SUPER LOW KEY LIGHTING - Letus extreme + HVX200 short film screen grabs

[Deuceofspades]

OK, it was my first attempt at filming with my letus Extreme and my HVX200 and my first attempt at filming a scene period. It was also my very first attempt at being the DP.

Leave it to me to also pick the hardest scene from the short to start with :thumbup:.

I wanted the set dark, dramatic, only the kid's face was ever shown and lit while the alcoholic abusive father was nothing more but a menacing, faceless shadow... Zak's little room is also his hell. I hope I conveyed it through the images and lighting.

I must warn you that some of the images are a bit disturbing.

The one thing I see that I need to fix next time is the overall red flesh tones. This was due, I believe, to the fact that I do not yet have a full set of pro, daylight balanced lights, and currently using what I can afford, a mixture of lowell lights and garage flood lights. I will get daylight balance hallogen bulbs for them tomorrow. Hopefully it will help.

Note that I used incidental lights but the light on the kid's face actually came from the keylight which was a 500K Lowell Omni set on soft focus, but otherwise a hard light, with barn doors closed to keep everything in the dark but the kid. I did not use a fill light or even a bounce. there was a slight fill from the incidental lights, which had been dimmed as far down as possible within them looking "lit".

The blue blinds effect was done with a 250K garage floodlight, with CTB gel, through a $5 air condition small metal vent, attached to a microphone stand (hey whatever works, beggars can't be choosers).




http://www.bettatalk.com/THE%20BENCH/Image4.jpg

http://www.bettatalk.com/THE%20BENCH/Image6.jpg

http://www.bettatalk.com/THE%20BENCH/Image3.jpg

In this shot I wanted both to be mere shadows against the blue background:

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image14.jpg

http://www.bettatalk.com/THE%20BENCH/Image2.jpg

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image9.jpg



http://www.bettatalk.com/Image04.jpg


This the last shot of the kid running down the staircase and running away. At the top of staircase, you can see the blue bedroom and the silhouette of the drunk dad. The key light was set so that it only lit Zak's face as he was about halfway down the stairs and while he yelled: "I HATE YOU" to his father.

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image01.jpg


PS: Worry not about Zak, he does find his happy ending in the story.

[Zak Forsman]

these look nice. keep at it! and keep naming your main characters, Zak. i like it.


PS: Worry not about Zak, he does find his happy ending in the story.

good. I was afraid he was about to find it right here...

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image04.jpg

i like how the background (blue/black) drives a solid line right between the two characters.

[Zak Forsman]

is this part of Deuce of Spades? or a different project?

[disjecta]

Looking good, Faith. Exposure is nice.

Post some footage :)

[Postmaster]

Nice job Faith, I would expect more noise.
Did you do Color Correction in Post or is that straight from the HVX?

Frank

[Deuceofspades]

these look nice. keep at it! and keep naming your main characters, Zak. i like it.

good. I was afraid he was about to find it right here...

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image04.jpg

i like how the background (blue/black) drives a solid line right between the two characters.


Well, the dad does take his belt off but it is not to abuse the kid sexually, it is just to beat the crap out of him. In the above pic, Zak was just struck (slapped) and fell onto the bed in that position. He is still a bit stunned in that shot. As the father takes the belt and raises his hand to strike him (slow mo), Zak will bolt, run right into his father and almost knock him off his feet and then out the door. I shot this overcranked, so it looks pretty darn cool.

A few more shots:

1. That glass of hard liquor never leaves the father's hand the entire scene:

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image02.jpg


2. "I'm gonna teach you some manners" - undoes his belt still holding the glass in the other hand!

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image03.jpg

3. earlier in the scene Zak was tossed across the room. The dad is furious because Zak's room is messy and his bed is not made. I need to color balance this shot better, he looks pink here :).

