setlightingold

[setlightingold]

Hi, I’m not your audience but I needed an expert opinion so I thought I’d reach out. My complexion is dead white. When I use lights for videoconferencing I’m either blue if I go toward the cool colors or if I go toward the warm I turn red. Partly it’s the reflection of the computer screen. I thought scrims were something you could put on a light to change it’s color value. Looks like I’m wrong. Do you have any suggestions for what I could do to have a normal complexion on a video conference? Thx

Hi! In my experience I’ve had some actors who’ve had very pale complexions and had similar issues to what you are talking about. Their skin tone seemed to lack some pigmentation. So when I was using LED or Flourescent lighting, it would make their skin suddenly more green or more magenta (reddish). This has to to with the fact many every day LEDs don’t produce a full spectrum. They get their white light through spikes in green, red,  and blue. Hills and valleys of color and this does not always line up with some people’s skin tones and you don’t get a correct color rendering. The problem is that you are using LED lighting with a low CRI (70-80 would be my guess)

The sun and regular old light bulbs produce white light evenly throughout the spectrum and thus your skin will respond properly. They have a full color spectrum. This is a known problem for LED manufactures which is addressed with the CRI rating. More expensive LED are more expensive because of this higher CRT. You want a CRT of at least 90+! This is quite common with newer and more expensive bulbs you can find at a home depot. A potential quicker solution to your problem is to use a regular old light bulb (with a real filament) to light yourself. Although it can be hard to do this right with household lamps - bounce a light off a white wall behind the computer. Also, these can look very warm during daylight settings. Or spend the money on nice new soft high CRI lamp. 

[setlightingold]

PLEASE GO TO NEW BLOG PAGE

It's official! I have migrated this blog to my new primary blog. So, stop following this one and follow the new and improved set lighting blog:

http://setlighting.tumblr.com/

Don't forget to re-follow!

Thanks,

Martijn

[setlightingold]

SOME CHANGES

Due to some annoying technical issues with tumblr, I will have to reset this blog. The gist is that as of right now it's a secondary tumblr account which drastically limits to what I can do. Thus I have to reset this blog as a primary account. What does this mean???? It will look the same and will retain all the previous posts. It should still have the same url: setlighting.tumblr.com Not so lucky is that will lose all my current tumblr followers (insert sad face). the moment the new blog is up, I will send a personal message to all my tumblr followers to re-follow my new blog. If for some reason you can't find my blog anymore, just google: set lighting tumblr … and re-follow. I will do this over the weekend and hopefully have the new "old" blog up by Monday if not sooner. Thanks, Martijn

[setlightingold]

"I'm Not Waiting Anymore" by The Singles

Here's a music video for the band The Singles I shot and directed. Shot on Super 8

[setlightingold]

Shooting and lighting the music video "I'm Not Waiting Anymore"

The concept of the music video for The Singles came from all these great 60s 16mm music documentaries that I have always loved. "The First US Visit" about the Beatles, "Don't Look Back" about Bob Dylan, "Charlie is My Darling" about the Rolling Stones, etc.

They have a great feel to them and give us such an intimate look at a band at their most interesting time.  They're cool and endlessly fascinating. It seemed like the perfect fit for the band.

We created a loose storyline of the band flying into Los Angeles, getting picked up in a Limo, doing a photo shoot, a backstage press interview, a performance, some r & r and continuing on. I decided to shoot handheld on Super-8 to give it just the right feel. I borrowed a really good Canon Super 8 camera from a DP friend and got my film from Pro8mm in Burbank. Pro8mm makes their own Super 8 negative cartridges and they also do the transfer. It was very affordable and totally worth the cost.

http://www.pro8mm.com/ Lighting wise, well, it's supposed to be a documentary so there really was no lighting. It was hard at times to hold back but it looks right. However I did have some control with scheduling. I knew I wanted to shoot on top of the garage at LAX. After scouting the location I knew the sun would be behind them in the morning and it would look the best. So I scheduled it first up. I wanted to shoot it as early as possible (not easy to do with a band FYI) so that they would not be front lit and the sun would create an edge.

For the Limo scene I did have to add a little light in order to compete with the windows which luckily were heavily tinted.

