[Todd Terry]

I’d tell them to either 1) bring you a drive, or 2) that you’d be happy to sell them one, and then charge them whatever your hourly suite rate is to transfer the footage.

And then I’d wash my hands of it. This gig is tainted.

I’m not sure what attorneys’ policies are about paying for footage when they call (and they will), but if they don’t pay well what it is worth to you, you can always default to “all footage has been turned over to the client.”

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I don’t think the cap has much or anything to do with it, nor would it preclude you from lighting that guy the way you normally would.

I don’t think it’s bad but there are a couple of issues going on there. Firstly because you moved your key light so close to the camera you have a very front-on coming-right-at-you key. That makes the guy look very flat and uninteresting. It also makes him look different from the rest of the room which has some fairly heavy shadowing going on… so the end result is a very flat “pasted in” look to the guy.

I don’t really have an issue with the eye reflections… all eyes will (should) have reflections. I think your client was just searching for something to describe what they felt was “wrong” about the scene and that’s what they latched onto. As i said, all eyes will have reflections… if they didn’t the guy would definitely have a very dead-eyed “children of the damned” look to him. But the position of the key does give a fairly more-toward-center reflection, and maybe they find that odd. The only eyeball reflections that ever bother me personally are the “donut around the pupil” reflections you get from ring lights… and this certainly isn’t the case.

In hindsight, I’d light this guy more the way I’d normally light someone in that environment, with a key more to the side, and some fill on the other side, either bounced or with another instrument. I’d also probably add a bit of a back/side light, to cut him out of the background and maybe even give him a little coming-from-behind splash across the side of his face. His hat is not causing any issues, especially the way he has it cocked back on his head. If it does cause any cave-like shadows, just lower the instrument(s) a bit. You’re probably used to raising your instruments to combat eyeglass reflections… it’s just the opposite of that. As long as you don’t lower them too much (you don’t want to get below the eyeline, or you’ll start getting that Boris Karloff look) it should be fine.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I’d just let it go… for a couple of reasons…

1. You didn’t have to complete the job, so you didn’t have to do the work anyway.

2. I think this company is going to be dealing with a lot of problems in the upcoming days/weeks/months… and I kinda doubt your invoice will be getting front-burner attention… if they even end up having any money to pay it. Or if there is even still a company.

3. It just seems vaguely creepy.

I would, though, make sure to hang on to all of the footage and keep it handy. You know, for the subpoenas. 🙂

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Hmmm… no the Boltzens run just fine at full power off an NP battery, that’s what we do all the time. I will say they are a little bit power hungry. If I use them full blast they will probably exhaust a larger-capacity NP battery in 30-40 minutes or so (maybe even less), but we always travel with a crate full of them so it’s never been an issue. There have been a couple of times shooting a live event (which is not what we normally do) that I knew I was going to need continuous light from them for a 90 minutes or so with no opportunity to change batteries, so I didn’t use the on-board NP batts… I used goldmount bricks. The Boltens come with a standard powertap cable so we were able to just plug it right into the brick battery and that was a good solution for longer run times.

I have to say sadly I do not know the exact photometrics on the Boltzens, but they are plenty bright enough for any use I’ve put them through. Then again, the sensitivity of cameras today is a far cry from back when I was shooting 35mm film (when an ASA of 50 or 100 was the norm, and 500 was considering unbelievably fast), so I’m using much less firepower light-wise than I used to, and often my lighting plots are as much subtractive as they are additive… it’s not uncommon for me to use the Boltzens at nowhere-near full power, and I’d say the same with my other instruments… I rarely if ever use my Astras (we have the 4x models, before the 6x ones came out) at full power, except maybe during daylight exteriors.