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image13.jpg

Zak is forced to make his bed. You can see the expression on his face: The kid is unhappy.


http://www.bettatalk.com/Image16.jpg




OPENING SHOT: DOLLY BACK from Zak's face (open framing - close up)revealing Zak, sitting down in the very corner of his blue (cold) room. Only a bit of warmth in that little corner where he finds his refuge in his music. As we dolly back we also reveal the father, standing in the very foreground and of which we only see the hand, carrying the dreadful glass. As he appears, I rack focus onto the glass to redirect the audience's attention. The glass was lit by a flashlight held by my PA. The dad's arm was also lit manually with a small halogen 45W light with cinefoil directing the light only to light a hair bit his arm, so we could sorta see him. As he moved, my PA followed him with the light. hey, whatever it takes.

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image8.jpg

http://www.bettatalk.com/THE%20BENCH/Image7.jpg

[Kholi]

Hey Faith, thanks for sharin'. Did you shoot flat then adjust in post?

[Deuceofspades]

is this part of Deuce of Spades? or a different project?

No, this is not part of my hotrod movie, obviously. It is a short "THE BENCH", I just wrote last week and I am filming to learn the ropes. I hope to have production all done by 01/30. Pre production only lasted 3 days :) because I already have everything lined up for my film and access to a large number of actors I have already auditioned so it weas easy to just call a few and they immediately jumped onto the short project.

[Deuceofspades]

Hey Faith, thanks for sharin'. Did you shoot flat then adjust in post?

My settings are the usual 720-24PN everything is pretty flat, but I usually have the saturation at about +2 and for that shoot I had the master pedestal at (I think) -9 or something, really LOW to crush the blacks.

I am a rookie and I don't know what I am doing. I hope this was the right call.
This shots have been color corrected, to remove some of the red tones in the actor's flesh tones. Otehrwise i did not mess with it. I desaturated it a bit too, to help with the red problem. I would not have had that problem if I had used 100% daylight balanced lights. I am sending my AD to Film tools to try to get the right bulbs for our next shoot which takes place tomorrow. I hope it will solve that problem.

[Kholi]

My settings are the usual 720-24PN everything is pretty flat, but I usually have the saturation at about +2 and for that shoot I had the master pedestal at (I think) -9 or something, really LOW to crush the blacks.

I am a rookie and I don't know what I am doing. I hope this was the right call.
This shots have been color corrected, to remove some of the red tones in the actor's flesh tones. Otehrwise i did not mess with it. I desaturated it a bit too, to help with the red problem. I would not have had that problem if I had used 100% daylight balanced lights. I am sending my AD to Film tools to try to get the right bulbs for our next shoot which takes place tomorrow. I hope it will solve that problem.

You learn by experience, and this is the best time to experiment. I think they look good color-wise, I'm actually wondering what would've happened to the noise had you went for color in-camera as opposed to bringing it up in post.

Maybe not this shoot, but next one? Even just messing about the house, experiment with getting a closer look in-camera before the compression is applied (DVCproHD is noisey) and see how that works out for you as far as your reds and other colors go.

I like the stills! How are you doing with the Letus unit? Video too!

Edit here:

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image04.jpg

That's good composition. What Lens were you using?

[Deuceofspades]

Kholi, I am not sure what you meant by : "I'm actually wondering what would've happened to the noise had you went for color in-camera as opposed to bringing it up in post."

i did not bring anything UP in post, I brought things DOWN. Reduced saturation. Unless you meant brightness? I did bring brightness up a hair, but I am not sure I needed to... See, I am using a gateway 24 inch high def monitor with my PC to edit on and it has a specific quality to itself, it brings the contrast up A LOT and the red color too. I adjusted my shots accordingly, but now I realize that some of what I might have been adjusting for was my monitor, not the actual footage... Mmmmmm...

Which brings me to a vital question: When I film, I see image in my LCD and also on my Marshall monitor. Image looks slightly different. When I download into my PC and look at image/footage on my gateway monitor it looks once again quite different from above two. And when I view footage on another PC, (say one with a SD monitor) it looks different from all above... :undecided

?????????????????????