I used a battery powered daylight literibbon to fill in the three band members and the windows didn't completely blow out. The windows were rather green though so I did have some trouble trying to color correct it. The only real lighting I did was for the performance. I was inspired by that great album cover of Johnny Cash live at San Quentin.

So in my garage I hung up a bunch of black duvatyne and black rags. I clipped three Dedo's to the garage door to create that spotlight feel. Dedo are a great light for this because they give a very nice and clean even beam. I put four RGB color blasts on the ground to get a broad blue light from below as if it's the stage floor lights.

And last I added a little fog to give it some atmosphere and get some dramatic light beams. Also, the fog would hide the seams of the all the black cloth.

When you see them singing, they're only a foot away from the garage door.

Overall it worked out really nice and I got some great lens flares. Together with the Super-8 it feels real and big.

[setlightingold]

Dedo

I was asked a great question about balancing tungsten lights for daylight. The scenario was an interview set-up in front of window (daylight) using only a Dedo kit. (tungsten).

To answer your question presuming we are stuck with just Dedo's, I wouldn't worry too much about matching color temperatures. In general, all our indoor lights are warmer than daylight. So in an interior interview situation with a daylight background, it looks more natural if the inside looks a little warmer than the outside. I normally only put 1/2 CTB or  3/4 CTB on the tungsten lights in a daylight scenario. Set the camera to daylight or somewhere in between. This way the subject should look a little warmer than the outside which looks natural. Even if we use use daylight balanced lights, we almost always put on Quarter CTO to warm them up for the key. Use your eye and keep adding Q CTB to the light till it feels right. Rarely do you ever put Full CTB on tungsten lights. And when I have, it never looks right. It has a weird magenta quality about it. The reality is that tungsten will never quite match daylight. Don't get too wrapped up in using color temp meters and charts. Use your eye and the monitor as a guide to what looks right and not "fake."

My worry in your situation is the fact that you're using Dedo's. My gut feeling is that they will not be bright enough for the scenario you are describing. Especially when you add a little gel. My guess is that the windows will blow out. Hopefully the windows you are shooting in front of will have a dark coating on it (i.e. Neutral Density) so your lights can compete with the outside. Often though, if we are using tungsten lights, we gel the whole windows (NOT the lights) with Full (or 3/4) CTO. And often the outside is way too bright that we also add ND to the windows. ND = Neutral Density which just brings down the light without affecting color. Like sunglasses.

Dedo's are great lights but not exactly interview lights. You usually want the key to be a soft source which Dedo's are not. You will have to put some diffusion on the doors. In general, if you are doing an interview during the day in front of a window, Dedo's (tungsten lights in general) are the wrong light. You need something bright to compete with the sun and because of what you said, gelling will take away too much. You would want to use an HMI Chimera (a 400 Watt or 800Watt Joker for example) or a daylight Kino or a bright daylight LED.

As a final suggestion if your really are just stuck with the Dedo's, don't be afraid to cluster all of them together, add some CTB and shoot them through a singular piece of diffusion (250 or 216) so it becomes one source. This way your three 150 Watt Dedo's become a singular 450Watt source and use the window as an edge light. Or bounce all three lights on a white card which will even them out real nice and make it really soft. Every situation is unique and will require different techniques. Hope this helps a little bit.

[setlightingold]

Cinegear Expo 2013

If you're in LA for the weekend of June 1st, make sure to go to Cinegear Expo. It's free and anyone can go.

http://www.cinegearexpo.com/category/register

A great opportunity to see all the newest gadgets and gear. Also, a great way to check out the Paramount lot if you haven't been.

Good fun and a must go to for anyone serious about film making.

