Sekonic L478D and DR

The new day of light meters has come upon us. For the new age of cinematography, for the HDSLR to the Red and Alexa cameras, the Sekonic Litemaster Pro L-478DR has it all. I remember working on a shoot about a year or so ago with my Sekonic I bought over 5 years ago, saying to my camera op “ I don’t know if what I am getting on my meter is going to be accurate to what we are shooting, I guess the meter is going to be reference for me.” Ok I know what you guys are saying, “ The light meter does way more then you think,” and I totally understand. But when you are perfectionist and also a gadget geek, with using all my gadgets to be a perfectionist... then you will understand. So lets get back to the Pro L-478DR, I thought it was an iPhone attachment and app. But realizing its the new age of light meters, it got me interested. The Sekonic Lightmaster Pro L-478D and the L-478DR the most innovative and advanced  features available to any light meter today. With the touch screen interface you can navigate easily threw menu settings such as F-stop, ISO, Shutter, even selecting what light is on a gel. Just like navigating with an iPhone or Android touch screen. For the motion picture industry this is the most full featured meter today. You can choose your shutter angle and frame ratios for special effects as well the meter is designed for todays camera with selecting 23.976 f/s instead of 24 f/s and so on. The L-478D and DR has a new features that lets you get exact light levels, by going in and selecting the light and what gel it has on. The best part to this meter is that you can program the dynamic range from the camera you are using and also mimics the latitude range on the camera. With only a $300 to $400 range this is a great price for this meter. I Just ordered the Pro L-478D and will have updates on to how it really works. 

Happy Light 

Here is a great video if you don't know how a light meter works, or how helpful a light meter will improve your shots. 

Joker Alpha 1600 HMI

   K5600 has done it again. Creating two new HMI’s that are brighter, lighter and as always a cleaner light than an Arri or LTM’s 1200 HMI, which has heavier ballast even if it’s electronic.  K5600s’ Joker 1600 and Alpha 1600 both are 1600w lamp as well as having an even better ballast then the lower wattage Joker 800.  

Joker 1600 

            Starting with the Joker 1600 par, you would think it works just like any other Joker, but you would be wrong. Using the bare-bulb you will not see any hot spots, with that being said it’s ideal for space lights. The cardinal rule for HMIs and big sores is “never aim a fixture strait down." The Joker 1600 par along with the other Joker’s, you have the option of a Bug-lite, beamer, and the ZOOM Beamer. The ballasts that comes with the 1600 uses less wattage, it runs on 15amp/120 volt circuit as well as its dimmable. Along with being dimmable, the ballasts has a frequency option for high speed shooting.  

alpha 1600

            

          Now talking about K5600 Fresnel family, K5600 have added the Alpha 1600 to their family. It may not be the biggest or brightest in the family, but this should be the big competitor to the Arri and LTM HMI’s. The alpha 1600 is comparable to the 6000w used on the composite quarts reflectors. And again with the cardinal rule for lighting, especially, with a Fresnel you cant point the fixture straight down with out damaging the fixture. But not with the k5600 Alpha 1600, you can point it straight down with out damaging the fixture. The Alpha 1600 also includes a permanent piece of borosilicate that gives crisp and hard shadows. As well as it’s a compact and lightweight.

            Over all these two new revolutionary lights, it’s going to start pushing the limits for other lighting manufactures in the film and television industry.  To get more information from industry professionals for these lights check out. http://www.scribd.com/doc/73942274/k5600newslettersept2011.

Have fun with these new lights.

Film Set Lighting Apps

Straying away from my normal blog about film lighting, I am going to be talking about a useful app I found the other day called set Lighting by Enlightened Shenanigans. Set Lighting is an IPhone app that is meant for Director of photography’s, Gaffers, and anyone on the G & E teams. This app has a catalog of any and all Film lighting and electrical we use in the industry today.

        Set Lighting has it all; from looking up information on certain lighting fixtures from Kino to the new ARRI LED lights. If you thought you are intrigued just by that, you also have an area you can look up specs on a condor lift to a scissor lift.

