DVD: LIGHTING for Film and Television

Writer/Director of the two shorts on the disc here.

Wanted to let you know that one of them, UNAWAKENING will air this weekend in AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL's PBS series ON STORY (Austin's KLRU).
This week's episode is about suspense and features interviews form SHANE BLACK (LETHAL WEAPON, KISS KISS BANG BANG), and TED TALLY (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), and other big shots. And then strangely, me and our film.

You can watch the episode online now at
http://video.klru.tv/video/2022712957
And see the short UNWAKENING that's on the disc.
:beer:
 
bwwd said:
Little Mouth To Feed was inspired by The Orphanage, right ? At least by the look of it IMO
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The Orphange had it's wide release in Spain in 10/2007, and then US release in 1/2008.
We were wrapped before October and screened online in 11/2007 at DVXuser. IMDB has LMTF's release as 2008 because more post work was done on the film after it's DVXuser screening (which also gives it another year or so of viability for festivals).
LMTF did not screen theatrically until festival play in 2008.

I actually wanted a much harder noir look which was more inspired by Eraserhead than anything else. I was too chicken to go black and white though. Macgregor the DP however, on reading the script, felt a more period oil lamp sort of look in terms of the lighting was more germane, and we wound up going that way. I think it was the better decision with only one caveat - I'd wanted the baby to appear 1st from total darkness like Brando's bald head in Apocalypse Now. So it made that horror moment a bit trickier to pull off - the absence of complete black noir shadowing - and the baby prop was not up to full light scrutiny, but overall the look served the short greatly I think. It's more Flora's world. The only material Mac and I referenced was The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a lighting look which we referrd to as "oil lamp"
Though we did not go as far as some of their sepia grading.

bwwd said:
yeah weird :)
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It might seem less weird though when you consider the following - The Orphanage is one of my favorite films of all times. I mean really - top 3 or 5. I was even talking to the director once slated for the American remake about working on the project as his assistant ("assistant to", not "assistant director"), until that director and studio moved on from each other. That was 2009 and the remake has yet to go into production. So I guess you can take from that that there's just some shared themes at work in both films which interest J.A. Bayona and myself, though I would not mean to suggest that LMTF is on par with the Orphanage.

As for the look, while they're both in somewhat bucolic settings, the Orphanage is more refined while LMTF is more rundown and grungy, IMO. The leads do look similar in someways, at times. And another similarity, the names - Laura in The Orphanage and Flora in LMTF. But again, to me, they're more similar thematically than in the way they look, even though they do look somewhat similar.
 
I finished the Lighting DVD a while back. I really enjoyed the 2 movies, and I felt the best nuggets of practical hands-on lighting information came from the discussions about the 2 films (although the rest of the dvd was informative and surprisingly easy to watch). That Jesse James film was so beautiful to look at in every way; one of my favorites. You did a good job creating that look.
 
Thanks, Simon!

That was by design; the DVD is structured to give you a very accessible, easy-to-understand grounding the principles and artistic motivations of lighting, and then the breakdowns of the films apply it in practical, hands-on ways. Seems like you got it just the way we'd hoped. :)
 
Wow, I got the bundle yesterday and I watched the lighting DVD's (3) and I learned so much stuff about the equipment that my wishing list for lighting equipment was cut in half because of the techniques I learned from this guys. Sometimes the lack of basic knowledge or maybe information you forgot over the years you want to solve it thinking there is a new "product" to achieve the look you are looking for.
If you guys are looking after "a little mouth to feed" you'll be surprised about the equipment and technique used in this short.
Awesome stuff, looking forward to watch the Sound DVD...did anybody say popcorn?...

Cheers!!
 
fmaudio said:
Wow, I got the bundle yesterday and I watched the lighting DVD's (3) and I learned so much stuff about the equipment that my wishing list for lighting equipment was cut in half because of the techniques I learned from this guys. Sometimes the lack of basic knowledge or maybe information you forgot over the years you want to solve it thinking there is a new "product" to achieve the look you are looking for.
If you guys are looking after "a little mouth to feed" you'll be surprised about the equipment and technique used in this short.
Awesome stuff, looking forward to watch the Sound DVD...did anybody say popcorn?...

Cheers!!
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That's awesome FM, very cool re the lighting equipment shopping list.

Fellipe said:
Please, offer a downloadable version :)
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This way madness lies :)
 
Just ordered both sound and lighting. Based on all the comments I've read here, I'm really looking forward to it. :D
 
Segment from Disc 3: Case Studies -- Macgregor and Barry going through lighting breakdown of one of the scenes from Unawakening. It's on YouTube; thought it may be of some interest here . . . I think it's cool, anyway . . . :)

 
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