[setlightingold]

The Condor

I'm sure you've seen it a million times. It's night on a deserted road as a lone car passes the camera. The scene is back lit from an unknown source that might just be… the moon. And just above the frame is a glow. 9 out of 10 times that glow is a big light from a crane in the deep background that is barely flaring the lens. Often you find yourself needing a bright source, way up, way in the background, back lighting a scene. For that we usually use a condor. A condor is a what most people would call a "cherry picker" and you usually see them used in construction. But hell, throw a light in there and we got ourselves a giant mobile stand. It is, needless to say, a hazardous operation. The moment you throw a light in there and together with the cable, rigging and the operator, you not only have some serious electricity running up the arm, you might very well overweight the basket. Fully extend the arm to get the light at just the right angle and… it could fall over and create a potential lethal situation. It has happened! Also, if you don't watch out the arm could hit a power line or who who knows what else. In other, words, you need qualified professional to operate and supervise whenever a condor is used for film lighting. In our union, we have to take classes in condor operation and there are strict guidelines on how they are used. Do not ever use a condor unless you're properly trained! Some quick guidelines I use is to order at least an 80' arm. They are in general sturdier and the basket can hold more weight than a 60' condor. The 60' condor is cheaper but often it is never tall enough and you are always right on the edge with weight limits. I never put more than one big light in a basket. Make sure the condor base is on sturdy ground. Make sure the condor base is properly balanced using the proper balancing blocks. Make sure the condor is from a reputable company and in good condition. Check for any hydraulic leaks! Don't be bullied into putting the condor in an unsafe area like around power lines.

Always wear a safety harness. There are ways to man the light from the ground and not have anyone in the basket. Make the light ridged to the basket and use the ground controls to pan and tilt the head. Of course this does limit to what you can with the light when it comes to intensity and proper focusing. If only someone would make crane lights that you could fully control from the ground…

http://www.nightlightsbybebee.com/original_night_lights/HOME_PAGE.html

[setlightingold]

C-47 / Bullet

"Hey man, do you have a clothespin?" - New guy You call it a clothespin, we call it a C-47. Why? Nobody really knows where this started. One story goes that at Warner Brothers they used to keep clothespins in a drawer that just happened to be labeled C-47. Or maybe it was Paramount or Universal or MGM or... C-47s are used mostly to clip gels and diffusion onto barn doors. Of course they can be used for a million different things on set. Every set electric should always have some clothespins on them at all times. "Hey man, do you have a bullet on you?" - Short timer Wait a minute. How did you know that we also use term bullet for clothespins? Either way, don't ask me for a bullet or a C-47! You should always have them on you. "Hey man, do you have a… never mind, I'll go get some C-47s from the set cart." - Pro

[setlightingold]

Documentary Lighting Part 2 - The Interview

(note: none of the images are mine. They are from the web and used only as an example)

Nearly all documentaries create a narrative by the juxtaposition of live action footage with interviews. The interview is usually the most controlled environment you will have. Often this is the only situation that you will be able to light. Given the budget constraint and limited resources, a lot of consideration should be given to where and when you do the interview. Where? This is your opportunity to choose an interesting background that hopefully speaks to the subject matter and one you can light nicely. Because you normally only have smaller lights that can't compete with the sun, you would want to avoid windows right behind the actors since it will most likely blow out. BUT you can use the window light as a light source…

or "pretend" there's a window behind the subject to motivate the lighting.

Again from "Burn" and how fantastic does that look! This is what you want. Here's a great example of having that great hot edge light. Maybe from an actual window. Cool! Then, as a rule of thumb, you key from the opposite side of the edge. The key light would most like be some sort of Kino with daylight tubes (KF55), daylight balanced LitePanel, or an HMI Joker Chimera. Your fill is on the same side as the back edge light. In this case, there is no fill. They might have even added a negative fill. So as opposed to adding a white card to add some light, you add a black flag to take away light - a negative fill. The interview looks pretty dramatic which is perfect for a gritty documentary about firefighters. It looks great and fits the story! How you light your subject and your use of 'key to fill' ratios depends on the story and who you're interviewing. The protagonist of your documentary can be lit very soft while the antagonist can be lit dramatically with no fill.

Often we choose a controlled environment with no daylight that we light ourselves completely. Also, usually the subject matter and interviewee demands a more flattering and less dramatic look. Here's you basic three point lighting interview set up.

From the left you can see the back light on her right shoulder and on her hair (200W Pepper or small Kino). A soft key from the right (tungsten unit with a chimera or a Kino with some diffusion). A subtle fill on the left (White card with a light bouncing into it if needed).