         For all you new bees, say you see something on a truck and you don’t know what it is, simply open set Lighting on your IPhone and find what you are looking for. With pictures of the object your looking for or searching, you should have no problem finding them.

        Normally all lighting apps stop there, but not with set Lighting. You have cheat sheets for distro such as; amp chart, volt drop per 100 feet and max ampacity. It shows distro examples on how to lay out distro on a set. As well as teaching you how to tie knots. Not to mention set Lighting shows you jell swatches and tells you why you should use them.  I can go on and on about how setLighting can help you, but you would have to buy this app for your self. I feel the $9.99 price tag is a great price for this app. You will not find a better app anywhere else. All I can say is, I wish I had this app when I was a new Electric on set.    

G&E Websites

Hello Lighting people. I am going to be talking about Websites in are industry. As well more on the fact of how easy it is to navigate. 

(Disclaimer), The preference in gear i say or use does not mean I feel its the best, I grew up with the gear and I have my own take on it. 

As a Gaffer / Director of Photography, I am always faced with picking the right gear for the job. When I work or hire a truck for a shoot, I love to see ARRI tungsten lights, LTM HMI’s and American Grip. I am starting to switch to ARRI HMI’s after seeing the M18s do the job. 

After going on websites and searching for gear, I find that many grip and lighting websites fall short of the advertising of there gear. Example, American Grip. I love American Grip, but the website is so old and needs to be updated. I need to see pictures and not just stats. American Grip is a house name in the industry for Warner Brothers, Disney, and Universal. When I talk with smaller owner operators of grip trucks, they mainly go with Matthews Grip or Norms. Why do you ask? Because they said they can order online and see what they are buying. Don’t get me wrong, Mathews Grip is a great company and I trust the stands and rigging. Norms has started to come back with force.

Living in todays age, I feel a company needs a website that represents who they are. As well be on the brink of technology for the company. A web site represents the company of who they are and what they stand for. Looking at American Grips web site opposed to Matthew grip and Norms website, I feel American Grip is losing out on potential costumers. 

In todays lesson, I just wan’t to make a point to say, if you have your own company or your a freelancer, It does not hurt to have your self a website for people to go to and research you. With having a website, you have to remember to keep up with the times and always update your site or you may be losing out on potential work. 

Happy Lighting. 

condor or scissor lifts for film sets

Hello film people. I am coming at you with something that is a G&E’s best toy, or I say my favorite toy is the condor or scissor lifts. Its so versatile and can get your big sources high in the sky. I use it most of all to place my shadows where I want them. Especially for my night shots, or if the seen is shooting on a second or third floor and the list can go on. 

There are different Lifts for different projects. The first lift is the scissor lifts witch can can get you high in the sky vertically, and you can add a lot more wait to them like two 12k’s or 18k’s. and still have room to spare. one thing that gets me all woozy in the stomach is a nice gust of wind when you are full stick, or if you decide to walk from one end to the another end of the lift. The second lift is the condor lift. I like this because you could order a 40ft to a 100ft plus lifts. The versatility of the condor lift is quite amazing. Rigging 20x rags to putting up an 18k in the basket and extending the arm out over the trees to create that amazing night seen is amazing. 

I do say, when I first started my first experience working on the lifts, I was supper excited to be the one picked to go up on a lift. Until I was told I was going to be in the scissor lift until lunch. So my suggestion, if you are picked to go in one, is go to the craft service table, stack up on snacks and bring a big bottle up with you, and I don’t need to tell you why. 

But of course rigging these types of lights and rags over talent is not a job of an amateur G&E crew member. In fact most in major injuries on sets are do to Poor rigging for amateur G&E crew. You defiantly need someone that knows what they are doing to avoid injury. 

Hope you guys have or will enjoy playing with these type of toys on set.

Happy lighting. 

