Scott Sheriff
Forum Replies Created
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It’s a ’68 Parcel Delivery van. Grumman made the aluminum body, and it’s on a Ford 1 ton commercial chassis.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Steve Mullins] “‘Continuous Lighting 5400K, 85W (500w equivalent) pure white daylight bulbs'”
LOL. The SB in the link you provided is about enough light to do a fill on a one person portrait type set up.
There is not a lot of info in your OP about the look, how much fall off you want, if any, what kind of DoF, camera, lens, etc, but if you are talking about generically lighting something around 50′ x 100′, you are going to need at least 5-6K worth of light. More if you shoot through an overhead or butterfly.You should consider consulting with and hiring someone that has experience and knows how to light large areas.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Brian Mulligan] “Prius = iPad or iPhone.”
Yes, all three are overpriced status symbols.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Andrew Richards] ” Nobody has a box truck as a daily driver.”
My daily driver from 88 to 95.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Brent Bloem] “That’s neither here nor there, but one question I do have is, since we don’t have light meters, would you still impress the necessity of white balancing or would you simply abandon the concept in favor of AWB?”
Sorry to jack the thread…
The case for the light meter-
Maybe I’m old school, but to me a light meter is a basic essential, like a tripod, or a mic. Sure it is possible to light without one. But for most folks having one makes it easier to ‘see’ whats going on with any type of lighting, is great for scouting, and also means you can light without tying up a camera, which is what most people usually do. The Sekonic L-398 is a great choice for film/video lighting, and they are only about 200 bucks. A contrast viewing filter is cheaper, but harder to learn and use since it is somewhat objective. And it doesn’t give you any direct exposure data.Presets vs white balance.
Many cams have a 3200 and a 5600-6000 preset color temp, which makes this more like film where you have tungsten or daylight film. Some experimentation should be done. Some cameras have great presets, that look great in many types of mixed lighting, and some not so much. A lot depends on how the scene files are set up. Doing test shots so you see how the camera responds is the way to go.
There are some situations that a white balance will be the thing to do, but a properly used preset color temp will always beat a poorly done white balance. Part of the problem is they (operator white balances) are never the same, and if the operator does too many, has to reshoot a location, or makes a poor choice of which light to balance under in mixed lighting situations, the talents flesh tones will be slightly off. The pros and cons of when/why to use one, or the other is the thing to learn. Partially through teaching about different common lighting situations, plus some practical experience.I sort of see your point about camera operation. However the thing to learn is the technique for using the tool. So for example, once you understand color temps, you will know what you want to do, and what control your looking for.
Most cameras have the same controls, and after learning on one camera, they should just learn how to self-orient themselves to new gear and identify the basic operator controls.On editing, one of the things is how involved is the editor on other production elements. If you read these boards for any length of time you will see many cases where the editor was the last guy in the loop, and it was too late to change things that were wrong, and cost money and time to fix, or redo in post.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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A couple comments on the cinematographers syllabus:
[Brent Bloem] “• Wrap cables properly”
I like this. If I’m hiring an ‘unknown’ grip, utility, assistant type I throw out a 50′ XLR cable and ask them to wrap it. IMO this is a quick way to judge their experience.
[Brent Bloem] “• Set white balance”
You need to add an understanding of color temp. Lots of people know how to use the WB function, but still come back with crap because they don’t understand color temp. Common mistakes are doing too many WB adjustments on a gig and doing WB under different color temp lighting than the set conditions. If color correction is applied in post, I prefer footage shot in preset as if it were film, over footage with a bunch of different WB adjustments.[Brent Bloem] “Know exposure faux pas:
• Blowout
• Crushing
• Backlighting”
I wouldn’t call blowout or crushing faux pas. These are things that you have to do at times, either for ‘artistic’ reasons, or circumstances.There needs to be an understanding of the limits of dynamic range, and when/how to compromise.
Backlighting is not a production mistake, just a circumstance faced by photographers.[Brent Bloem] “• Use manual focus
• Adjust aperture”A discussion of Depth of Field would be appropriate here.