In my opinion, the background is too dark, the key a little too bright and too warm. The color temperatures don't quite match. Notice the key feels quite warm while the fill has a bit of magenta in it. But hey, sometimes, these elements are out of your control depending on the DP, the director, and the client. As well as general time constraints.

When? Well this has mostly to do with the location of the sun and shooting outside. Because we are dealing with the sun as our main light source, you want to choose an exterior location of which you like the background and then find out at what time of day the sun is in the best position.

Here's some quick rules of thumb for shooting outside: 1. Avoid shooting during the middle of the day when the sun is high. It gives raccoon eyes to the subject. You will need to put a silk over the subject to tone down the hard shadows. 2. Shoot when the sun is lower. The best exterior shots are during the morning and later in the afternoon. Notice the long shadows on the ground in the above photo. The sun is low and gives the subject a great back edge. 3. Usually you'll want the sun behind the subject so that it works as a nice edge light 4. With the sun behind the subject, it's the perfect angle to add a white fill card to reflect the sun back onto the subject. This soft bounce light gives gives you a flattering key light. Any clean white card or poster board will do. We usually use a 4' X 4' bead board backed with foam core.

So this looks pretty nice for a simple no light set up. The sun gives a nice edge on his left shoulder and the bounce card gives a good fill and digs into the eyes. The card gives enough light on the face that the exposure keeps the background from blowing out. My only complaint is that the bounce comes from below the camera. It looks a bit odd and notice the heavy shadow line below his left eye. Also, the neck is lit that you lose definition between the neck and face. This "chinless" look can be extremely unflattering on some  people. In particular older and, uh hum... overweight people. I would hold the bounce card so it's at camera level or just a bit higher. 

[setlightingold]

Documentary Lighting Part 1 - Reality Filming

From the movie "Burn" When you are doing a documentary, you want to be unobtrusive and capture…reality! The more real, the more immediate, the stronger the emotional content. So when you are filming the events for a documentary, you often don't light it at all mainly because you can't (and sometimes shouldn't). Frankly, it can be a great look when it feels very raw. So my first suggestion for doing a documentary is to get a REALLY GOOD CAMERA. A camera that doesn't need a lot of light and can hold the shadows and the highlights. A camera that is fast (high ISO), can take fast lenses (F-Stop 2 or less) and most importantly has a large latitude.The latitude of a camera is the range of exposure between where something above your exposure becomes blown out and the point under your exposure where things become total black. The Canon C300 comes to mind.

And most importantly, you can try to pick up a date while holding it.

But often you still need to add a little fill light and get some light on the subject you're filming.

LitePanel The best light for this is the LitePanel and a must have for any documentary shoot. Either the small LitePanel brick which can fit right on top of a camera:

http://www.litepanels.com/miniplus_daylight_spot.php

Or the larger and brighter 1' X 1' LitePanel:

http://www.litepanels.com/1x1_ls_bicolor.php LitePanel's are small and compact LEDs. They're bright as hell for what they are. They can be battery powered which can be CRUCIAL when you're doing a documentary. Often the documentary film maker will be hand held while an assistant (AC, PA, Gaffer, Key Grip, Producer, etc.) is hand holding a LitePanel off on the side filling in the dark spots. I do believe it takes a bit of an eye to know where to hold the light and how bright it should be.

And the newer "bi-color" versions are a hybrid where you can dial in the color temperature between tungsten and daylight. If you get an older LitePanel that is not bi-color, go for the DayLight spot version. It gives you the brightest daylight possibility and you can always add some CTO and diffusion if need be. When you do shoot during the night (Tungsten mode) you always need less light anyways. However, if possible I would suggest getting the newest LitePanel you can get. The older models tend to be a bit green and can look bad on skin tones.

Please notice that the LitePanel is really just another version of the Zip Light or a small Kino or a small bounce or a.... It's just more flexible and uses less wattage so you can run it on batteries. And thus more expensive! Okay… but every documentary also has the interview! ***special thanks to spazzyjyeah.tumblr.com for asking about this subject!***

[setlightingold]

BURN I recently saw the fantastic documentary "Burn." Not only is it a great story, it looks fantastic too. Mixing amazing live action footage with great looking interviews. Shot on either the Canon 5D or 7D together with some of the most amazing GoPro shots you will ever see. Beyond all that, I was impressed with the lighting and great looking interviews. Every documentary filmmaker should watch this if only from a technical perspective of what can be done today with the new cameras and technologies.

