Maliboo - Horrorfest Entry

TheatreGuy said:
Well, I have to say... I am a little disappointed here.....

I didn't see one single ladder in ANY of these shots!!! :grin:
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Here's your ladder:

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khmuse said:
Hey Blaine,

Did you happen to catch my little 8 key/fill light setup for the party scene in any of the stills? I know that I kept Tim rather busy moving sources around on that shot!
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Kevin, I got some video of the setup.

And about the red vines: David Light may not be alive to tell the story if it weren't for those tasty little buggers.
 
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Here is an image of a setup that took a while to execute. First off, its day for night, so that adds a bit of challenge. There was a hall way that we had to Duvateen off at the end as there was a large window very high (15' up) that we couldn't block. This setup utilized a total of 4 150W DedoLight heads (2 for keys/fill and 2 for hair lights). There was also an Arri 650 used for overall fill, another 650 used as a gag light for the bathroom interior. We used a pair of wall spreaders (you really should have seen the looks that I got when I said I wanted a pair of wall spreaders, I think that they thought it was a pornographic reference!) to get the lighting instruments into place in this narrow hallway.

The exterior window at the rear required 2 6' x 6' double nets and a 6' x 6' solid to simulate moon light. The nets were placed very close to the window with a bit of foliage in front to "sell" the look. The solid was used at a step angle to let only a bit of daylight bleed in to "sell" as moonlight.

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Here is a closer look at the DedoLight heads (my favorite instrument in tight spots by a mile) and one of the wall spreaders.
 
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This setup was a last minute idea that I came up with that would cover a master shot and also reveal a new space in the location. This was a real pain in the rear as I had to do this one twice. The first time, we were to have 20 or so extras in a living room dancing. After spending a couple of hours to get it set up, we found out that we were not going to have our extras in time so that setup had to be struck. The idea that I had was to compress the size of the room so that our few extras could be made to look like they were in a smaller area than they were (the room was really large, over 30' x 40'). This setup has a lot of practical lights; many strings of little "pumpkin" and "skull" lights (they look low in this shot, but they look correct on the A camera) as well as a lamp in the shot as a motivated source (I used a PH-211 and a dimmer on this to set the ratio). The keys/fills were 150W DedoLights (I know, I sound like a broken record, but these things really are my favorite). There is also a Lowel Caselite 4 used but it isn't shown in this angle.

The dolly track angle allowed us to do an interesting move as I added a pan to the move to act as a pivot around 2 of the extras ending in a reveal of the new space in the background.

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This shot show a bit of the other room that was revealed at the end of the move. There were a lot of French Doors that had to be "Duvateened off". The key and fill for this second space was a CaseLite 4 and an Arri 650 Fresnel.




 
khmuse, thanks for sharing the info in these pix. Very cool. I love the wall spreader idea. Very cool.

And that is a nice set-up on that dolly. How smooth is that? I guess you need a pretty hefty tripod to put together a rig like that. But I like it.
 
with a sandbag on the spreader it was pretty smooth.
TheatreGuy said:
khmuse, thanks for sharing the info in these pix. Very cool. I love the wall spreader idea. Very cool.

And that is a nice set-up on that dolly. How smooth is that? I guess you need a pretty hefty tripod to put together a rig like that. But I like it.
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TheatreGuy said:
khmuse, thanks for sharing the info in these pix. Very cool. I love the wall spreader idea. Very cool.
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I can't take credit for the wall spreader, its a standard piece of grip equipment used on a lot of sets; but I agree, they are very cool.

I use wall spreaders all the time when trying to get a source overhead without any supports in the frame. I have hung some pretty good sized instruments (1k2s) off of these and if placed properly, they are very stable.

The one thing that I would mention, I always use a safety wire around the instrument and the 2x4. Having even a small source fall on your talent isn't gonna make any friends.
 
TheatreGuy said:
And that is a nice set-up on that dolly. How smooth is that? I guess you need a pretty hefty tripod to put together a rig like that. But I like it.
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I built that dolly out of a few different pieces that I pulled off of things that I wasn't using any longer. Its a 12 wheel design on what was a pretty poor spreader/dolly to start with. I changed it over to a track design re-machined the poorly built pieces and added a number of nice bearings and proper hardware. The track is schedule 40 PVC with threaded pipe inserts so that the sections come apart easily. The lengths are different so that you can position the "seams" at different points and can accommodate a variety of run lengths. It runs pretty smooth, nearly as good as anything that I have used that costs many time more. The way that I configured it, it can handle some pretty heavy loads as the forces are maintained directly over the bearing races.

The best part, other than it not costing much over $350 to make is that it breaks down and fits in a couple of very small bags. Its much more portable than the doorway dolly that I used to use.

The sticks are a Cartoni with a Delta head.
 
khmuse said:
The one thing that I would mention, I always use a safety wire around the instrument and the 2x4. Having even a small source fall on your talent isn't gonna make any friends.
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No, I imagine not!

Not to worry by me... I am a "theatre guy." Safety cables all the way!

Very nice info on those spreader. I will be adding those to my stock!
 
That's right! And I work in some of these really crappy houses were the pipes don't come to the floor and you have to carry crap up to the grid! Sucks!
 
I lensed a film about a year ago that was shot in a very old theater, built in 1923. It was originally a vaudevillian theater and was later converted to a motion picture theater. A really big place (over 900 seats), that had been abandon for almost 20 years before the community decided to restore it. It was built at the same time as the famous Egyptian Theater by the same construction company.

In one scene I ended up shooting some really high shots from the wire gallery (I think that is the correct term) about 60 feet above the stage. Hell of a scary experience and I used to rock climb so its not just a fear of heights. The stunt coordinator assured me that it was safe, the the amount of corrosion and decay up there didn't really reassure me all that much!