Entertainment law Videos and podcasts

Hello Lighting people. I am going to be talking about some information about entertainment law. I found 2 videos and 1 podcast that talks about anything from fair use, to what an entertainment lawyer does, to copyright ownership vs right of publicity. Just the little things you will discover in the videos will help you understand more about the industry you are working in. If you like learning about entertainment law there are hundreds of video and podcasts talking about entertainment law. 

The first video I reviewed whats from a Video series called BYOD (Bring Your Own Doc). In the series, interviewers are interviewing an Entertainment Law Attorney, Michael C. Donaldson. Donaldson is an advocate in the independent film documentary world on fair use. Defined by Centerforsocialmedia.com Fair use is the right, in some circumstances, to quote copyright material without asking permission or paying for it. It keeps current copyright holders from being private censors. I am not saying go out at start taking everyones stuff and steeling it. Donaldson tell’s us there are three questions when making a documentary and or non fiction films. 

1. Does this item well illustrate your point? So if the audio clip says “Michael Bay’s explosions in his movies are intense,” and you show a small clip of something that exploded in the movie Transformers, then yes.
2. Did you only use as much as needed to illustrate the point? So in the example of Michael Bay. We see the explosion, then it cuts to the cars transforming into robots then yes thats a little much. 
3.  Is the connection between the item you are using and the point you are making obvious to the average viewer? Basically does the clip of Michael Bay’s explosion clip pare with the line that says, “Michael Bay’s explosions in his movies are intense.” Then yes. If a 5 year old can see the point connection then you are fine. 

Donaldson talks for 55min about fair use to errors and omissions, Donaldson has great insight on entertainment law issues. I suggest you watch the hole thing if you are an Indie or documentary film maker, that wants to understand how not to get sued and save money on buying copyrights when you actually don’t need one, if you are using the clips in fair use in the right way. 

My second video I reviewed is an interview with Cliff Lovette. Lovette is an Entertainment Lawyer in Georgia. The video is a short 8 min video that hits on subjects like, what does an entertainment lawyer do? He explains that entertainment lawyer’s where different hats, like networking matchmaker that takes talent and match them up with production talent and resources ect... Another hat is dealmaking services and draft contracts and so on. Lovette also hits on tax incentive and talks about how you can build credit on an incentive and sell it to another production. Other subjects include copyright law and new technologies. If you just want a brief background what an entertainment attorney does and some information about the topics then watch this video. 

On to copyright ownership vs right of publicity I found a Podcast from ARC Law Group. ARC Law Group has a lot of informative information on copyright to trademark basics threw short 10min pod casts. The pod cast I like the most was copyright ownership vs right of publicity. In this podcast Mark Pearson from Pearson Law Group talks to the prosumer photographer and also to prosumer videographers. He talks about if you take a picture of some one you own the right to it, but if you want to distribute you will need a written agreement from the “model” saying I give you permission to use my image and likeness. As well goes for video. So the bottom line is get a release of any person or art you shoot. 

Click here to listen to the pod cast

Hope you guys enjoyed the blog 

Happy Lighting!!!

A little about Film Law

Hey readers, once again I am stepping aside my lighting blog to talk about a couple of legal issues at are coming up on the radar. First of which is the lawsuit with Internships with Black Swan and Fox Searchlight Productions. As working in the film industry for a wile now, I have had various opportunities to do internships in L A. I started as an office intern on movies sets and some of my jobs included getting coffee, making copies of scripts to picking up camera gear from Panivision. Even being an office intern, I learned a couple of things or two from producers and other office staff. As most of you all know, working for free or being an “intern” is a right of passage into the entertainment industry. Film and Broadcast is a different world then the “real world.” Internships figure out if you are cut out to work in this industry or not, as well its a great way to meet people and learn how the entertainment world works. The next step to the industry after being an intern would be paid positions as a PA, Grip & Electric or Camera PA. In the legal case of Black Swan and Fox Searchlight, Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman were both interns working on the blockbuster film. Glatt an accounting intern and Footman an office intern for Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan. Glatt said to the Huff Post “As the internship wore on I continued to feel like fox was taking advantage of me after the film made 300 million.” Footman was taking out the trash, taking lunch orders and making sure the coffee pot was full at all times. Glatt and Footman both filed a lawsuit for unpaid labor in film. Glatt and Footman are hoping to get money for them selfs and over  100 Searchlight inters. On August 8th 2012 Judge William H. Pauley III allowed them to file a motion to amend their suit to expand the plaintiff class to include everyone who has worked as an unpaid intern at Fox Entertainment Group for the past several years.