[setlightingold]

Bukowski

What does Bukowski have to do with set lighting? Well, the filming of Barfly was the first time that Kino Flo's were used in a movie. Faced with filming in bars and trying to jam a soft light into a tight space, Robby Mueller needed a film friendly solution. So gaffer Frieder Hochheim and his best boy Gary Swink created a fluorescent light that was brighter, didn't flicker and had a correct color temperature without the greenish tint usually associated with fluorescent lights. Their little innovation started a company and revolutionized the film industry.

Kino Flo's are basically film friendly fluorescent lights and have become one of the major lighting tools on any film set. Nowadays, you have a tungsten package, an HMI package, and a Kino package. And yes, it was a big deal. Fluorescent lights are great to use because they are extremely soft in nature and are such a big part of our everyday lighting. However, fluorescent light bulbs are very problematic in that they are not very bright, can flicker, and often have a greenish tint to them. For example, I was always struck with greenish hue in all the office scenes from All The Presidents Men. It's a great natural look and fine for a documentary type film, but not exactly lush and beautiful.

Kino Flo fixed all of these problems. 1. A higher frequency ballast - in other words doubling the number of flickers compared to a regular fluorescent. The end result was that it eliminated any flicker issues that might be seen on camera. 2. Brighter. The higher frequency ballast also had the effect of making them much brighter. 4. A remote ballast. The power source is separate from the unit and powers the light through a cable.  Not having the ballast attached to the head (like most household fluorescent units), allows the actual light to be very compact and light. Sometimes we will take a bare tube and just tape it on the wall. 5. Corrected color temperature bulbs. Clean white light daylight and tungsten bulbs. This is probably the most important part. The sun and regular tungsten bulbs create white light evenly across the whole color spectrum using every color. Fluorescent lights produce a white light with very thin color spikes. The end result is that fluorescent lights can have very harsh results on different people with different skin tones. Kino Flo creates their own tubes with their own phosphorescent coatings which are much superior to your every day hardware store tubes. They have 3200K and 5500K color temperature tubes with a much nicer color rendering (more of the color spectrum is used) that is much nicer for skin tones.

See how flattering that looks!

[setlightingold]

[setlightingold]

Danger, Danger… High Voltage!

When you start in film, you are pretty much relegated to using only plug in lights that run off house power. Of which there are many! But as you progress and work on bigger projects with bigger shots and more ambitious camera moves, well, you'll need more lights, bigger lights, and more power.

At this point you start working with generators, tie ins, power drops, cable and general film set distribution. As the power demands get larger, so do the dangers. Being exposed to open circuits and high voltage creates a very dangerous and volatile workplace environment. You have to be careful because one mistake can be fatal for you or someone else. If you're not sure and don't know what you're doing, stop! Get someone who does. If you've never worked with a generator or used any cable larger than a stinger, hire a seasoned professional - an IATSE Union electrician. Spend the money to get someone who knows what they're doing. Chances are they will save you time and money in being more efficient and maybe even save someone's life! There is some basic protocol in working with power on a film set that you should always follow. - run power without it being energized (or "hot" as we like to say) - but presume the power is always hot - plug in the ground leg first, neutral second and then the hot legs - unplug the hot legs first, then the neutral and the ground leg last - NEVER just randomly plug into the set power. This applies to every department on set. ALWAYS ask whoever is in charge if it's safe to plug in. Set power can be unsafe (wrong voltage or crossed legs) and there is also an issue with balancing the legs when using a generator (for another time). If you do come in direct contact with an open electrical circuit you might get shocked at home. On a film set you might die! While working with electricity, on a very basic level, you try to avoid creating a path for the electricity to create a circuit. A hot AC leg is looking to create path for it's electrons which it can find in the earth. You, like copper wire, are a conductor and if you are between the hot leg and the earth, you create a circuit and you are electrocuted. You want to be insulated. So as an electrician working on set: - Wear rubber soled shoes. Rubber is an insulator. It is a very poor conductor thus prevents the electricity from flowing though you to the earth. - Keep your knees off the ground while crouching or bending down. The moment your knee touches the ground, you defeat the purpose of the rubber soles and electricity can find a path to the earth and create a circuit. As a wise old gaffer told me, respect electricity!

