Rick Wise
1
COW Coin
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PS: I’ve signed up to write a Cow article comparing many 4-bulb fluorescent units on price, output, color temperature, ease to pack up, weight with bulbs, etc. It’s a work in progress. There will also be a few non-4 bulb (like 9-bulb) units with similar output to the gold standard, the Kino Flo 4 x 4.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I tried, without success, to find any Konova units anywhere on the intgernet. You might look at Cool Lights, for example https://www.coollights.biz/cl655p-cool-lights-portable-watt-softlight-p-68.html, a 6-bulb unit for $588. They are out of stock for the moment, but you could phone them up for more information.
FloLight also makes a 6-bulb unit for $629, https://www.prompterpeople.com/fb-330.php
The Cool Lights HMIs are still blazingly expensive for low-budget work.
Finally, there is the option (perhaps not in your area) to rent when you need some extra lights for a specific project. I find that to justify any purchase, no matter my own lust, I have to be able to pretty well count on enough upcoming projects to pay it off fairly soon. The exception is when you are just getting started and have to jump in, cold. But that’s not your case.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
1) Yes
2) Your eye. Or else, take a very thin strip of black paper masking tape (cut to size) and by eye divide the LCD viewer into vertical thirds. If you like, you can also add horizontal lines. But much, much better to train you eye to see the composition.Remember, all rules a made to be broken when it comes to cinematography. However, it’s best to learn the rules before breaking them.
When you are the sole person in the frame, and speaking to camera, you might want to be in the left or right third, or you might want to be dead center. A lot depends on what else is in the frame. If you are in the left third, is there something in the right third to balance you? It could be a receding road, it could be a tree, a flower, part of a house, a painting on a wall, the item you are discussing, etc.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Obvious typo on my part: should be, “Soft box design”
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Try Googlesearches, both for “soft box dexign” and “softbox design”. At the top of the former is this link: https://www.diyphotography.net/studio-photography-the-best-softbox-ever
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
The Pro Titler is so hard to use that I just don’t use it. Where Vegas 8 does seem to be useful is faster speed rendering, and it’s almost essential if you want to handle HDV. For SD Vegas 7 will work just fine.
I’m sure other users will have their reasons to upgrade — or not.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Actually, 1/2 blue will work just fine. But mostly these China Balls work best in tungsten environments. With daylight, they are not going to have enough intensity, unless you are in a dark but daylit room.
Richard, did you take one of my classes? I should remember, but as you may remember, if you did take one of my classes, I have a devil of a time remembering names. Which is why I take pictures of my students and put them on flash cards. Still, three years later, the little gray cells are mostly empty on this topic. Fortunately I still function well on others….
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
I have to repeat: I have no use for Cinescore, which provides and produces really boring music. You can go the Acid route and create your own loop-music, or modify some already created for you. Each week you can download free loops, if you register at Sony, and eventually build up an amazingly rich library of loops. The drawback, they tend to a similar sound, and I find them mostly unusable.
I have had the best results using pieces from Dawnmusic.com, which cost around $12-24 for full rights per cut. It takes hours of digging through a gigantic library to find anything you would want to use. But it can be done, especially if you are adept at then slicing and dicing to fit the scene. I think there’s a better library: freeplaymusic.com. Only drawback: full commercial rights are much, much more expensive. On the other hand, if it’s a non-commercial project, you can use their music for free.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Richard, great details! Placing the light to the side is a great way to introduce the fundamental ideas that the key can be anywhere, and is often at its best when much, much more to the side than beginning filmmakers ever think.
One other notion: you can mount the China Ball on the end of a wooden pole (another hardware item) and have an “assistant” move it with the action as needed. A traveling key.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Wow! Thanks!
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com