I understand where Glatt and Footman are coming from and wish I was paid as well on blockbusters I was interning on. In my opinion I feel like the film industry is earned not given, as well putting your time in. 

According to Huff Post in 2010 Fox will start paying all interns in the internship program $10 per Hour.

Here is a question. If most PA’s where making $10 per hour and now interns are making $10 per hour, doesn't that make Interns PA’s now?

I know when I open my company, I will have Interns working with me and hopefully asking questions and learning like I did. I feel picking my crew from interns is a great way to find the trust and drive to see if they are willing to succeed in my company.

Another legal issue that was on the radar is about Intellectual property disputes, and my case comes from the movie Hangover 2. Stu Price, one of the characters on hangover 2 had an identical Mike Tyson tattoo that was painted on his face for the movie. Victor Whitmill Tyson’s tattoo artiest filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Entertainment on April 28, 2011. Because Whitmill obtained a copyright for the 8 year old artwork and claimed that the use of his design in the movie and in advertisement with out consent was copyright infringement. Later Whitmill and Warner Bros agreed on an undisclosed amount. 

knowing about IP issues like this, is definitely something to look out for wile producing projects. I know for my company this is going to be something to look out for. Coming from someone that does not have any tattoos, this is something I need to look at designs in tattoos so that I am not having any IP issues before I go into production.

         Talking about IP and copyright artwork lawsuit case, comes from the Syfy reality show Dream Machines and a Louisiana Artist Preston Asevedo that clams the show has been infringing on copyright on his artwork. The problem comes from the comedy tragedy skulls that is used on the parker brothers establishment sign on each episode, and uses it in other ways like stamping it in 50 Cent’s car. Asevedo is suing for copyright infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. No compensation or ruling has been reached. 

Again I feel the producers need to do a better job on spotting out little things like artwork, that can turn around and bite them down the road. Copyright in art is a very hard thing to miss wile in production. After looking at case after case of copyright in art I  can see something going wrong in the future if I don't pay enough attention. Like I have said before, I will be watching out for the little things before I go into Production. 

ARRI Kit and LoCaster LED

Hello lighting people. I am going to be doing a write up on something that I know the most, which is ENG (Electronic News Gathering) lighting. You know those big ARRI kits that are in that big silver case that has four to five lights in them? Yes, I will be talking about that in my post today. 

Arri Kit

 Whether you are doing a sit down interview or a small indie film, the ARRI kits are the best to use. I use the ARRI kits for ENG sit down interviews. I personally use the ARRI kit that has the two 150’s, one 300, one 650 and one open face 1K with a chimera. With the lights in the kit I am able to do some really interesting interviews. I use the 1k with the chimera as my key light and a 300 or 150 as my back light depending on what the light is already doing as a back. If I want to create a fill, which I really don’t do because I use a technique called shadow side towards camera, but if I was to use a fill I would use a bounce board and use a 300 as a back light. 

Enough of my technique, lets get to whats in one of these kits. Depending on what your doing, you can customize your kits to what ever you want. you can have 150s to LED lighting. What ever you pick, your using ARRI which is a very reliable company and the lights are beautiful and controllable.  Mole Richardson is a great company and has there lighting kits also. But everyone I work with will not argue, Arri kits are the best to use due to being rugged and long lasting. 

LoCaster Kit

I am very interested to play with the LoCaster LED lighting that is part of ARRI's kits. The LoCaster LED panel has a 0-100% dimming function, as well as a 2800-6500k control that can be controlled from the fixture it self. But I am very concerned with the throw of the LoCaster, it’s throw is about equivalent to a 75w to a 100w light bulb. At the price you can get two LoCasters that range around $3,000 or you can having a five pice lighting kit with a Chimera for the same amount of money. As well having a fresnel lighting kit you have more control and creativity with the Arri five pice kit. 