I see nothing in here about lighting. Basic lighting, passive lighting, safety and the use of light meters. This dovetails into not only color temps, but depth of field, expoure, and dynamic range. I see a few redundant things, and some advanced concepts that I would ditch in favor of lighting, how to and safety aspects. As an example white balance should be its own subject, and not repeated per camera.
I would also add a discussion stressing the use of the tripod over handheld, unless hand held is justified.
About editing. Much like being a DP, its a merging of tech, and art.
Whatever platform you use, a discussion of file management, logging, shot organization, how to judge takes, how to sync sound, codecs, and the basics of the platform. On tech, a discussion on frame rates, time code and codecs is mandatory. The story of how we end up with 29.97 and how drop frame works would be good too.
On actual editing I wouldn’t allow anything but a cut, split edit, dissolve, or fade to black. Editing is about exploring limits, and problem solving, in addition to telling a story. If you give everyone identical footage to cut I might even omit a key piece of footage and see what they come up with to deal with that.Two things I would discus in both shooting and editing is the importance of tests to understand new gear, and difficult or new circumstances.
The other thing is attitude, or better yet ‘Professional Attitude’. There seems to be a prevailing attitude among those that take these type of classes that they know it all. I have several people on my don’t rehire list because they had a crappy ‘know it all’ attitude and were not productive on shoots. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and learn something on every gig, and don’t want to hire or work with those that think they have that kind of experience from ‘a class’. All the really have is a license to learn.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Mark Suszko] ”
Gelling windows can sometimes be hard.”LOL, understatement of the week! The degree of difficulty is directly proportional to the desire to save the CTO for another job, squared.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Johnny Robinson] “How to light subject (interior shot) and expose for background through window (exterior)?
by Johnny Robinson on May 15, 2012 at 11:24:19 am”This is a very common problem, that has been covered pretty well here. A lot depends on the direction of the BG. North isn’t too bad to deal with and South is usually the hardest.
Typical solutions are:
ND on the widows.
Screen the windows.
Overpower the BG with big daylight balanced lights
Shoot during twilight.
Combination of the above.To add to all of that, most cameras have a pretty conservative curve in the factory default profile. Depending on what camera your shooting with, and what software you posting with, you can usually get one extra stop of headroom by shooting with 110% ‘super white’.
If your talent is a typical behind the desk talking head and doesn’t move a lot, or require any camera moves it is quite possible to shoot the BG separately at the proper exposure and matte this behind a properly exposed talent shot. Even if you don’t plan on doing this, you should roll off some of this anyway when doing these type of shots as a safety backup. Just grab a minute of it when your getting your room tone.[Johnny Robinson] “Window screens sound nice but how many stops of light can you kill with it?”
Window screen is typically one stop. A light meter is your friend here. Pretty easy to check whatever materiel under consideration before buying. Don’t own a light meter? Shame on you…
FYI, layering screen to get another stop is problematic and usually causes Moire’.Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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[Albert Prior Fell] “Most definitions that say that describe why the process is called ‘native editing’ aren’t very clear and most of it sounds to me like editing jargon, which doesn’t help. Is it a difficult thing to explain or much simpler”
Native editing is indeed jargon. If you want to right a report on this, you will need to learn some of it, and not be dismissive. Just like you would have to learn/use aviation or medical jargon if you were writing on those subjects.
What does it mean? Native means in its original form. It has not been transcoded to another format. FCP can edit HDV without transcoding to another format. H.264 is a codec that FCP does not edit natively, and must be converted to an ‘edit friendly’ codec.
Google and Wikipedia are going to be pretty helpful in the areas of editing codecs, and the nuts and bolts of how different formats work.A quick word of advice. This forums primary purpose is to assist working editors with problems, and most doing the assisting are editors doing this (for free) while they are busy working. It would be really helpful to all if you state your true purpose and questions clearly right off the top since most will be assuming that this is in regards to editing, and the person asking the questions is an editor.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
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Duplicate your footage on V3 (V1 & V3). Put a B&W gradient on V2. Blur the footage on V1. Make the V3 footage composite mode travel matte luma. Adjust the gradient to suit your needs.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” —Red Adair
Where were you on 6/21?
