Nicola Pecorini: Jumbo Lights

From American Cinematographer, Gonzo Filmmaking by Stephen Pizzello (May 1998)

"Some years ago, Vittorio saw these landing lights for airplanes, and he began thinking about using multi-point sources in the same types of frames. The guy who makes them, Pippo Cafolla, is Vittorio's longtime gaffer, and his company in Rome is called Iride. Pippo has two sons, Fabio and Daniele, who also work at the company. Fabio has been Vittorio's console operator for about 12 years; Daniele works more as a spark [electrician], but he gaffed for me on Rhinoceros Hunting in Budapest. Pippo started out by making these units called Super-Jumbos, which have 24 [600W or 1,000W] lights in them, and Jumbos, which have 16 lights. There are also Mini-Jumbos, with eight lights, and Tornados, which have smaller fixtures [650W Par 36s]. These various units have a lot of kick, and if you place them at the right distance, you will get only one shadow. The lights work on a dimmer system, though, so you have to keep that in mind when you're designing your lighting plan."

- Nicola Pecorini

-----------------------------------

From www.Omolys.dk. The Jumbo, Half/Mini Jumbo, Concorde, and Tornado are explained:

3 x The Jumbo, a 16 Bulbs Spot - Color Temperature 3.200 K - Size 111cm x 111cm

3 x The Concorde, a 7 Bulbs Spot - Color Temperature 3.200 K - Size 79cm x 79cm – the Concorde can be spottet like a Rugby 7

3 x The Tornado, a 16 Bulbs Spot - Color Temperature 3.200 K - Size 64cm x 64cm

The lamps were used in almost all Vittorio Storaro’s movies since they were developed. The light from these lamps gives a nice skin tone, and are very close to natural low sun light. See examples from the movie “Tucker” below, to the right.

=Click to Enlarge=

Vittorio Storaro: On Visual Effects Artists

From American Cinematographer, Storaro Advises Digital Artists by Jay Holben (May 1999)

"On the whole, visual effects artists can do a little more to bring cinematographers into the fold. It's rare to find a visual effects artist that actually has an appreciation for cinematography-- that's another reason why I wanted to bring in Vittorio. I often hear visual effects artists say, 'Well, why can't we just have them lock down the camera?' When you hear Vittorio speak, you understand why. It's not just a technical matter-- it's about the emotion, pacing and life of the film. It's very important for effects artists to hear the passion and motivation that everyone else on a film has for their area of responsibility. Vittorio really exudes a passion and love for cinema that, frankly, some digital technicians lack. Educating visual effects artists is a great step toward keeping our doors open to cinematographers by saying, "We're not here to supplant you, we're only here to help create the same vision. We're no different that any other creative department."

- SPI Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Scott E. Anderson

"In cinema, you are selecting the piece of reality to show the audience. Through the camera angle, lens choices and framing, you are using one very important tool: composition. I don't know how conscious you are of composition in your work, but it is one of the most important elements. Without composition, it is difficult to put one element in relation to another. As they took me around the facility this morning, I saw a lot of you studying your screens on how to animate a creature. If you moved that creature from the center of the screen-- perhaps off to the side and slightly higher-- the [resulting] difference in perspective would totally change the character. Composition is a form of writing. You use the composition to say 'Look over here!' or 'Look this way and you are going to have this reaction, and afterwards you will have this information.' Color is also incredibly important to composition. Once you start to know the meaning of color, then you start to know who to write and compose with color. Using either a warm or cold color can completely change the perspective. Take one creature in the foreground and put the other in the background. By putting a red light on the front creature, and a green or a cyan light on the creature in the background, and you can force the perspective: the one in the foreground comes closer, and the one in the background moves further away. Now try the opposite-- put the green or cyan light in the foreground and the red light in the background-- and you will become confused. The distance between the them will become compressed as the warm color 'moves' forward and the cool color 'moves' backward. You can use this type of information to tell the story. The more you know about these tools, the more you can create meaningful compositions. The more concerned you are with composition, the better you can express yourself to an audience."

- Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC