Dear Reader, this issue contains how-to's, articles, and
reviews written by noted director of photography Peter Stein,
ASC; DP/DIT Jon Firestone; five-time Telly award winner David
Landau, filmmaker/3D advocate Al Caudullo; and award-winning
filmmaker William Dickerson. Topics include lighting, color
correction and grading, and post production. Also, take a look
at the articles on Convergent Design's new Odyssey 7Q+ and Vision
Research's Phantom Flex4k. Plus, more in this edition. Enjoy.
 Artistic
Lighting Is Even More Important Than Ever Before
"With the new highly sensitive digital cameras, here's
why..."
by David Landau
Good lighting supports the emotional moment of the scene, contributes
to the atmosphere of the story and can augment an artistic style.
Well crafted lighting helps establish the illusion of reality
that is necessary for the viewer to forget they are watching
a screen and get lost in the story. So, no matter how good a
script, how good a director, how good the actors - the lighting
needs to be as good if not better.
[Read
more]
 Convergent
Design's New Odyssey 7Q+
What Is It and Who Is It For?
by Jon Firestone
Convergent Design has always been known for their professional
recorders, but their Odyssey series of recorders are much more.
In addition to being versatile recorders, they are also really
nice, full featured monitors. The Odyssey 7Q+ is their newest
Odyssey and adds 4K recording over HDMI giving it functionality
that many Sony A7S and Panasonic GH4 owners have been looking
for.
[Read
more]
 Are
You Using All Your Crayons?
A look at 8-bit
and 10-bit color and using Colorista 2 for color correction
and grading.
by Al Caudullo
Ever since the first cathode ray televisions in the early 1900s,
we have always wanted bigger and better. From black-and-white
to color. From CRTs to LCDs and OLEDs. From standard definition
to high definition to ultra high definition. The supreme game
of making a bigger, better television still goes on. As content
creators, our goal is to create good story with a healthy dollop
of the latest technology. And the technology is ever-changing.
Not only do we have color sampling bit depth but we also have
different bit rates, codecs, algorithms, wrappers, compression
types, sensor sizes, 4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4 and even 4:4:4:4. But
to keep us from going totally mad, we are just going to talk
about the basics of 8-bit and 10 bit color sampling and how
to achieve the best image. Is 10-bit color sampling really better
than 8-bit?
[Read
more]
Removing
Unwanted People in Your Scene with HitFilm 3 Pro
Now You See Him, Now You Don't
by Al Caudullo
On location in Angkor, Cambodia, and what I thought would be
an easy, but crucial shot, lay before me. A simple slider shot
using an Edelkrone Slider Pro and my Panasonic GH4. But as I
set up, this one tourist just doesn't want to move out of shot.
I can't stand there too long; I have too many other shots ahead
of me. Finally, he moves, and I manage to get a dolly right
and a dolly left before he reappears. I finally give up and
do my truck in towards the subject shot with him in it, convincing
myself that he will just add, "local flavor" to the
shot. As I sat there in the edit suite weeks later, I silently
made a mental note to kick myself the next time I was in that
situation. He is a virtual albatross flapping his huge white
wings all over my beautiful tracking shot.
[Read
more]
Vision
Research Announces New Updates to the Phantom Flex4K at NAB2015
Exclusive Interview with Toni Lucatorto
"Shooting high speed has some unique aspects, from the
type of lighting, to the generally huge amount of files you
end up with at the end of the day. For that reason we
always recommend working with a trained Phantom Tech, who will
make sure the production goes smoothly and can consult with
the team and help guide decisions up front.
"Along those lines, my next tip would be to make sure you
have the workflow understood before the production. If you are
shooting raw, ensure you have fast hard drives and a 10Gb Ethernet
workflow station for file downloading. Make sure your color
grading and edit systems handle Cine raw files, otherwise make
sure you have a plan in place for file conversion.
"Beyond that, prepare to have fun and witness some things
you never expected to see at 1,000 frames per second."
[Read
more]
 How
to Use Color Schemes
Explore the Use of Color in Your Film
by William Dickerson
I do not completely subscribe to color theory (red = passion,
green = nature, blue = tranquility, etc.). However, interpretations
of colors and what they represent can help you explore the use
of color in your film.
[Read
more]
Director
John Boorman Returns
to His Youth
"Queen and Country" shot with the Arriflex Digital
Camera System
by Scott Essman
As with Queen and Country and lighting cameraman Seamus Deasy,
Boorman professed that much of his success is due to collaboration
with his panoply of key crewmembers. "I've had the
privilege of working with great cinematographers," Boorman
detailed. "A cinematographer is only as good as what
you put in front of him. I spent a lot of time in preproduction
with the cameraman controlling how it's going to look.
One of the marks of a good film is when you get a sense of everything
in the film is intended - no essentials have been removed.
You know in ten minutes when you are dealing with a director
who has control of the picture. There is no room for extraneous
material; you have to pare it down. Everything is stripped
out and only the essence is left."
[Read
more] |
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www.ifootagegear.com
 Book Review on
David Landau's
Lighting for Cinematography
by Peter Stein, ASC
I am concerned that the ease of shooting in low light situations
with the new HD cameras may lead some to ignore much of cinematic
art and technique which has been developed over the years. The
new book, "Lighting for Cinematography: A Practical Guide
to the Art and Craft of Lighting for the Moving Image,"
from Bloomsbury Press helps to address this fear. As author
David Landau says in his introduction, "We can't shoot
good pictures without good lighting, no matter how good the
newest cameras are. Shooting under available light gives exposure,
but lacks depth, contrast, contour, atmosphere and often separation."
This book concentrates on how to create lighting that supports
the emotional moment of the scene, contributes to the atmosphere
of the story and can augment an artistic style. The book emphasizes
that well crafted lighting helps establish the illusion of reality
that is necessary for the viewer to forget they are watching
a screen and get lost in the story. It is a practical hands-on
lighting text for anyone who wants to learn to improve their
lighting for video or film, based on David's college lighting
course that he has taught for over ten years, as well as his
extensive professional work in the industry as a DP, Lighting
Director and union gaffer.
[Read
more]
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June 2015
Cine Gear Expo: June 4-7, Los Angeles
www.cinegearexpo.com
Cine Video Expo: June 15-19, Mexico
www.revistapantalla.com/expo
August 2015
2015 UFVA Conference: August 4-8, Washington, DC
ufva2015.com
Siggraph 2015: August 9-13, Los Angeles
s2015.siggraph.org
September 2015
IBC 2015: September 10-15, Amsterdam
www.ibc.org
October 2015
PhotoPlus Expo 2015: October 21-24, New York City
www.photoplusexpo.com
December 2015
GV Expo 2015: December 1-3, Washington, DC
www.gvexpo.com
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