[Todd Terry]

Phasing can be an issue, but it’s a cheap trial-and-error to grab one of these shop fixtures and run a test.

I have seen some phasing with mine, and some not… and it was always predictable and exactly repeatable.

I used my shop lights for greenscreen washing for a 16mm shoot once where I DID see phasing. Actually, I didn’t even see it myself, but it wasn’t noticed until the film was telecined. When the film was either being fast forwarded or rewound through the Spirit the colorist said “Hey, it’s phasing, I didn’t even notice that.” What we saw (only at fast motion) was an ever-so-slight increase and decrease of the intensity of the illumination on the greenscreen. Each phase took about 15 seconds to make its loop, and it was just barely a change. It was so minute and so slow that at normal speed you couldn’t even see it, and it did not affect keying. My 16mm camera had a non-variable (fixed) 180° shutter.

I never had any noticeable phasing when shooting 35mm film using the shop lights. My 35mm camera has a 170° fixed shutter.

I’ve never had any phasing at all when shooting video… and typically shoot 24p (23.976fps) with a 1/48th (180°) shutter. If I ever did detect any phasing, I’m sure I could click over to clearscan mode and dial it right out with a more precise shutter speed.

It probably depends on the combination of the ballast in the fixture, and how clean your power is… but I’ve never had any issues.

I’ve also always found the 2-bank four footers to be more than bright enough. In fact, our stage space is fairly small so sometimes I’ve found them to be overkill, and had to use them with only one tube in them. We buy both daylight and tungsten temp tubes, readily available at the hardware store. For greenscreen work a high CRI is not critical and their color temps are just fine.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[andy lewis] “We’ve budgeted for 2 x Kino 4banks (and might even get the green lamps to make the neighbours jealous) but it is a stretch. Do you think they will be worth it over cheapo CFL bulb units in softboxes?”

If I were in your shoes, I would definitely go with 4′ flos to light the greenscreen, a much better choice over softboxes.

You said this would be doing this many times over three months, though. If I would in your shoes I wouldn’t burn up my budget on Kinos, though (as much as I love Kinos… big fan here). I’d use 15-buck shop lights from Home Depot or Lowes.

Here’s a post of mine from a previous thread…

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/47/860645

You might want to read the whole thread, too. For probably less than a hundred bucks you could rig out several of these (and you would own them… could even leave them in place if this room is dedicated for the 3-month period). In a room that size I’ll probably use four two-bank fixtures… two horizontally across the top and one vertically on each side.

I try not to be a lighting snob… I very much like good and “proper” instruments, and we have a decent arsenal of very nice fixtures. But for something like greenscreen work the shoplights are my go-to fixtures. They work like a charm and are throw-away cheap.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I did have to laugh at this a little bit though… as their marketing mumbo jumbo says their tape is “Available in a variety of colors.”

I think they ascribe to Henry Ford’s theory that you can get it “In any color you like… as long as it is black.”

If you were to actually try to order it, their tape is actually available only in black. Unless you want the 1″ tape, which is available in the wide variety of black… or white.

Not that I care… out of probably a few thousand rolls of tape I’ve gone through in my career I think maybe two rolls were not black… that’s all we ever buy.

The marketing did make me smile, though.

T2

P.S. I do now see that they sell an 18 buck core adapter that lets you use other brands of tape in the thing. I should have read more before spouting off earlier.

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Simplest and smartest thing I’ve seen in a long long long time.

Expensive though. Their tape also is slightly pricier than we’d usually pay for plain black gaff. I’m wondering if, say, a regular industry-standard ShurTape roll will fit in the thing?… or if their core size is purposely slightly different so you have to buy their tape?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Oh I think you’d definitely want your greenscreen at the end. I’m assuming you’ll want a full-length head-to-toe view of your dancers, and if you put the screen on the long wall by the time you get any separation from the talent to the greenscreen you’ll they will be way close to the camera, even if you’re backed up right against the wall.

I wouldn’t even consider the long wall as the screen wall, not for a second.

And yes, it was Mark who mentioned the vinyl flooring. I haven’t tried that, but I know Mark has found it works well. He’s the president of the Paint-the-back-of-Vinyl-Flooring Fan Club (the “Congoleum Cartel”), although I’ve often wondered if that doesn’t cut into his duties as head of the LRFOTSHILL* Organization.

* “Last Remaining Fans Of Those Scorching Hot Infernal Lowel Lights”, members affectionately known as “The Blisters”

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I would think that could be easily fixed by adding another lighting instrument…. but not something on or at the camera as you tried…

Just a little special of some kind down near the problem area….

