From American Cinematographer, The Root of All Evil by Jay Holben (December 1998)
"We used a helium balloon light for the night exteriors on the roadside. It was logistically tricky location because we were on a small road with two snow fields on either side, so there was no place to drive in a crane or a Condor. The balloon seemed to be a perfect solution. We could fly it up so that it would hover just above the road, and then hide the black cable in the night sky. What I didn't expect was that it got really windy during the night we were shooting. I was operating the second camera, looking at the wide shot of the sheriff's truck approaching, and as the wind was gusting I kept seeing the balloon getting lower and lower in the frame. It never quite dropped into the picture area, but it made me very nervous. Then, at one point in the middle of the first take, the wind blew the balloon into a power line and it made a huge spark. Thank God no one was hurt and there was no damage, but we did lose quite a bit of time. We really hadn't factored the wind into the equation, and because of the white snow surrounding the area, we really couldn't attach extra lines. I thought the light that the balloon provided was perfect-- a nice ambient glow and a beautiful night softness-- but I was very uncomfortable with it after that first night. On the second night, when we returned to shoot the reverses, I went with a more traditional approach."
- Alar Kivilo, CSC
I read, discuss, and discover new things about cinematography everyday. Most of it, I consider incredibly interesting. Everyday I will share one of those things, maybe more if I have time.
Showing posts with label balloon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balloon. Show all posts
23.5.09
Peter Menzies Jr: Lighting Rain & Flood
American Cinematographer, Photographing at Full Flood, by George Turner (January 1998)
"The backing was quite easy to light. Because it was on dry land, but in the tank in was always a struggle to move lights around. Then we tried lighting balloons, and they really helped us out. They were flexible, safe, and provided a beautiful quality of light. When we floated the balloons, the rain obscured the power cords coming down from them. We didn't have to worry about lighting from Condors or towers or anything else. To see all of those glowing balloons floating up over the set was pretty surreal! It could look absolutely beautiful when we backlit it, but a flood isn't a beautiful thing. We didn't backlight much because we really didn't want a theatrical look; we wanted it to look real. Also, if we had backlit the rain, we wouldn't have had the depth we wanted on such a large set. It was great to see the whole set without it being washed out by backlit rain. Most of the time I'd crosslight it, but sometimes we'd just throw 360 degrees of light with the balloons. Quite often, you couldn't even see the rain falling. Instead, you could just see it on the water's surface, which really enhanced the realism."
- Peter Menzies Jr., ASC
"The backing was quite easy to light. Because it was on dry land, but in the tank in was always a struggle to move lights around. Then we tried lighting balloons, and they really helped us out. They were flexible, safe, and provided a beautiful quality of light. When we floated the balloons, the rain obscured the power cords coming down from them. We didn't have to worry about lighting from Condors or towers or anything else. To see all of those glowing balloons floating up over the set was pretty surreal! It could look absolutely beautiful when we backlit it, but a flood isn't a beautiful thing. We didn't backlight much because we really didn't want a theatrical look; we wanted it to look real. Also, if we had backlit the rain, we wouldn't have had the depth we wanted on such a large set. It was great to see the whole set without it being washed out by backlit rain. Most of the time I'd crosslight it, but sometimes we'd just throw 360 degrees of light with the balloons. Quite often, you couldn't even see the rain falling. Instead, you could just see it on the water's surface, which really enhanced the realism."
- Peter Menzies Jr., ASC
11.5.09
Stephen Goldblatt: Use of Helium Balloons
From American Cinematographer, Of Loss and Hope by Jay Holben (March 1999)
...In lighting the sequences, Goldblatt and longtime gaffer Les Kovacs decided to take a rather unorthodox tack, employing the relatively new 12'-diameter HMI balloon as a principal light source in the hotel lobby. While covering a large scene in a relatively short period of time, "Stephen surprised me," asserts Kovacs. "We sent up the 12' balloon, and I thought we were going to anchor it and simply use it for the overall ambience in the lobby. All of a sudden, we started dragging it down, dollying around with it and using it as a key light, because Stephen loved the way it looked on Michelle."
"For close-ups," adds Goldblatt, "we would drop the line and bring the balloon down, still keeping it 30' or 40' away. Instead of being above it would be virtually eye-level, and we got this beautiful light that was very quick to work with. This technique provides a very naturalistic look. Then for reverses, we just pulled the balloon down, moved it over 40', let it float up again and tied it off."
"This was my first experience with the 12-footer," Kovacs continues. "But I own two of the swix-footers, and we put those to good use as well. Of course teh 6' 4k balloons are tungsten, so I had some blue skirts made for them to keep everything at 5600k. Then we had fun with the 12' balloon. For the shot where Michelle walks through the hotel's front door, we covered that with a steadicam and just dollied the balloon along with it-- which is amazing enough, because it's this big 12' diameter thing, but it worked like a charm."
...In lighting the sequences, Goldblatt and longtime gaffer Les Kovacs decided to take a rather unorthodox tack, employing the relatively new 12'-diameter HMI balloon as a principal light source in the hotel lobby. While covering a large scene in a relatively short period of time, "Stephen surprised me," asserts Kovacs. "We sent up the 12' balloon, and I thought we were going to anchor it and simply use it for the overall ambience in the lobby. All of a sudden, we started dragging it down, dollying around with it and using it as a key light, because Stephen loved the way it looked on Michelle."
"For close-ups," adds Goldblatt, "we would drop the line and bring the balloon down, still keeping it 30' or 40' away. Instead of being above it would be virtually eye-level, and we got this beautiful light that was very quick to work with. This technique provides a very naturalistic look. Then for reverses, we just pulled the balloon down, moved it over 40', let it float up again and tied it off."
"This was my first experience with the 12-footer," Kovacs continues. "But I own two of the swix-footers, and we put those to good use as well. Of course teh 6' 4k balloons are tungsten, so I had some blue skirts made for them to keep everything at 5600k. Then we had fun with the 12' balloon. For the shot where Michelle walks through the hotel's front door, we covered that with a steadicam and just dollied the balloon along with it-- which is amazing enough, because it's this big 12' diameter thing, but it worked like a charm."
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