So who do you trust? My gutts say to trust the marshall monitor if it is callibrated. Are my gutts right?

HOW DO YOU GUYS GO ABOUT ASSESSING WHAT YOU ARE GETTING WHILE FILMING?

Is what you see what you get?



You learn by experience, and this is the best time to experiment. I think they look good color-wise, I'm actually wondering what would've happened to the noise had you went for color in-camera as opposed to bringing it up in post.

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image04.jpg

That's good composition. What Lens were you using?

[Deuceofspades]

Also the lenses I used on that shoot were 35mm Nikkon (whenever I could not back away enough to get proper framing) and 50mm F.4 Nikkon. I believe I had the later screwed onto my Letus when I filmed the 'famous' above shot. It was shot in slow mo. I had every orifice OPEN all the way (HAHA!), lense iris was at 1.4, HVX iris at OPEN and shutter speed at a dead stop (1/24). I wanted some blurr and also needed all the light I could suck up into the camera ;).

THE ROOM WAS A NIGHTMARE.

it was minuscule (10X10) and completely cluttered with shit / furniture. there was NO room to stand. We had to push the bed back against the dresser and computer table to have room fo 2 actors to stand in the foreground, as well as for the opening dolly shot's dolly. When I took the reverse shots from the other side of the bed, including the 'famous' shot, I only could stand on ONE leg. lodged between the dresser, computer table and bed. I had to crawl over the bed to get in and out of my flming position Fun stuff! I had NO ROOM to put the other leg down. I ended up filming for 3 hours straight standing on one leg, like a crane.... Kha Khaaaa!

where do I pick up my MEDAL?? :)

[Kholi]

http://www.bettatalk.com/Image8.jpg

http://www.bettatalk.com/THE%20BENCH/Image7.jpg

Are these before and after grading shots? That's what I thought they were. Sorry if I'm mistaken.

[Spinflight]

had NO ROOM to put the other leg down. I ended up filming for 3 hours straight standing on one leg, like a crane.... Kha Khaaaa!

where do I pick up my MEDAL?? :)

Faith, you didn't show me that trick at birns and sawyer. Are you holding out on me?

[Deuceofspades]

Faith, you didn't show me that trick at birns and sawyer. Are you holding out on me?

Howdie - who are you? I have obviously met you (at B&S), but I did meet several people tha last I visited... So which one were you?

Is anyone going to answer my yellow question? Por favor?

[Deuceofspades]

QHOLI:

I have not yet touched the footage, I just adjusted a couple of the photos, as they seemed dark on my PC Gateway monitor. I then noticed it was my Gateway monitor that makes everything look very dark... As a result the photo I adjusted was overadjusted contrast and lightness wise, making it look "faded", while the real footage is not (looks like the second shot)...

Hence my above YELLOW question (anyone?)... I am waiting to see what I should monitor on before I adjust footage (if I even need to)... It looked very good in the marshall monitor, very good. Should I trust that monitor? Or??

[Kholi]

Kholi, I am not sure what you meant by : "I'm actually wondering what would've happened to the noise had you went for color in-camera as opposed to bringing it up in post."

i did not bring anything UP in post, I brought things DOWN. Reduced saturation. Unless you meant brightness? I did bring brightness up a hair, but I am not sure I needed to... See, I am using a gateway 24 inch high def monitor with my PC to edit on and it has a specific quality to itself, it brings the contrast up A LOT and the red color too. I adjusted my shots accordingly, but now I realize that some of what I might have been adjusting for was my monitor, not the actual footage... Mmmmmm...

Which brings me to a vital question: When I film, I see image in my LCD and also on my Marshall monitor. Image looks slightly different. When I download into my PC and look at image/footage on my gateway monitor it looks once again quite different from above two. And when I view footage on another PC, (say one with a SD monitor) it looks different from all above... :undecided

?????????????????????

So who do you trust? My gutts say to trust the marshall monitor if it is callibrated. Are my gutts right?

HOW DO YOU GUYS GO ABOUT ASSESSING WHAT YOU ARE GETTING WHILE FILMING?

