Cinematography Quiz

Here's a cool quiz I found while browsing through the Maine International Film Workshops website.

http://www.theworkshops.com/filmworkshops/film_eval.asp?SchoolID=21

I scored a 58 out of the 70 questions total. No cheating!

I head up north this week for a couple of days for a shoot up in Haliburton.

Cottage Life...

Shot today up in Orillia with cameraman/DP John Marsonet. I've been working on this show "The Artist Life". The show is produced by Ticklescratch Productions, airs on Bravo and profiles Canadian visual artists discussing their art and process. We get to meet some really interesting people, see some pretty neat working spaces and visit unique areas of the province.



John out in the water getting a shot. We shoot on Sony DSR-570's.



A view of the lake in the early morning...

Eric..

Gaffer Eric Morrison tucked in the corner working a dimmer on the set of "Lost Chances".

Mobile Lighting

Shot on Saturday at the Toronto Comics and Arts Festival for a show that's in development about the zine culture. Shot mainly B-roll but also some quick on the fly talking heads which I wasn't prepared for. It was interesting to try to find good lighting and angles that already existed in the space. Though natural light did most of the work what I did have with me was a Sony on-board halogen light fitted with some 216 gel that I used to rake some natural wood in the background for one of the interviews. It worked out really well and has had me thinking about mobile battery operated lights for doing interviews.

On the hunt for a better on-board, battery operated solution for months now, these two products have been on my radar of interest:

Litepanel: www.lightpanels.com
Zylight: www.zylight.com

Both seem to have their pro's and con's and I can't decide where I would drop my wad of cash down if I had to. I actually think they would work really well together (though not with my bank account). The Litepanel to key (or fill with a more traditional unit like a chimera or kino-flo) and the Zylight to backlight or put a splash of colour in the background. I haven't used either of these products yet. Source Shop in Toronto carries the Litepanel which I've been meaning to test and there's no dealer for the Zylight in Canada yet.

Screenings and Stuff...

"Broken Lines" is screening tomorrow at the Young Cuts festival in Montreal at 3pm. You can find more details at the Young Cuts Festival website. I'm unfortunately not going to be there because of work but the film will be represented by both Director Sam Burrows and Producer Lenny Dell'Anno and some other crew members.

"Lost Chances" has undergone a really fast paced post schedule (because of the program requirements) and should be screening at Ryerson tomorrow night. I'm going to try to check that out.

Shooting tomorrow at the Toronto Comics Arts festival as part of this series that's in development about independent publishing and the "Zine" culture. Shooting on my DVX100A.

New Gear...

Been expanding my shop quite rapidly in the last month... A lot of new additions from lights, grip, new storage and transport methods, etc.

One of my key new items is a 4ft 4bank Kino Flo which has made my life a lot easier on location. That said it's becoming increasingly more challenging getting gear to and from location and making sure nothing gets lost in the craziness of production. I'm constantly having to think and re-think everything from transportation to storage to on set organization. As a DP you also can't get hung up with the concerns of the equipment while on set and you have to leave it to your crew to handle it. I'm trying to make it as much a streamlined process as possible but it's always an on going process..

Sometimes I wonder about gearing down just to the basics - lightmeter, digital SLR, good HD portable monitor, LED panel light, charts and my own set of filters...

Lost Chances - Day 2 of 2

Finished the last day on Lost Chances for Director Johnny Tamindzic. It was a long day but I think we got some really great stuff.

Here's a couple of shots from my D-SLR while checking the contrast out...

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Cemetry scene - Actor Derrick Davidson. We had to steal this location and finished just as security pulled up. We got some nice stuff on steadicam here. Operator was Andrew Cull.



Derrick.



Alice Panikian. She looks great on camera!



The restaurant scene. Great location in the basement of Marben restaurant in Toronto. I keyed them with a China ball right above their table skirted with duv and blackwrap. Single 4 foot tungsten Kino tubes were rigged under the bar to downlight the front and the countertop was also translucent so it lit that as well - nice! House lights were controlled on dimmers to provide some ambience and various tungsten fresnels with Opal provided backlight.

Prep..

Day 2 of 2 tomorrow on Lost Chances. We're shooting in a restaurant, an art gallery location and a really quick sequence in a cemetry. The story is about a guy who's wife dies and about how apprehensive he is to move on and let go.

To pick up the completely lost scene from Day 1 I made the suggestion of shooting a similar sequence in Super8 which we're going to add as a light 3rd day. I think it will bring a unique element to the film and work really well with the material. Johnny moved the lost dialogue from the sequence to the restaurant sequence and everything seems to be back on track.



1st AC Rob Walsh prepping the package.

Gellin'

Finally organized all my gels which were living in complete randomness between 2 garden buckets and were difficult to transport.

Each of my lamps now has a dedicated box of gel cut to size and ready to go. The boxes are made out of plasticore (the same stuff that Kino Flo uses for their lamp heads) and contain:

1 Full CTB
1 1/2 CTB
1 1/4 CTB

1 Full CTO
1 1/2 CTO
1 1/4 CTO

ND 9
ND 6
ND 3

216
250
Opal

I have sizes for 150, 300 and 650 fresnels. I like having a dedicated box for each lamp as you can have a gel box living with its own light as opposed to a centralized box for all the gel. Everything fits convenientely into a milkcrate. My plan is to build a 2nd crate with larger sizes - 2K's and Kino Flo's.

Thanks to Grant Wood who gave me the idea after I saw his similar kit.

Lost Chances - Day 1 of 2

Director: Johnny Tamindzic

Shot day 1 of 2 on a short film "Lost Chances" with director Johnny Tamindzic. It's a student short being produced out of Ryerson's intensive summer film program. We're shooting on an Arri SR3 with 35mm primes - 14, 18, 25, 50, 85. Pretty standard but small lighting package - small fresnels, kino flo's and our big guy is a 1200 HMI Par.

First day was a little rough - We had to compromise some in the first scene and lost an entire second scene due to schedule. This film could probably use a 3rd and maybe 4th day but because of the nature of the program Johnny needs to have it done in 2. You never have enough time...

I've been using a digital SLR with a 50mm 1.4 prime to judge contrast. This is the first time doing this. I'm interested to see how close it compares to the neg. We transfer next monday at Technicolor.

Broken Lines @ Young Cuts

Broken Lines - the WW2 drama I shot last fall - has gotten into the Young Cuts film festival in Montreal. The film will be screening on August 18th at 3pm. There will be more details shortly at www.youngcuts.com.