That frensel attachment is super interesting, I’m not sure I knew something like that existed… but I’m not really up on all the Bowens attachment accessories that are available (since Bowen-mount instruments and modifiers are really much more thought of as something in the still photography world). I really like the Studio Essentials instrument itself, too…. except for the AC. I’m a bit dumbfounded that they don’t have a battery option, it certainly would be easy enough for them. That’s a total deal breaker for me, I’ll never again even consider an instrument that’s not battery powered, or at least has that as an option. Others may not feel as strongly about that as I do… but after powering instruments with AC for 30 years, being able to “cut the cord” is one of the biggest game changers we’ve ever experienced (and I’m not going back…period). If you are planning on shooting primarily on stage or on locations where you are certain you will have AC, then they might be a good option. They are certainly cheap enough and the throwaway price means you don’t have to consider them a huge investment… if you only use them on the one project then even then they might be a decent choice.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

HI Patrick…

Yes… LED panels are great (I use them every day), but they are definitely soft instruments. My go-to instruments for soft LED lighting are the LItePanels Astras and the “flapjacks” from FotodioX.

But… those are all definitely the wrong tool if you want to cut the light with barndoors, or focus them down to a spot.

To do those things you are really going to need fresnels.

Back in my tungsten days I was a big fan of LTM Pepper fresnels and used them like crazy. Now that we are pretty much all-LED here now, and when I want harder light I use the exact instruments you mentioned earlier, the Boltzen 55 fresnels… and am pretty happy with them. I will say though that even those are not true fresnels (it’s not a real fresnel lens in them) and the LED source inside is (exactly like that Studio Essientials one you linked to) a single largish LED, so you still don’t get quite the focusability and cuttability with it, compared to a real true fresnel. In most cases though it is very adequate.

That Studio Essentials instrument is interesting… it seems powerful and the price is right… but it’s open face design shows us that it was really made for softbox use. I briefly looked and I didn’t readily see what modifiers are available for it… most are probably going to be things like dish-type reflectors, snoots, and that sort of thing. I didn’t see anything that would turn it into a true focusable instrument… maybe there is, but I didn’t see it.

To me, the killer on it though is the lack of battery power… and that’s a total deal breaker. For the last couple of years we’ve gone only to instruments that are battery powered, and it has been unbelievable in how freeing that is… I can’t imagine ever going back to hardwired instruments (maybe on stage on occasion, but never on location). If I never have to run a stinger again it will be fine by me. Our only exception here is when we need a lot of firepower, we’ll still run HMIs off AC… but that’s it. And frankly I can’t wait to replace those with battery-powered instruments, now that the real big and bad LEDs are available to give me the equivalents of those.

Oh… and the Aputure you mentioned is in the same boat… it is essentially an open-faced instrument… it’s probably cuttable to a degree with barndoors (and probably much more so with flags), but it’s not focusable down to a spot (well, maybe with a snoot).

I’m not really sure what to specifically recommend… but to do what you want you should be looking at fresnels.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

The only “legacy” type work we’ve done has been, sadly, for funerals… and we’ve only done that a couple of times.

A couple of times we’ve gotten that urgent call “Uncle Joe just died and his funeral is Tuesday, we’ve got all these pictures and videos and were wondering….”

We did take those jobs, and the clients payed plenty (and rush/overtime rates), and on the spot. I’ve thought myself “Hmmm that seems like an underserved market there…” and would probably be relatively easy to hook up with one or more funeral homes… but it’s not really the type of work I’m interested in pursuing.

I’ll note that recently our GM went to a funeral that included a video… video clips and a photo montage… the usual. He said it just went on and on and on… waaaay too long. He might have been exaggerating, but said it felt like about 20 minutes to him. At any rate, he said it seemed that everyone there was ready for it to be over long before it was.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Also… is this a permanent install that you will use regularly and for a while?

Or a one-time thing for a specific speaker or event?

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

What do you mean by “giving back to the windows”? Does that mean sometimes the speakers will be against/backed by the windows? If so, that will be a very very difficult situation, bordering on impossible unless you can heavily gel the windows and have some pretty serious firepower (as in pretty darn powerful lighting instruments). Just want to clear up that part first.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Oh Nick, Nick, Nick…. stop selling yourself short, we all know you have the strength of 10 men.

It’s not the ginormous master series rig, anyway (the “widowmaker”)… you wouldn’t even know you’re wearing it.

I’m looking… I know I have your shipping address around here somewhere……..

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

Hey, we’re non-profit too!

Although not on purpose.

T2

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