Rick Wise
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COW Coin
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Scott, you warm my heart!
Zone systems are I. Can’t live without my Pentax Digital Spot and the Zone overlay.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Harry C. Box states on p. 203 of the Set Technician’s Lighting Handbook, 4th edition, that “Most Fresnel and par fidtures that use single-ended globes have a good range of tilt. Lights under 4K can generally be pointed straight up or down. Fixtures 4K and over are generally limited to 75º up or down from horizontal. Double-ended HMI lamps generally are assigned a more restrictive range of up/down tilt and also have restrictions on how much they can be operated tilted sideways — usually plus or minus 15 degrees left and right.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Try the hardware store for security mirrors.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
To my knowledge, all larger Fresnel and par lights are not meant to burn either straight down or straight up. An open-faced 2K is as large as I’d go.
A thought: rig a shiny board or a large parabolic mirror in the rafters, angled so that when you hit it from the ground it bounces back to fill the silk. Avoids straight up or down.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Fabric? Like a large long bolt of white muslin pulled tight at each end? Two frames together will probably show the frame lines. It is possible that you won’t see those lines in reflection, but it is also possible you will…. A half day will be tight, jammed….
Possibly a bolt of mus plus two-4 frames…. The overhead needs to be larger than the car by quite a bit, as well as any side reflections. The higher up it is, the larger it needs to be.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Todd, just saw your post. I’ve shot a few cars for glamor. The first rule to remember is every car is a giant curved mirror. So you are right about having very, very large lighting surfaces. You are trying to get smooth highlights that slide along the curves. There are special lights made just for this purpose, but clearly not available to you.
I think I’d fly the biggest white/bleached muslin I could find just above the top of the camera frame at its widest. Then given the height of that room I’d find a lighting unit I can fly way above the muslin to given even, spotless illumination of the muslin.
An alternative, possibly: rent some “chicken coops” (cheap); bottom them with 1/2 grid cloth, and line them up over the car per the above. Someone might have to make a trip to your now distant supplier….
Then I’d probably add another giant white surface (possibly a series of 4×12 foamcores) to put a reflection into the side panels. Or, possibly, light up the wood those panels “see.”
You may have to take down and restring those christmas lights as they are likely to show up as white dots all over the sheet metal. Otherwise, the wooden structure itself should prove helpful.
If the windows are far enough in the background, they will just be blown out highlights that probably will look cool on your C300.
From the angle in the location photo, make sure all clients and gear are to the left where they can’t show up as tiny reflections later. So many tears….
Do take pictures and let us know how it all works! Knowing you, the results will be fabulous.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
If that Sekonic is the L39, it includes a dial calculator to show f/stops. One use with video: when lighting a complex set, use it to make sure the key areas have the same light intensity.
After that, it’s often difficult to set iris with a meter. You have to determine the true sensitivity of your camera, and many of them have different sensitivities depending on the type of light as well as whether you are working in low-light or lots of light.
If you are looking to expand your lighting control, you may find one of these has a use. Otherwise, enjoy it as a relic of a not-so-distant past when we shot true film negatives.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Now, now Todd, I did NOT say black out those windows, at all. And I do agree with you: it’s a beautiful space. Your suggestion of the Canon C300 is a great addition to this topic. Wish I’d thought of it….
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Interesting challenge. I know zip about that strange Panasonic camera but I am guessing you are familiar with it.
About the room: the windows face West but it appears there is a wall outside it, so the sun can never penetrate very far.
Color temperature: either all your lights need to be daylight-balanced, or you gel the windows with CTO. Gelling looks doable, provided you can get access to the outside of those windows. In either case, probably not shoot toward the windows.
If you stay with daylight, use daylight bulbs in those China balls. Kino Flo makes 26w CFLs for daylight and also for tungsten balance, roughly the equivalent of 100 watts each. Not a lot, but with all those China Balls, probably decent ambient level if those cameras are good at low light levels.
Your planned overheads may be too much light in relation to the rest of the room but you can always turn off bulbs….
Be careful of the back light on Buddha. You way want to unplug the existing fluorescent tube and put up a kino flo instead.
I agree with Bill that maintaining the same light over seven hours will be very difficult if you let in daylight, filtered or not. However, since this video progresses through time, and you would not have to cut from a shot at say 10:00 am with one shot at 3:00 pm, the changes should appear natural. You may, however, find yourself adjusting iris a bit as you go, which can make things tricky. Still, I’d hate to black out those windows.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
I’m not sure what kind of lamp housing you are using with your soft box. Solutions: lamp with smaller (less wattage) lamp(s); add wire scrims in front of the bulb housing if possible; add ND sheets to the front of the unit.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com