Rick Wise
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
-
So, Richard, what do you think of the book?
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
There’s one more book to consider, that I just ran across: The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, by Tom Schroeppel.
Sounds like you are well on your way.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
It’s great you are studying the films themselves. Rather than books, you might try a subscription to the American Cinematographer Magazine. You can subscribe to a print edition or an online edition: https://www.theasc.com/store/home.php?cat=263 Every issue has at least one article about “how we did it” often included detailed diagrams.
But all the reading in the world will do little for you until you get hands on.
You may want to consider film school.
You may want to just start working in movies, whether on video or film. Try to find work at the lowest post you can get — a PA, or assistant craft service person, anything. Try to make yourself really useful, no matter how menial the job. Work your way up.
Or you may want to just start shooting your own movies, even with the cheapest consumer camera you can find. Learn to read and use the light that’s already there — and to put your actors in “good” available light. Start adding a very few lights of your own, etc. Work your way into more complex and complete productions.
For books, in the few film classes I teach, my students read and work from two by Blain Brown: Cinematography, and Lighting for Film and Video (second edition.)
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Do you want to build a one-wall cyc or a two-wall cyc that meets in the corner?
The one-wall version is much, much easier to make; getting the two walls to meet seamlessly is much harder. It all depends on what you think you will need down the road.
As for how to build, I easily found some suggestions by Googling “build cyc wall” (without the quote marks.) First up: https://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrwizard/wkshps/photo/cyc/cyc.html There are several other promising links. Take a look.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
It sounds like you are close to finding the classic, “Paramount” solution to faces with wrinkles, i.e. aging stars. (See https://www.studiolighting.net/paramount-butterfly-lighting-studio-lighting-setup/) Note the additional fill light, which I have found sometimes works best just under the lens.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
As others have posted, rent first if you can. (Depends on where you live — lots of places, no rentals.) To buy a good SD camera will cost you close to the price of a decent, entry-level HDV camera.
On the issue of tape-based cameras vs. card-based: P2 may (or may not) be an expensive solution of the past. Work flow can be a bear. Probably because I’m so old fashioned, I would stick to tape for now. In that category, it looks like the Sony HDR-FX1000 for $3,200 is a great way to go: many of the features of the Z7u, for $2,400 less. No XLR inputs, but you can add a Beachtek adapter. Apparently excellent low-light-level capabilities.
One other consideration: can your computer and software handle HDV? Make sure you work the solution all the way through final delivery of your finished work.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
One little detail: do not try to balance inside levels to outside levels completely. The results will look false. The outside should look hotter, up to two stops hotter (for film — less difference for most video, but it depends on which video camera you are using and how good your techie is, if you have one. Best to judge with a very good monitor.)
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
This topic has been thoroughly discussed before. In general, the effect of most of the add-ons can be done within Vegas for no additional cost. In my view, the “looks” software can be done within Vegas; the transitions are largely worthless — who needs them? There a few, a very, very few, that are worth buying. One that I use as needed is ProDad Mercalli Steady. Get the pro version, if you buy it.
In any case, do a forum search for add-ons, or else search for posts by my name to track down additional posts by Steve and others. (You could search by Steve’s name, but he posts so often you will have a ton of posts to search through.) There are some Green Screen filters or stand-alones that seem to improve over Vegas, though I have no hands-on experience with them since the only green screen I shoot is full up and posted by full-up houses using very, very expensive software. If you want to upgrade some SD footage to HD there are also some (expensive) filters, most of which you cannot use within Vegas. Again, search the topic.
Bottom line: there are very few additional filters you need to buy, and each of them is expensive. When I started out as a shooter, some 50 years ago, I just had to try every camera filter I could find. Over time I learned that in most cases, no filter is best. The only ones I now use are various strengths of Classic Soft, for very special cases.
So it is with Vegas. What you got is mostly what you need or want. To put it another way: learn to use the tools you have before you go looking for more.
Best wishes.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Since I have never had to shoot Day-for-Night, I am no expert on this topic. The American Cinematographer Manual (I have the 7th edition) has a pretty good article on the technique. Some excerpts:
–The overall effect must be one of darkness. [In the case of a snowy scene, this remains true.]
–degree of underexposure will vary according to sky conditions, color and contrast of the subject and background, the strength, quality and direction of sunlight, and the particular effect desired.
–Very generally speaking, the most convincing day-for-night shots, in either color or black & white, are made in strong sunlight, under blue skies and with low-angle back-cross lighting. [back-cross lighting means a part of the face receives sunlight, and much of it remains in the shadow.]
–Skies give the most trouble, since they will invariably read too high and are difficult to balance against foreground action. Graduated neutral density filters, [placed to] cover the sky only, and polas, which will darken the sky with the sun at [45º to the sun], are both useful for either color or black & white films.
–[If use use a grad filter, and the actor crosses into the darker area, or tilt the camera down, you give away the filter and make a joke of the effect. Also, different focal lengths require either a sharp graduated filter (long lenses) or a soft-edge (wide lenses.) In either case, you need a matte box that allows you to slide the filter up or down, as needed.]
–[If you pan with a pola, the sky will change in darkness — also no good.]
–Typical underexposure is 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 stops
–If the sky is not sufficiently blue to filter properly, and it is impossible to use a graduated neutral-density filter, try to avoid the sky as much as possible.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Mark,
Terrific advice!
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com