Hope you guys got some good information from the Arri kits and the LoCaster. Till next time.

 Happy Lighting. 

The video Below shows the ARRI Kit I recommend. and what the Arri kit has in it. 

ARRI L7-C

          I am really excited to report on the new ARRI L-Series LED light. I have always wanted to use an all in one Light. This New Focusable Fresnel has brought much needed efficiency to the Broadcast studios around the world. One of the biggest things you will notice is the cost savings more than anything with lamp replacements and maintenance.

           The L7-C LED source produces the equivalent of a 750W tungsten light while drawing only 220W for a savings of a whopping 75% over similar output tungsten lights. Low heat means lower AC bills in the studio. You can actually run 9 L7s off of a 20A, 110V outlet as opposed to two 1,000W or three 650W standard fixtures. The full-spectrum of the L7-C is fully tune-able, the white light can be adjusted for different skin tone. With the ability to adjust color tempter, plus and minis green (green and Magenta shift) it fits well with mixed-light environments especially in a news broadcast that have large windows that look out into the streets that changes threw out the day, you only need to change the color temp and not have to worry about adding jells. On top of all that you can also have color effects and create moods and feels in a broadcast environment. As well you are able to place certain lights for different talent or news anchors that has different skin tone and the L7 is the only LED light that can come the closest to real tungsten lamps in color tempter.  The L7 is fixable to 15deg to 50deg spot to flood and works just like the other Arri lights. The L7 comes in two colors, Silver and Black. 

With the $2500 Price tag I feel this is a great light in a broadcast or studio environment. The L7 is a light thats been a dream to lighting designers and directors for a long time. 

Great Job Arri. 

Happy Light.  

If you would like to know more Check out this Youtube clip from ARRI at NAB 2012 or click here.

DIY Film Lighting

Hello Lighting people! I know many of you guys are starting out in the film industry, most out of college or in college, which your going to have a heavy school loan to pay back. So I am going to talk about DIY (do it yourself) Lighting. Most film lights are over $500 and up. One there EZer to control and second there P.A drop proof and can withstand the riggers of a film set. You also want to consider the fact, if you go into a clients office with Home Depot lighting, your not going to look professional. So what I am going to tell you about is going to be perfect for indie films and so on.  Home Depot is a DIY’s best friend. I can spend all day coming up with ideas of lighting and rigs for my camera and still have money in the bank. 

So where do you start looking for cheep DIY lighting. Well the Home Depot 500 Watt Halogen work lights are perfect for bounce. For single light with no stand, start out at $6.00 and up. I like the one with the stand and two lights. That goes for $35.00. I also modify the Home Depot shop lights, I cut the safety guard out so there wont be any problems with shadow, also I take out the glass to keep the light cooler.  I know what your saying, “Your exposing the bulb!” and I say” Be carful with handling them.” If you haven’t noticed I just made a Lowel Tota flood light which goes for $126.00 opposed to the $35.00 for a 1k open face Home Depot special. 

The other Lights you can use are commercial electric 2-florescent light for $29.00 which is exactly like a 2 bank Kino that you would pay $700.00 and up. You just have to know your Kelvin Scale to figure out the color temp you need for the Bulbs. I also modify the commercial brand and put tin foil behind the tubes. 

The last light I will talking about is the all powerful and portable clamp light. I find these work really well as a key or fill depending on the bulb you put in them, also you can change color temp to fit your need. You can use the clamp light the way they are, or you can buy a Chinese lantern for $9.00 and have a Beautiful soft light right out of the camera frame. 

I know I did not talk about the stands, but if you get creative enough you can find ways to mount your lights. So go to Home Depot and have fun coming up with ideas for new ways of saving money. 

Happy lighting!

Finding your film commission

Hey Blog readers I am going to move away from film lighting once again to talk about something that will help you find your next Job.

