PARs are like auto headlights, self-contained, sealed units. Some, such as most of the HMI types, take various different lenses on the front that modify their output somewhat. None of them duplicate a Fresnel. I suspect that your eye-opening workshop worked with Fresnels.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Terrific that you have discovered some of the possibilities of hard light. As for these CAME lights, indeed, the price is right. Alas, the photos make it clear these units do not contain Fresnel lenses at all. They appear to be much more like raw PAR lights.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Go to B&H. Click your way to digital video cameras. On the left side, select only Sony. Then order the selection by either low to high, or high to low. Find the cameras in your price range, and start drilling down. B&H usually has pretty good specs, though not always.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Very nicely done. You used your sources well. The message works. Even an atheist like me can appreciate it.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Will you be shooting more than one device in the frame during each shot? Even if you have two of the same type, their refresh rates will not be in sync unless they are gen-locked. If the answer is yes, more than one at a time, the only solution is to put green screens on each and treat in post, for which there is no budget.
As to which cameras offer fine control over shutter speed and shutter angle, both of which can effect the roll-bar problems, you may get some answers from others here. You can also look up the specs of any cameras you are considering. The higher end the camera, the more you are likely to be able to fine-tune. Another budget issue….
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
The camera has little bearing here. It’s the dolly/grip and staging that is key. It takes an extremely good dolly grip to move the dolly and camera evenly over such a short distance and over such a long time. One thing will help you: propping so that there is almost constantly something in the close foreground, probably out of focus and somewhat shadowed, to sell that there is indeed movement going in.
Hmmm, just re-read your first post. You want a push in. You have a big problem here: seeing any rails. The only solution I can think of is to lay down a super smooth floor and dolly with no rails. I’d prop things close to the lens that are lit much darker than the main action — chairs, other actors, things hanging from above, etc., so that we feel we are moving through space.
If you combine a dolly move with a zoom move, both have to start and end perfectly together, extremely difficult to do without programming both dolly and lens, an expensive option.
Note that you will get the greatest kinetic sense of motion with a wide lens. At the start you will see the world and the main action will be tiny, but will grow in size relatively fast as you move in. If you shoot with a long lens, there will be much less sense of motion.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
One of the terms for slightly gray paper is “video white.” Also paint. Pure white is too “hot”.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Post a photo of the rig as you have it now.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Well, now, Todd, I don’t know about your school. I’ll have to stand up for the film school where I teach. I do get emails from former students telling me that I prepared them well, so that on the set they were able to really help from the first day. I’d add also that all that learning takes on new meaning when you get out there and have to perform or else. A lot of things that may have been somewhat abstract ideas (like the inverse square law) suddenly become real on the set.
I do think one can learn well by apprenticing without any school training. But if you can afford it, 3-4 years of film school will give you a huge leg up provided you pick the right school. Among the many benefits: networking with fellow students whose work you admire. Those bonds can go a long way when you are out there struggling to make a living at what you love to do.
The bottom line is, not matter which route(s) you pick, it will take both talent and hard, hard work to succeed in this business/art form. If you get some good luck too, so much the better, but that will never replace the first two.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
I’d add to that list: working with smart gaffers and grips who know much more than you do.
Some of this you can pick up in books such as Box’s “The Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook” and “Cinematography” by Blain Brown. (His lighting book is great except that it’s filled with typos. I have my students read from it and point out the sometimes very significant errors as we go.)
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com