You theater guys are a special bread, much less oversight than the film industry (at least the union gigs) and much more "seat of the pants" approach to getting things done, becuase...

The show must go on.

My hat is off to you and all the 'theater guys' of this world!
 
Brandon Rice said:
Cool BTS stuff, when can we see some screenies? :)
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Not for a while. Still have to pull in the footage to an NLE and right now, I haven't lined up a deck to accomplish that. Working on one, but it will be early next week before its ready and even then, its Tom's call if he wants any caps released.

Glad you like the BTS, I will see if there are more stills that we can get up to show some of the other setups.
 
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This is one of the simpler setups for this project. The scene is a long static three shot of the all the main characters where a lot of the back story is established. In this one, I didn't want to do anything too stylized as this wasn't meant to overpower the dialog.

The actor (David Lindsay) playing "Billy" can be seen sitting on the bed. Tim is facing the camera (gaffer / key grip), I have my eye on the EVF and Max, our camera op is frame right.

The lighting consisted of a practical with a PH-212 (small lamp on the table at the end of the bed) and simulated moonlight coming in through a set of blinds. Since this was actually shot at night, we didn't have to work too hard to block the window, just a 6' x 6' solid and an Arri 650 with full CTB. The key was a 16" China Ball with an ECA.

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Just a bit of black foil was needed to "sculpt" the output of the China Ball. What was really an issue in this location was the terrible slap echo that this room had. I used some furni pads on gobo arms to rig a bit of a baffle on two of the walls. It really helped to get the sound back in control.

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This isn't a screen cap, but rather a BTS still, so it doesn't really represent either the look or color of the A cam all that well, but it gives you an idea. In the A cam, the overall levels are lower and the CTB source coming in through the window is much more subtle.
 
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khmuse said:
I lensed a film about a year ago that was shot in a very old theater, built in 1923. It was originally a vaudevillian theater and was later converted to a motion picture theater. A really big place (over 900 seats), that had been abandon for almost 20 years before the community decided to restore it. It was built at the same time as the famous Egyptian Theater by the same construction company.
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That's what many of the houses are like up here. Very early century, 800+seats and just beautiful when restored. Get this... I would in this one house where the entire floor is hinged on the edge closest to the stage and the back edge ELEVATES to build a raked audience!!! It is amazing! I believe there were only 7 of them ever built and this is the last one and it still works! A little 4 HP engine spins these wheels with long leather belts and screw-turns that floor up to it's max. height. Takes about 45 minutes. It is wild. But the house can be used asa theatre with the floor in a rake position and as a dance floor or whatever with the floor lowered and seats removed. (They're bolted together in long rows, blah, blah, blah.) Thank goodness I am the designer, I really don't envy those guys moving all those seats!

But some very cool houses up here.

khmuse said:
In one scene I ended up shooting some really high shots from the wire gallery (I think that is the correct term) about 60 feet above the stage. Hell of a scary experience and I used to rock climb so its not just a fear of heights. The stunt coordinator assured me that it was safe, the the amount of corrosion and decay up there didn't really reassure me all that much!
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It's not called a "wire gallery" out here but I can see where it would get that name. Typically it is the grid (over head at the very top), the trim is the pipes in position and the fly loft is off to the side. But what the hell do I know, I didn't go to school!

Very brave of you. I have done so stupid sh*t and lived to tell about it. (whew!) That must have been a sweet shot!

khmuse said:
You theater guys are a special bread, much less oversight than the film industry (at least the union gigs) and much more "seat of the pants" approach to getting things done, becuase...

The show must go on.

My hat is off to you and all the 'theater guys' of this world!
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Thanks a lot. Unfortunately, the theatre is a dying art. No. Not in huge market cities, but in many areas... theatre just doesn't have an audience. It is one of the reasons I am bowing out. That in the fact that I just can't stand to see all of my hard work as a designer end up dismantled and destroyed never to be seen again.

I have always love the film medium and hope that I can find a new home here to "perserve" my work from now on!

Thanks for sharing both the theatre story and comment as well as the lighting techniques here. I can't wait to learn more of what you were talking about! :grin: Gonna go google some terms!!!

Ted
 
Wow Ted,

Those are some great stories. Being an engineer (EE) I am fascinated by a lot of the early mechanical solutions employed. The tilting floor design sounds amazing, I doubt you would ever get a planning department to sign off on something like that today, but here one is, how many years later, and still doing its job! Way cool.

The term "wire gallery" may have been specific to this theater as there was a lot of elements hung from the grid on wires. This place (Fox Fullerton Theatre) had so many uses over the years, they never seemed to strike anything, it just kept growing and growing. There were all these little birds (wooden carvings) that were wired up and looked like at one time that they could be made to fly around the stage area below.

This theater had been abandoned for over 20 years and had homeless living within, rain had begun to degrade the roof and the place was an absolute mess. There was some serious concern over the environmental hazards (the asbestos curtain was pretty sketchy) that bring in a film crew might encounter.

We shot there for 10 days, and the production values that the location brought were off the chart. You couldn't have made a place that looked this distressed with a million dollar budget.

Glad that you are liking my BTS lighting posts. You were so generous with your time and information on I.D. that I felt that I needed to reciprocate. Just wish that more of the other users would share their setups. I have learned more from being on a lot of sets than by any "classic" training. I have seen some pretty innovative solutions seemingly pulled out of thin air!

I will post a few more about "Maliboo" shortly.

Kevin

PS If you are interested, send me a PM and I'll get you a link to a rough (before full CGI) cut of "Trick" that I lensed in the Fox Fullerton Theatre.
 
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