Lighting With What Is Available

Probably my favorite blog for practical information about filmmaking is the one by ASC Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut (Terminator Salvation, We Are Marshall, Act of Valor). Shane is happy to share his knowledge and has garnered quite a following among aspiring DP's. In a recent post entitled, "Lighting Basics: Going With What Is Available," he breaks down the lighting (almost nothing) and light control instruments used in the street scene of one of his films. It is not easy to find this type of breakdown anywhere (believe me, I have searched far and wide), so certainly take this opportunity to read about his decisions and learn from one of the best in the business. His newest movie about to hit theaters is Act of Valor, which he shot almost entirely with Canon 5D MkII DSLR's. Read and follow Shane here.

Targeting Your Audience

No matter who you are or what your business is, all of us can benefit from good promotion on the Internet. Lance Cummins of nearlyfreelance.com has a great post about building traffic on your website through great content that is narrowly targeted. You can read it here.

Canon C300 and RED Scarlet

For the past several months, filmmakers have been eagerly awaiting this day for the announcements from Canon and RED about their new "game-changing" cameras.

Canon's C300 seems to have hit the mark as far as rolling the best features of the large sensor DSLR's into a truly workable film production package. The footage looks great, of course, and the features are what everyone has been asking for. The only problem I see is the price point. I really was hoping they would realize who their largest market is on these things (not generally the same market as those who would and could buy a RED Epic) and offer this solution at a price no one could pass up. The MSRP that I heard was around $20,000. Not an unfair price at all, but still way higher than most of their current 7D/5DmkII owners can afford to upgrade to. That said, it looks like perhaps there could be another lower-cost version coming soon, though no guarantees on that. I am curious to see also what the price point will be on their new cinema prime lenses. Those certainly look enticing.

As for RED, the Scarlet (also a large-sensor 4k camera) looks great and is an amazing product for the price--probably a better deal than the Canon. The biggest downside to products from RED, however, is the post workflow and the number of expensive accessories needed to do it all properly. It would have been nice to see a test film using the Scarlet, like we did with LaForet's C300 film, but I guess we will have to wait a little for that. Learn all the details about both of these cameras at www.prolost.com. All in all, a good day for filmmakers. Always love having great options when it comes time to shoot a project!

Envato Mail Freebies

Envato is a company that has created websites (which they term "marketplaces") for every type of creative professional. They have over a million members on their marketplaces. The two sites that I use most often are VideoHive.com for footage and After Effects templates, and AudioJungle.com for music cuts. Their prices are among the lowest for the quality they offer. Each month they send out an Envato newsletter that includes eight or ten free downloads from their various sites. Check it out.

Rig Wheels Mini Dolly System

I know I just posted last week about another mini dolly system, but this one looks great as well. I don't think either of these are a replacement for a full-sized portable dolly, but this one, Rig Wheels, is really very versatile and leaves a lot of its uses up to your imagination. You can watch the promotional video and learn more at their website.

Editing the Movie Courageous (Part 2)

Steve Hullfish has a continuation of the article I linked to last week on the work he did for "Courageous". It is a bit on the technical side, but has some good insight into the behind the scenes decisions that must be made in post production.

Read the article here.

Directing Fact #4 - Location is Everything

There has been a cliche in the business world for a long time that goes, "Location, Location, Location." It simply means that nothing is as important as where you choose to set up your business. This applies to shooting a film as well. The choice of location will impact the production in a number of ways, both on-screen and off.
On the practical side, there are many considerations that go into choosing a set. These include location fees, cost of travel, ease of access, distance from other set locations, availability of extras, availability of crew, availability of power, water and restroom facilities, sound considerations, natural lighting considerations and more. When you are operating on a small budget, the impact of each of these is magnified. For example, even something as simple as a bathroom may be the determining factor in the final choice of location. A big budget project would never think twice about bringing in a facilities trailer where needed, but even an extra $100/day for a porta-potty could be outside the budget of a small production. Likewise, a small budget may consider a couple of hours drive between locations to be cost-prohibitive due to the extra fuel and mileage charges, whereas a studio film may be able to shoot in Moscow, Buenos Aires and Morocco all in the same week. Because of these financial limitations, directors often have to "settle" for what is available and close.

