From American Cinematographer, The Root of All Evil by Jay Holben (December 1998)
For moodier moments, Kivilo used hard light reflected into the sets using beveled mirrors.
"I'd pick a dead corner of the set and have Joey black it out so no light was there. I'd then aim Par cans or sometimes HMI Pars into the mirrors and splash light into random spots on the set. I'm always searching for the best kinds of slashes, which have an organic feel, and these beveled mirrors provided that. It was perhaps the only slightly stylized addition I made to our otherwise simplistic regime, in that there was no logical source for that kind of light; my thinking was that it was perhaps coming from a streetlight outside or something. Those scenes were about mood, and it was great to use the mirrors rather than backlight an actor. I'd just bounce a slash into the background and silhouette them against the set."
- 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 par. Show all posts
Showing posts with label par. Show all posts
26.5.09
Peter Biziou: 4 Second Sunrise
From American Cinematographer, This Is Your Life by Eric Rudolph (June 1998)
Another combination of in-camera and digital work occurs during a frantic nighttime search for Truman after he somehow eludes the ubiquitous cameras and disappears. Christof tells his staff to bring up the sun, even though it is still nighttime by the show's internal clock.
"We actually brought up the sun physically. Our key grip and the chief electrician mounted about 300 Par 36 bulbs into three large banks mounted on a tube frame on a crane hoist. We then jerked these lights up 60' in the air in about four seconds. We had an enormous black flag stretched between two cherry pickers just in front of the lights when we popped them into the air. The shadows of the people and the trees shortened quickly, and the horizon line washed across the buildings. It was quite an effect, and it worked well in combination with Mike McAllister's amazing impressionistic digital sunrise. Mike McAllister digitally added a little fill and diffusion in the last seconds of the shots depicting the effects of the rapid sunrise, just to help the fake sunlight look more like daylight."
- Peter Biziou, BSC
10.5.09
Bill Pope: Large Sets and Par Cans
Australian Gaffer Reg Garside, working with Bill Pope, ASC on the film The Matrix, discusses the lighting needs for the Matrix highspeed shooting sequences.
"The high speed lighting requirements were a big concern, because on the big sets-- such as the subway and the government building exterior and lobby-- we needed a massive amount of light to be able to shoot between Bill's T2.8 base and the T16 needed for high-speed filming. On some stages, in fact, we had to rig more than 1,000 Par cans in the permanents [to produce the needed levels of light]. I used Par cans a lot because I could easily control the ambeince from T2.8 to T16 just by turning additional units on and off.
Also, Par cans are much cheaper than Maxi-Brutes, adn although they use the same sort of bulb [a Par 64], I've found that I can rig them in much more weird or difficult places than I can put a Maxi. Having 1,000 Par cans is actually like having 80 Maxis, but we don't even have 80 Maxi-Brutes in Australia!
For speed and maximum control, every single light ran through a dimmer rack, so if Bill told me tol give him a T8, I could give him a T8 by adjusting a lever on the controls. For a T2.8, you may only use one lamp, but for a T16 you may need 32 lamps. You're really dealing with an exponential doubling up effect to get the extra stops. Bill actually used a lot of over-head lights through light grid cloth diffusion to create an ambiance. So I had [rigging gaffer] Craig Bryant pre-rig Par cans in the roof for an ambiance that could get me up to a T16. We then had to build a lot of custom overhead cloths, which we call sails, and virtually hand-fit them into position on the sets."
-Red Garside
"We shot most of this movie with tungsten lights. Also, by using Par cans, we could change the light level without changing the color temperature, simply by turning units on or off. However, I do like to use Kino Flos on faces for interiors. In fact, I prefer to have Kinos around the actors, because they're a lot cooler. We used truckloads of Wall-O-Lites and 4' by 4' Kinos on this film."
-Bill Pope, ASC
"The high speed lighting requirements were a big concern, because on the big sets-- such as the subway and the government building exterior and lobby-- we needed a massive amount of light to be able to shoot between Bill's T2.8 base and the T16 needed for high-speed filming. On some stages, in fact, we had to rig more than 1,000 Par cans in the permanents [to produce the needed levels of light]. I used Par cans a lot because I could easily control the ambeince from T2.8 to T16 just by turning additional units on and off.
Also, Par cans are much cheaper than Maxi-Brutes, adn although they use the same sort of bulb [a Par 64], I've found that I can rig them in much more weird or difficult places than I can put a Maxi. Having 1,000 Par cans is actually like having 80 Maxis, but we don't even have 80 Maxi-Brutes in Australia!
For speed and maximum control, every single light ran through a dimmer rack, so if Bill told me tol give him a T8, I could give him a T8 by adjusting a lever on the controls. For a T2.8, you may only use one lamp, but for a T16 you may need 32 lamps. You're really dealing with an exponential doubling up effect to get the extra stops. Bill actually used a lot of over-head lights through light grid cloth diffusion to create an ambiance. So I had [rigging gaffer] Craig Bryant pre-rig Par cans in the roof for an ambiance that could get me up to a T16. We then had to build a lot of custom overhead cloths, which we call sails, and virtually hand-fit them into position on the sets."
-Red Garside
"We shot most of this movie with tungsten lights. Also, by using Par cans, we could change the light level without changing the color temperature, simply by turning units on or off. However, I do like to use Kino Flos on faces for interiors. In fact, I prefer to have Kinos around the actors, because they're a lot cooler. We used truckloads of Wall-O-Lites and 4' by 4' Kinos on this film."
-Bill Pope, ASC
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