Todd Terry
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COW Coin
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Sorry Rina you are probably not in the best place for that info.
This forum is for lighting design for the film and television industry. There’s probably sources more directed at industrial lighting, but that’s really not our expertise in here.
Good luck.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Amber Sanders] “my concern was that it would look odd if the lighting was slightly different on someone when we see them in a wide to seeing them in a CU?”
That happens a thousand times in every movie… you don’t even notice it unless you watch specifically for it.
The one I watch for a lot is backlighting… you’ll see a two shot where the main subject has a back or side light… and then cut to the reverse featuring the other subject, and now suddenly the backlight on the original subject is gone… and now there’s a new backlight on the new guy.
It happens tons in exteriors too. You’ll see an extreme wide shot of people out in the sun with hard and direct lighting… then cut to a close up and the sun is nice and diffused.
This happens all the time and is just accepted. As I said, it’s not even noticed unless the change is wildly dramatic… so don’t sweat that too much. Don’t make radical radical changes, but as long as you are in the ballpark you don’t have to fret over an exact match. Better to have your talent look exactly as you would like them to look in a closeup, than to look poor in a closeup because that perfectly matches the master.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Take the excellent advice from Mark and Rick…
Also… is this a multi-camera shoot? I’m guessing/betting not… even though you have multiple camera positions, I’m assuming you are shooting single camera.
If that’s the case, remember you are not going to get lighting that is perfect on every actor for every position… but that’s the beauty of single camera, you don’t have to keep the lighting exactly the same all the time. Yes, you’ll create an overall lighting plot that is good for a wide/master shot, but then you’ll light each camera setup individually after that… and when you are, for example, moving in for closeups on a particular talent or pair, you can really concentrate on great lighting only on them, and also have the freedom and the ability to move your instruments in and put them in places that would be physically impossible in a wide shot.
If your goal is to get perfect lighting where everyone looks great in both a master and closeups without changing anything, that will just never happen. And if you did get it to that point, it would look like a soap opera.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Oookaaaaaaaay….
Now, now, this is of course making me regret responding originally without a little sleuthing first (although I stand by what I said)….
Let’s look at a couple of little fun facts….
A poster writes and trashes a Zacuto product. A brand new COW member. One that just signed up today, apparently to make one negative post. What legit poster does that? Answer: none. (a new poster who, by the way, has absolutely zero profile info)
So… this poster gets a response from someone else sympathetic of the trashing, who recommends products from a different company. Oh, did I mention this is also a brand-new poster? Who just signed up today? Who made no other posts other than to substantiate the original post? (who also, by the way, has absolutely zero profile info)
Come on dude, play fair.
Anyone from the COW care to check the IP addresses? (or likely address… singular).
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Interesting to know… and surprising. Zacuto usually makes really good stuff, pretty much the only negative things you ever hear about them are how expensive they are. They make the only (that I have found) decent pancake baseplate that works well with the C300, I swear by it every day.
So… otherwise… how are you liking (or loving) the MarkII? We’ve used the C300PL since they first came out, I guess 3-4 years now and it’s my favorite camera ever. I’ve been trying to decide whether to switch to the MarkII.
Depreciation is the only thing that makes me sad (as always). You can buy a regular C300 for peanuts now (and my used one would sell for even less of course), yet back when we bought it the C300 was a fair bit more than the MarkII version is now… grrrrr. But… that’s the way it goes. Of course it has paid for itself a thousand times over, so I really have no room to complain.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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If you don’t have time to order it, or don’t have a grip supply house in your city (like we don’t…grrr), Streaks ‘N Tips is still readily available off the shelf in almost any town… at beauty supply shops (in a bunch of colors, although black is usually used for grip work). It can sometimes be found in the hair section of bigger drug stores as well.
https://www.sallybeauty.com/haircolor-spray/SBS-625352,default,pd.html
To be honest I’ve hardly ever used it (or seen it used) in the ways mentioned above, but I’ve used (and seen it used) on tons on car headlights, when they need to appear on, but when unaltered headlights are just too much.
Of course this time of year colored hairsprays from various makers are also abundant with Halloween stuff… but I’d stick with the real Streaks ‘N Tips brand, it’s the “industry standard” and what’s been used for years and you can be sure it’s easily removable. I wouldn’t guarantee that with the Halloween stuff without testing it.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Well we obviously can’t use their likenesses in a blatant fashion, nor would we try (or want) to…
It’s those gray areas that have us a little fuzzy (mixing metaphors there, I know)…
For example, how about footage (either real or staged) from the community’s music festival bearing the name of this musician? According to my lawyer friend, showing the bronze statue of the guy that’s on the town square is probably to akin to using his likeness. However if his name is seen on, say, a banner on stage where we see a musician performing… well, that’s not so clear. My lawyer friend says that is likely incidental enough to be in the clear.
Same for the activist lady, whose home is a landmark and tourist attraction. The attorney says the home is clear… but there is her name on a sign there. That one is pretty fuzzy, he says.
As for the famous actor, well that one is a no-brainer. Firstly, he’s only been dead a couple of years, and doesn’t have any landmark, festival, or any other iconography other than his face to identify him… so, he’s out, definitely. Which is fine by me, as although he was a beloved character I understand that in real life he was a gigantic horse’s rear.
We’re going to try to talk the client out of this concept anyway. There are just too many pitfalls to it, and besides the script/concept isn’t very strong, anyway.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Rich Rubasch] “Worst case they air the spot and you are contacted to take it down.”
…yes that is probably worst case, but that “worst case” would cost the clients a couple of tens of thousands of dollars in a now-worthless production.
Anyway, I did talk with my friend the IP attorney a little while ago… he said “No way, no how” in any kind of commercial usage without the rights secured and paid for to the various estates. He helped write the statue in our state governing usage of the “likeness and indicia” of a person, and says what this client is doing is verboten regardless of whether the person is appearing to endorse the client or product.
Much as I suspected.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The other guys beat me to the punch, but my guess as well is this is a rolling shutter issue.
If you can post or link to a clip a rolling shutter issue could probably be identified instantly (it has a very distinctive look).
If that’s the case, this would be a job for a camera with a global shutter instead.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Mark Suszko] “It’s not always the best practice to put the light right on the camera.”
I’ll say that even more aggressively than Mark.
““It’s almost always the worst practice to put the light right on the camera.”
Especially for talking heads.
Don’t at all know your situation, what this work is, your budget, or anything like that, so can’t really give any specific advice… but Mark’s observations are good ones.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