It doesn’t even have to be a “real” instrument… could be anything… a clamp light from the hardware store, an LED shop light from Harbor Freight, someone’s desk lamp that you borrowed when they weren’t looking… anything to kill the shadows and brighten up that area. I wouldn’t worry much about color temp in this instance.

You’d probably have to put it fairly close and garbage matte it out of the scene, but that’s easy breezy.

All that being said though, I’m a bit surprised that KeyLight wasn’t able to pull you a clean key with that scene.

T2

P.S. My sticking-my-nose-in-it addendum from the “we didn’t ask directorial advice” department would be, “Why would anyone ever want a head-to-floor shot of this scene anyway? I suppose there is a reason….

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’ll answer your question with a question… if a cop stops you for driving too fast can you tell him “It’s ok officer, this is my friend’s car and he gave me permission to speed and says send the ticket to him.”?

No, no one can give you permission to break the law (if so, then “Hitman” would appear more frequently on job descriptions), and no one can give a production company “permission” to use copyrighted materials that they don’t own the rights to, or tell you “It’s ok, we’ll take the blame.” You still share in the liability.

Most of us most frequently see this with clients who want to use copyrighted music, and when we tell them we can’t, they are kind enough to give us the go-ahead and say they will absorb any unlikely blame. Ummmmm…. no.

In your case it’s not just the illustrations (which you say you can edit out), but the aloud reading of a “large portion” of a children’s book. Do you have permission to use this text, read aloud, from either the author or publisher (likely both)?

Since you clearly say this is a product that will be sold that is verboten. Depending on the financial arrangement between you and your client regarding sales, that could weigh fairly significantly as to how much liability you share. In the end it might be none, and it be held that your client is the sole (or primary) culpable party. However, you would definitely get sucked into it to some degree.

Plus at this point you can’t even plead ignorance (“I thought we had permission”) because you clearly know, broadcast in a public forum, that you do not.

And.. what your client is doing is clearly wrong.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

A few years ago I “invented” (sadly, only in my head) a genius device that sorta is along the lines of what Bob is asking about…

I always thought it would be so infinitely useful if there was a a little test device… just a gadget with a plug on it… that you could stick in an outlet and it would tell you what kind of load was already on that circuit.

This would have been super useful on location, and keep us from tripping breakers in practical locations that frequently led to large amounts of cursing from other parts of buildings in businesses when whole banks of computers suddenly went dark, and the like. When I mentioned it, I had several other DPs tell me that such a gadget would be a godsend.

I inquired about it with several different electrical-engineer-types about the feasibility, and their reactions varied wildly from “impossible” to “no way” to “can’t be done.” I find that hard to believe, but I’m not an EE guy. Surely there is a way.

It eventually became a moot point though… with camera changes though the years my lighting needs (and styles) have drastically evolved, and now for the most part the big-wattage instruments like our HMIs just gather dust here and battery-powered LEDs are our go-to fixtures of choice now… so for me personally the gadget is not nearly needed as much as it once was.

Still, it would be very cool to have.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Nick’s needs/wants are similar to mine.

Size is very important. We have our own stage here, but it’s small. If we ever need a big set or room for more than one vehicle we go elsewhere, so size is important. I’d say virtually the ONLY reason we ever rent space is because our stage is too small, so that’s number one in my book.

Accessibility is up there too. Ideally it should have both a loading dock (regular dock height) and a ramp so that you can load straight from a truck and drive a vehicle onto the stage floor. If the stage floor is ground level (drive right on it), then the opposite setup would be nice… a ramped loading “pit” that you can back a truck down into for easy off-loading.

Sound-proofing (and physical location) is right up there as well. My favorite stage space here in my city (which sadly is no longer in use) was a multi-million-dollar true state-of-the-art stage… built right beside railroad tracks. I mean right beside them… like 20 yards away, maybe. The whole stage floor, several thousand square feet, was a completely suspended floating floor to counteract train vibrations… but you could still hear it a bit. They had this unbelievably expensive totally-silent HVAC system… yet you could hear the darn train. Another otherwise great stage in Atlanta is right in the flight path of Hartsfield International… and you can definitely hear the planes.

Those are my top issues… your mileage may vary.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Matt Wilson] “What about “Videography” or “Video Production” at the ending?”

“Videography” in particularly to me sounds a bit low-rent. Also, “videography” and “video production” are two fairly different things (production encompassing a great deal more than just shooting, obviously)… if you want a name that is really representative of what you do. Unlike my company, obviously… ha.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com