[setlightingold]

The Zip Light

Since I'm all crazy about bounces and book lights, it sure would be nice if there was a lighting unit that was a pre-made bounce. And there is! From the earliest days of cinema, one of the most common units is the appropriately named Soft Light. Although on a set we call them Zip lights and they are standard on any tungsten package.

The Zip light consists of a bare globe inside the unit that bounces light into a white cove. So here you have a portable bounce light in the form of a single unit. The nicest part about them is that they come with an egg crate that focuses the light and keeps it from going all over the place. And they are made so you can stack one in front of the other.

Often I will stack two egg crates in a row so that the light is even more focused and contained. A great and very fast way to have a soft yet very directional light. If you have the stop (i.e. enough light) you can add a diffusion frame (Opal, 250 or 216) in front of the light (but behind the egg crate). Now you have a book light! The most common ones that you'll see on any lighting package are the the 2k Zip (2 X 1000W globe) and the 750 Zip (1 X 750W globe). I would suggest always ordering them with double egg crates. There are however other sizes. There is the 4000W Super Softlite which can be super handy. Yes, these are quite large (about 3'X3').

Once I was doing a reality show on a roof downtown LA at night. I had to be ready to quickly light a large group of contestants but did not know where they might stand on the roof. And oh… it was just me plus one other guy! Yes, it was a Network show but they had no money (they never do!). So I had two 4k Super Softs on rolling stands with NO egg crates. Which meant wherever they stood, I had two portable super bright and super soft flattering light sources ready to go. Sure enough, they came on top of the roof and stood the one place the director said they would never stand and we had to shoot NOW! I rolled the lights over and I had them all lit within two minutes. It looked really nice and everybody was happy. It wasn't art but it really was the only way to do it given the time constraints and crew size. And when I saw it aired, it actually looked really nice. There is also a smaller version of the Zip light which is the 400 Watt Zip. Since a Zip light is a bounce light, you lose a lot of lights compared to going direct, so by the time you're doing a 400W mini bounce… it aint very bright. However, I do like using them as an eye light. I take the Zip, put it next to camera lens and focus it right on the actor. It gives them a little twinkle in the eye and most importantly, it digs into the shadows and erases the wrinkles!

http://www.mole.com/lighting/misc_tung/bab_soft/2591/2591.html

[setlightingold]

THE BOOK LIGHT

A NICE TECHNIQUE FOR DAYLIGHT Here's a great example of using a book light. We're shooting a day interior at night and want to feel the daylight ambiance coming in through the window. We want a very broad and soft daylight push. So, we took a daylight balanced light and bounced it into a white bounce which went through a big diffusion.

In this case we took an1800 Watt HMI and bounced it into a 8'X8' white ultra bounce which then went through a 8'X8' light diffusion (1/4 silk or soft frost I would imagine). It's hard to see but on the left there's a c-stand leaning against the window which is holding up a 8' pipe with the diffusion hanging on it. So now we have a big broad nondescript push coming in from the window. It looks great on actors and wraps around really nice. But to really sell that it's daytime, we have a hard light coming in the background giving us some great hard hits on the book case, globe and a little bit on the back of the first chair. A nice hot spot somewhere in the background always helps make the shot come alive. In this case we used a 1200W HMI par with a stipple lens sneaking in just besides the diffusion. NOTE that none of the direct 1200 Watt HMI light will hit the actors in the chair which would created unwanted shadows. Also, we have a topper flag on the light to cut the light so it doesn't hit the ceiling and the top of the bookcase. It feels more like a shaft of light. Gives the illusions that the sun is being shaded by the window frame - if you will. And yes, you could create this in tungsten mode of course. Set the camera to 3200K and use one or two 2K Blondes (two or four 1K Redheads) for the bounce and use a red head directly for the hard hit in the back ground. Maybe add Quarter CTB gel to all those lights to give it a bit more of a cooler daylight feel.