COLD CALLS by John Whalen featuring Blanchard Ryan (OpenWater) & Ben Bailey (CashCab)

Holy sheep s**t!

I had high expectations, but now they are through the roof. Cold Calls looks AMAZING! I'm sensing another JDS smash hit here.
 
Hmmm... To talk about the lighting...

well. I learned alot from all the DOP's i've worked with over the last couple of years. Tim Naylor, Brian O'Carroll, Shiloh Crawford, Sanne Kurz, Khalid Mohtaseb... and others.

After a while you start combining what you know with what you learn, and then sometimes you need to invent a few things....

Jack showed me samples of the films he wanted COLD CALLS to reference, and using the tools i had at hand, (which was surprisingly little, but i'l go into that in a minute) you have to be smart about light placement and use whats naturally there sometimes.

We had basically my simple interview kit, and jacks interview kit between us. This is 4x 1k Britek Softboxes, 2 Prolites, and 2 of mark harris' 300w Britek openfaces. The lights you have are useless without control however. We rented 4x Cstands and a Flag kit. Without the flag kit it would not have looked 1/3 as good. Controlling light is paramount.

I consider at least a simple grip package as important to the "film look" as a 35 adapter. Lighting is #1/#2 Split with Art Direction. Then comes camera choices.

This was a fun film to light.
 
TimurCivan said:
Hmmm... To talk about the lighting...

I consider at least a simple grip package as important to the "film look" as a 35 adapter. Lighting is #1/#2 Split with Art Direction. Then comes camera choices.
Click to expand...


100% Accurate. Half of my budget was lighting/grip/truck expenses (circa $1500)..

The HVX I borrowed from a friend for free...
 
TimurCivan said:
Hmmm... To talk about the lighting...

well. I learned alot from all the DOP's i've worked with over the last couple of years. Tim Naylor, Brian O'Carroll, Shiloh Crawford, Sanne Kurz, Khalid Mohtaseb... and others.

After a while you start combining what you know with what you learn, and then sometimes you need to invent a few things....

Jack showed me samples of the films he wanted COLD CALLS to reference, and using the tools i had at hand, (which was surprisingly little, but i'l go into that in a minute) you have to be smart about light placement and use whats naturally there sometimes.

We had basically my simple interview kit, and jacks interview kit between us. This is 4x 1k Britek Softboxes, 2 Prolites, and 2 of mark harris' 300w Britek openfaces. The lights you have are useless without control however. We rented 4x Cstands and a Flag kit. Without the flag kit it would not have looked 1/3 as good. Controlling light is paramount.

I consider at least a simple grip package as important to the "film look" as a 35 adapter. Lighting is #1/#2 Split with Art Direction. Then comes camera choices.

This was a fun film to light.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this.

Absolutely stunning work! If I can become half this good some day I'll be tickled pink. Amazing framing and lighting in every frame.

Well done!

Mike
 
Thanks for the insight on the lighting timur. I'm just starting to play with controlling the light a bit more and am seeing some great improvement in what I'm shooting. Guess I'll keep heading down that road. Right now I tend to use alot of foam core for flagging and reflecting - any reason real flags would be any better? I've got one as part of a MSE road rags kit.
 
well they are made for that purpose exactly. they have metal frames, and Gobo heads can hold them in any positon you need, its just more precise.
 
TimurCivan said:
Thank you guys!
Click to expand...
No way. Thank you for sharing a bit of info on the process. If you could pick one of the frames and give a breakdown on how you lit it I know I would REALLY appreciate that. I'm sure others would as well.

Only if you have the time.

Cheers! Good luck in the Fest guys. The script is awesome and the grabs look amazing.


Mike
 
A Flag kit will come with an assortment of flags and screens allowing you to diffuse light on specific areas of the frame. For example, perhaps the light on your subject is too hot, but you can't stop down because you'll lose your background. Screening the light will stop the light down and you wont have to change the look of your camera settings to accommodate. And c-stands also have to be the most ingenious invention as they give you complete mobility in how and where you place the flag.
 
TimurCivan said:
well they are made for that purpose exactly. they have metal frames, and Gobo heads can hold them in any positon you need, its just more precise.
Click to expand...


Good points... Thanks again for sharing this, looking forward to seeing the rest of the lighting when viewing opens up.
 
tub.jpg




this was one softbox to the left, with 2 flags making "barndoors" for the top and bottom of the softbox, with duvatine covering the sides. this makes a shaft of soft light, and there is a huge mirror ot the right of the tub, making the reflected bounce act as a fill. This way its bright, but looks "dark". it looks like jack added a vingette and colored it blue in the grade.
 
Three cheers for the Britek softboxes. Can't beat 'em for the $$$$

Nice work, Timur and all the rest of you putting in long, creative, caffeine-induced hours to produce these festival films!
 
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