The big thing to remember is that what ends up on-screen is all that matters. Often we think we have to have the perfect complete location, when in fact we only need a couple of good "spots" to shoot. It would be nice to find an amazing old factory with all of the right junk in just the right places, but the truth is that we can get by with a brick building in an alley and probably tell the story just as effectively. No, it will not have the epic establishing shot you pictured, but many films (even large budget films) these days do quite well without establishing shots. A good DP should be able to get you a great look even when you have very little to work with. I remember being very disappointed in a couple of the locations we ended up with on my last film, especially for our scenes in the woods. However, once we put it on a long lens, it was amazing how that spot just came to life. In the end, that location in the woods turned out to be one of our better ones.

This is not to say that the location does not matter, because it does. The primary consideration, however, is that it has the right feel about it. One of the things I really wanted to achieve on my film, since it was for children, was a bright, happy and colorful feel. Contrary to my earlier beliefs, this had very little to do with the lighting and had everything to do with the sets, props and costumes. We missed the mark on a number of scenes because I did not understand how much that feel would be impacted by the location. Several of our scenes, for example, were shot at a building that we had free access to. The building had a couple of rooms that I felt would work perfectly. What I did not consider was that the very nice, warm earthy tones of the paint scheme (and lack of color contrast) would make those entire scenes feel moody, dark and less interesting visually, despite the colorful costumes our actors were wearing. Even a white wall would likely have been better in that it would have provided more contrast with skin tones and the costumes--and would have felt brighter and happier overall. On the other hand, had we been shooting something with a more moody feel, that location may have been the right choice.

There are obviously hundreds of considerations when choosing a location, but from my limited experience, I would say that finding something to fit and enhance the overall "feel" of your movie is far more important than having a list of great individual locations with varying looks and feels that ruin your story's continuity. Make this your number one priority whenever possible.

Editing the Movie Courageous

A few of the crew members on our recent film, The Solomon Bunch, were also a part of the crew of Courageous. This is a fantastic film, and one that I recommend you go and see. After three weeks in theaters, it is over $20 million and is still in the top 10 (despite being in only about a third the number of theaters that other major releases are in).

Steve Hullfish worked with Alex Kendrick on the edit for Courageous and has a very in-depth article about how they handled the workflow from two RED cameras and some 5DmkII's. It is featured on ProVideoCoalition today.

Read the article here.

Super Portable Mini Dolly

I am totally over buying cheap stuff and trying to "DIY it." Most of the time the hassle is not worth the results--and you end up with a product that is quirky at best and makes your clients question if they have hired the right person. This little dolly, less than $100, seems to be a great little product that is well-built and will certainly offer more than $100 in production value the first time you use it. If you use HDSLR's, GoPro's or other small cameras, check out the extremely portable Pico Flex Dolly here.

Flag Kit from Digital Juice

Without tools for controlling and shaping the output of your lighting instruments and the sun, you will never be able to get consistently great results on-screen. This set of flags and scrims looks to be a tremendous value. As long as you have some C-stands or at least light stands with grip heads, you should consider adding this kit to your toolbox. The best thing about it is that it is super-portable, although I am not sure how durable it is for everyday use on-set. Knowing the track record of Digital Juice, I am optimistic in that regard as well.

Learn more about the DJ Flag Kit by visiting their site here.

The Great Camera Shootout

You will enjoy watching this episode, the third and final installment, of the 2011 camera shootout. It is very interesting to see how each film camera handles different situations. If you will be deciding on a camera purchase or rental for a particular project, you will want to watch these videos first.

Watch episode here.

Where It Goes, No One Knows

Don't you just love it when you find new information that shows you that the way you have been doing things for 20 years is really not the best way? Well, actually, I do love it. Better to find out late than never.

This article gives some really good insights into the use of your fill light. The ideal placement may not be where you think it is. Take the time to read this article by Art Adams, and you may improve your lighting design tremendously.

Declare His Glory

Bible Truth Music has just released a set of music books along with the demo CD which I engineered. It is a collection of songs for ladies' trios to sing in church.

They have a few clips from the cd on their website.

Master of None

Have you ever met a jack-of-all-trades? Well, let me introduce myself. Here is a list of the hats I regularly wear--often all in the same week. I am still trying to figure out which one of these is supposed to be paying my bills.