Is what you see what you get?


You can trust the Marshall more-so than your PC LCD because it's component out of your Camera. It's going to be a lot more accurate (when CALIBRATED properly) than what you're seeing after the import on your non-professional LCD. I have a Gateway 22" and 24" as well and they're not accurate at all. Close enough, but I wouldn't do CC on either of 'em.

What scene file setting are you shooting with?

[disjecta]

Faith, you need to properly calibrate your monitors (your editing monitor and your external video monitor).

You can read about the procedure here but there's plenty of info on the Web: http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/calibrate.pdf

[Kholi]

Faith, you need to properly calibrate your monitors (your editing monitor and your external video monitor).

You can read about the procedure here but there's plenty of info on the Web: http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/calibrate.pdf

Part of the big issue with the Gateway is viewing angle. You have to be RIGHT in front of the thing for the image to look right no matter what you do. Can't be above you, below you, directly in front of you. =(

[Spinflight]

All monitors are going to be different. Even same brand monitors will even look a little different from one another. LCD's typically don't have the contrast as a VGA. Just make sure they are all calibrated properly. I always do an average of different monitors so that I know I'm in the right ballpark.

[Deuceofspades]

All monitors are going to be different. Even same brand monitors will even look a little different from one another. LCD's typically don't have the contrast as a VGA. Just make sure they are all calibrated properly. I always do an average of different monitors so that I know I'm in the right ballpark.


Sounds wise :)

[Deuceofspades]

Faith, you need to properly calibrate your monitors (your editing monitor and your external video monitor).

You can read about the procedure here but there's plenty of info on the Web: http://www.synthetic-ap.com/tips/calibrate.pdf


There is not a shoot that I do not bless you for recommending I buy the 35 mm lens. It keeps saving my fannies each and everytime. Filming in small spaces, tiny rooms etc, I can never seem to be able to back far enough to get the framing I need, even with a 50mm, and that's when I pull out my 'secret' weapon: Your recommended 35 mm lens. Just wide enough to get the job done but not so wide that your actors start looking funny :)...

Did my longest crabbing dolly shot ever yesterday going the entire 12 feet I travelled for a while while the action was going to end in a perfect medium shot on main character at the end. Needless to say, in order to make it through that doorway from one room into the next, I had to position the tracks a certain angle and that meant ending up too close to the main actor to really have the right framing with a 50mm. Cause this was my master shot. So the 35mm did the job. And nicely so if I may add :).

In the shot I started [open framing] on a painting (only 2 feet from lens), with 4 fish, then you see the face of a strange looking woman (still the painting) pass by the frame, then you come out of the hallway and end up in the kitchen (nice wall parallax), I then rack focus on the actor who we can now see as he opens a kitchen cabinet in the far background (deep staging), as he walks back to the center table of the large, plush kitchen, the dolly travels with him, (more parallax from the table passing rigth by us) then the lens ends up lined up with a gorgeous glass vase with many facets and you get to see the actor through it for a few seconds, with a weird kaladeoscope effect (neat) then you travel past that and see a beautiful fruit plate with bright oranges and red papaya on it (more parallax) and then we end perfectly framing the actor preparing his dog a bowl of dog food.

Geese, all of this for a dude preparing a bowl of dog food??????


Yop. :happy:

Then of course, I could have simply shlapped the actor behind the table, aimed a 50mm lense rigth at him and told him: OK, prepare your dog food bowl now.

But you know what I alway say: It's not where you end up, it's how you get there :Drogar-Happy(DBG):

[Deuceofspades]

PS: the rich, but lonely doctor coming home to his dog and the owner/ dog relationship and the dog himself is a vital element of my short THE BENCH, as the dog itself becomes a catalist for 5 destinies to become "coincidentally" entertwined, so actually that moment when he comes home to his dog at the beginning of the short is very important and that is why I took the time to film it like I did. This is a key scene that triggers a series of events so I gave it my best, cinematography wise.