              Have you ever felt lost and could not understand why I can’t connect with people in the state your filming in? Well I am going to be talking about how using your states film commission can help you, even if you’re a student, recent grad or you been working in the industry for a wile. In my case I am from Florida, so I am using Filminflorida.com. In every state you have a film commission, if you don’t like what there showing. Find a professional association that’s works with you better.

             I am going to talk about Filminflorida.com. Filminflorida.com is Florida’s film commission and has anything you need to know on what’s happing in your state. My favorite part of this site is that they show you major motion picture films happing in the area. As well they give you contact information to send your resume to. There is information on the labor laws you need to know and unions and associations with in the state. The best part of filminflorida.com is that if you studied film in Florida and you are having a premier for your movie, The Florida film commission will help you advertise as much as they can, as well send a representative out from there office to see the film. Also Florida just went under a new tax incentive program to bring film and TV back to Florida. You can read everything you need to know on saving on your next film as well. The Florida Film Commission can help you with finding a local film commission in your area like Orlando Film Commission where you can go and find industry professionals, gear and rentals. Not to mention helping you find locations that’s perfect for your next film.

            If you haven’t already found your film commission, I suggest you go now and get involved. 

J.J Abrams Mystery Box

       Hey followers. Sorry I have not updated my Blog in a wile. I was working on a film in New York and Jersey. 

        So today I watched a Ted.com Speech from J.J. Abrams called The Mystery Box. Let me tell you, Abrams speech made me amped about writing a movie again.  When I write screenplays, I always think about the lighting for the feel and the mood I want my audience to experience. I want to make sure the viewer is getting the feeling I did while I was writing the script. Abrams has a mystery box of magic tricks he bought for 15 dollars as a boy but never opened the box, and uses that saying mystery is the catalyst for potential. Which he goes on to say his laptop is a mystery box in a way.

            Having a white piece of paper or having a laptop is infinite potential for screenplays. I would like to translate that to, once the screenplay is done and we are on set, how can I use the tools of lighting to make the viewer feel what I felt? Having a dark sound stage you can do anything, make it look like any time of day, or make you feel like you’re in space, or the deepest oceans. How as a film maker can I do something people never saw or make it feel there in a middle of a war zone that has not been tried before? What new technology or computer programs do I have at my fingertips to make the lighting even better?

            J.J Abrams has a branding behind all his stories, it’s all about mystery or even if his scripts are not mystery, he uses old technology to make you believe that you are seeing something your not. So lets make mystery with are lighting!

  

Kino Flo LED Celeb 200

            Kino Flo LED Celeb 200 is the new talk of Kino lighting systems. And don’t let the 200 get to you. This beauty of a light pushes out a 750w light and with being dimmable to 1% to 100% with out flicker and no color shifting is very impressive.  But that’s not the best part of the Kino LED Celeb 200.
              With the normal Kino lighting, you have to always change out the bulbs to get the color temp to where you want it, as well keeping the bulbs in stock is another challenge after the new guy on set drops and breaks the bulbs. But not with the Kino Celeb, you can go from 2700K to 5500k and anywhere in between with just one of the five preset buttons or turning the knob. As well as the light levels do not change when selecting kelvin settings. Not to mention you can scroll to pretty much any color temp you want from 2700K to 5500K.
              





Celeb 200 is lightweight fixture that operates on universal AC power, 100VAC-240VAC, and needs only one amp to produce more lumens than a 750W tungsten soft light.  The Celeb 200 LED can also be powered by 24VDC battery. So for all you guys that do a lot of car mounts, the Celeb 200 is perfect. The Celeb 200 also comes with a built-in reflector, removable gel frame and a 90 deg honeycomb louver. The molded accessory holders hold the gel frame and louver and also allow for a 4-point rope hang. The 3000ish price tag is a great price and anticipating the daily rental rate to be about $125/day. One thing I can say about Kino is that they listened to their costumers and went up and beyond and created one amazing light. Can’t wait to see more LED’s from Kino.