[Rick Wise]

Dang, you’re right, Steve. I tried a free trial download. Couldn’t get anything better than my original SD. Maybe I don’t know how to use this.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Take a look at my article on Shadows: https://magazine.creativecow.net/article/lighting-with-shadows That should get you started thinking about what makes “noir” noir.

Think about keying with 3/4 back light. You can use foamcore or other white reflective material to bounce some of your key back to fill in the shadow side — but don’t overfill. Move the reflective stuff further back or closer until the amount of bounced fill satisfies your eye.

What motivates your light? Spill from a house? The moon — in that case, the light is probably rather dim.

If possible, have an external SMPT monitor to check the look. In any case, use your zebras to control the level of exposure. Let’s assume you want a hot light source: If you set zebras to 100, you should iris down so that the snow has almost no zebras showing. Why? Because video clips anything over 100%: anything over 100% becomes solid white with no texture. Lots of cameras also turn anything over 100% to an ugly fringed color. Tiny little pockets of zebra stripes are OK.

But if you are simulating moonlight, or some distant light source, then the light would be pretty dim, maybe so dim you can only see people in vague silhouette; closeups might reveal just an edge of light on the face and a tiny bit of fill.

Try also to have something in the frame truly black. The eye loves seeing “reference” black and “reference” white in the frame. The reference white might be a distant window in a house/cabin etc. Being small and hot could work.

It’s all in the eye of the DP. With the OK of the director. No rules.

I know of no professional lighting units for under $100. Some people have reported using construction site lights from Home Depot. Might work. You can also hang shower curtain in front of these lights to soften, if you want to.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Steve, Know anything about this $30 stand-alone?: https://www.thedeemon.com/VideoEnhancer/

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

I think you have two choices: decide you want everything to look “widescreen” with black bars top and bottom, or else you want everything to be 4:3.

To make everything look “widescreen,” you can try this: go to a shot that is 4:3; open pan/crop; in the preset window, select 16:9 and apply it. However, most likely the preset will not match the bars you find on your existing widescreen shots. If the lines do match up, then right-click on the shot in the timeline, select “copy”, go to each 4:3 shot, right-click, select “paste event attributes.”

If the preset 16:9 bars do not match up with your existing widescreen shots, add two rows of generated black above your video. Mute one of them. With pan/crop, cut the bottom of one so that it matches the black bars of the existing widescreen shots. Un-mute the second line of black and then cut the top of the other so that it too matches the existing widescreen shots. ( Then your 4:3 shots will be cut off top and bottom.) For either solution, if there is critical matter being cut off either at the top or bottom of 4:3 shots, you will need to slide the shots up or down, one by one, to reveal the important parts.

To make everything look 4:3, go to file/properties; make sure under “template” you have slected NTSC DV (720 x 480) or equivalent, NOT a widescreen version. Then go to one of the shots; open pan/crop, right click on the image in pan crop, select “match output aspect.” That will crop the shot to 4:3. Then right-click on the shot in the timeline, select “copy”; go to each of the other widescreen shots, right click, and select “past event attributes.”

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

This topic has been covered before. Try a search for “YouTube”.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

If you are at sea or on a lake, this will be a much tougher assignment. If you are docked, then you can 1)draw ac power from the dock and / or a generator placed far enough away to be quiet and b)have less shifting light to worry about though the sun will change directions throughout the day.

Assuming you are docked, you can:

–push more daylight through the portholes by using reflectors (assuming it’s a sunny day — otherwise you can use 1200 HMIs bounced into reflectors for a similar effect); you may want to put trace or other diffusion on the outside face of the portholes to create a soft key. In this case, you could put the 1200 HMIs directly through the portholes, though rigging them at the right angle will be a challenge. Be sure you have at least one good rigging grip on your crew. If using just reflectors, you may want one or more mirror reflectors to direct the sunlight into the soft side of standard reflectors placed just outside the portholes. Better to use lights than reflectors, if your budget and AC permits, since the sun shifts so much you will be forever chasing it with your shiny boards.

–bounce light into white foamcore taped to the ceiling — again, 1200 HMIs probably your best bet

–add additional side key with LEDs if you can find them, otherwise more bounce.

–the problem could be that you end up with a too-flat look. Start turning off lights until you get the balance you like.

–keep everyone out of the shooting area not absolutely essential to the job — keep talent out while lighting, then crew and clients out while shooting; put video village above deck or in an adjacent room if there is one. It’s going to be a tight fit for everyone. Remember to bring patience and good cheer.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Thanks, John. Is there a way within Vegas 8 to convert 60i to 30p or does it take an add-on?

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Andrew, it looks like you don’t yet understand the terms, tungsten vs daylight. Kinoflos can have either tungsten or daylight tubes (as well as super blues, super greens, and a few other colors.) The big advantage of KinoFlos is that you can tube them with daylight tubes when shooting in daylight, and tube them with tungsten when shooting indoors where there are practical tungsten units such as warm whites etc. The disadvantage to Kinos is that they are always soft light, and they don’t put out a whole lot of light. Shooting interiors this isn’t usually a big problem, but outside it often is.

Good tungsten units remain the same color temperature for a long, long time.

Various Kinos and other similar fluorescent fixtures can and often do tend toward a green spike, especially if they get hot (as they do when pointed straight down.) Hence it is a good idea to check the color temperature with a color-temperature meter (expensive) and/or a color-critical monitor, and to have on hand 1/8 and 1/4 minus-green gels to correct when needed.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Nothing wrong with this kit. However, be aware that it is entirely a tungsten kit, and if you are shooting in daylight environments you will need to add at least 1/2 CTB (blue) to all your units. You will also find yourself wanting to cut light with C-stands armed with flags and cutters. I don’t have time to research a better bang for your buck, but I suspect there is one out there for you. Do plan to add some diffusion (opal and 1/2 grid) as well as some warming gels (1/4 and 1/2 CTO), some cooling gels (1/4 and 1/2 CTB), some minus green ( 1/4 will do) and some plus green (1/4 will do). (If 1/4 strength is not enough, double it up to make 1/2.)

It is probably better to buy a really solid kit, such as the Arri, than a flimsier one that will break sooner. However, it may be that Lowel offers more bang for the buck, and if you are careful with these units they too should last a long time. Lowels are not as robust, however, as Arri or Mole, which is why rental houses rarely offer them. There are also Dedo lights and KinoFlos to consider.

Many options. Take the time now to explore, make a decision, and make that decision work for you, with no regrets.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

if all you need is a picture of equipment on your list, then have the kid look up the unit under the manufacturer’s name. There he/she will find pictures. Also some retail shops, such as Bhphotovideo have good pictures.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com