• Video/TV producer
• Editor
• Camera operator/DP
• Film director
• Script writer
• Radio/TV producer/show designer
• Record producer
• Live sound engineer
• Recording engineer
• Voiceover artist/Radio announcer
• Live event announcer
• Radio/TV/sound consultant
• Audio/Video Instructor
• Acting Instructor
• Graphic designer
• Web designer

Believe it or not, this is not enough! My wife thinks I should know how to fix the garage door and crack eggs without breaking the yolk. With this list, it is pretty clear that I will never be really great at anything. The upside is that at least my life will never be boring. Little blessings.

Correcting An Underexposed Shot

Working on a shot this morning and I thought I would post about it. This was shot in Phoenix with nothing but a standard tungsten interview light kit. With daylight correction gels on each lamp, it was just not enough light to match the subject's lighting to the level of the windows in the background. Because of that, I left her underexposed in order to keep the windows from blooming too much. To get enough rim light on her hair, I had to put my light stand just behind her and in the shot. I was careful to shoot a clean slate (without her in the seat) for replacing that area of the frame in post, and did so with an 8-point garbage matte cutting out around the light and stand.

In color correcting the shot, I cranked the mids way up and then boosted the saturation to compensate for the desaturation that naturally occurs. Because I shot with a camera that has good detail in the shadows and did my grading in a 10-bit environment, the shot looks fairly natural--just a tiny bit of grain. I also added a face light, which is like a little bright spot over just her face and upper body. This helps set her off even more from the rest of the image. One other thing that would focus the attention on her would be to do a vignette centered on her. I tried that look, but really prefer this shot to have a little brighter and more open feel, so I decided against it.

The only thing I wish on this shot is that I would have had a larger sensor to work with on the camera. The background is just in too sharp a focus for my taste. One more thing to point out about the text. I really like the look of the thin lettering I have chosen. Because it is so thin, however, it tends to get lost in the background. My solution on this one is to have the text moving just slightly (the words slowly pass one another), which always makes it more readable.

Identify Any Font Quickly

Myfonts.com has a great little app for web and for iPhone that will identify any font for you. This is a big timesaver when trying to match the fonts in your video to the client's existing print and web designs. Kevin P. McAuliffe has a short tutorial to show you how it works.

View tutorial

Moving On...

Making the transition away from Final Cut Studio is looking like more and more of a necessity each day. Oliver Peters explains why in this article and gives some sound recommendations about how professional editors should begin making the transition now by making current FCP projects as future-proof as possible. If you are a professional editor, you should at least skip to the end of his article and heed the six transition steps he gives.

Check it out.

The 12-Step Plan for Film Actors

I start my acting class tonight--assuming we have a few people show up. In the last week, I have been developing a curriculum and have come up with what I am calling a "12-Step Plan". This seemed fitting since we will all be sitting around in a circle anyway and starting with something like "Hi, my name is Jason...and I am an actor."

My twelve steps are the skills an actor must develop to be a success in on-camera acting. If you are in the south Atlanta area, come check out the class some Thursday evening. Here is the website.

Amazing Inexpensive Equipment Cart

I travel to most jobs in a Chevy Suburban with the seats laid flat. With all the equipment loaded, I have very little room left. I have been needing a rolling cart for a long time, but the ones that fold small enough are either way too flimsy or way too expensive (as in $1,000). Usually, I end up borrowing one from the shooting location when they have one. The last one I used was very small and two of the wheels kept falling off at the slightest bump throughout the three days of shooting.

Today, I saw a great solution at Costco called the Origami Rack. The Costco version already has rolling casters (although you will probably want to consider putting larger wheels on if you will be on any terrain rougher than interior floors or concrete sidewalks). While it is not as heavy duty as the $1,000 version, it is an amazing cart for the price of just $50. It folds flat for transporting and is super simple to use. The one I am referring to is the medium sized cart in the photo above. Check out the video here.

Promo Video for Brian Neher

Just posted a promo video that I have been working on for portrait painter Brian Neher. The look of the piece starts with an After Effects template from Footage Firm that I have customized. I also used a built-in Motion template from Final Cut Pro for the photos flying in three at a time. That also took a little customization, including reversing the effect occasionally so that viewers would not get tired of the effect happening the same way every time. Watch the promo here.