iPhone Apps: The Short List for the Average Cinematographer

It seems everyone and their sister’s friend’s cousin has made a list of indispensable cinematography iPhone apps. Now it’s my turn. Let’s see how original I am.

And Then The Camera Spun Around And Bit Me On The Ass.

Meet the Sony HDW-790, a 2/3” high-def ENG/EFP camera that records to HDCam (read: Beta-shell) cassettes.  This camera - and its two brothers - are the day-to-day field-shooting workhorses for Wisconsin Public Television, where I have worked for the last 23 years.  Lately (as in the last 9 years or so) my career path has taken me a bit away from the daily shooting grind, but I still fill in the photography gaps now and again,  Keeps you young, dontcha know. 

Except when it tries to kill you.

Courage Under Lighting

Recently I had the opportunity to direct a music video for a local Chicago band called Flatfoot 56. On this particular project, the narrative would be completely shot on a sound stage and the performance piece of the band would be shot at one other location. Lighting the performance location wound up taking roughly eight hours to rig, utilizing around 22 heads and drawing about 23,000 watts. So where did we end up and how did we get there? Come and take a ride along with us; our first stop is in Gary Indiana. Read on…

What $300 Buys These Days

OK, folks, have a look at “Lazy Teenage Superheroes,” a funny, really watchable (and slightly NSFW for language) 13-minute riff on science fiction:

The LED Camera Light Shootout…

A guy named Frank Glencairn, whom I think is in England somewhere, has gone and done what we’ve all thought about: 

A shootout between five inexpensive LED sunguns.

(OK, so maybe the term “inexpensive” doesn’t quite stretch to cover the Litepanels LP Micro, but I digress.)

An Illuminating Discussion

It started as a simple-enough email question from writer Kevin P. McAuliffe to the rest of the PVC crew:

I’m looking for a good, low cost basic lighting kit.  3 lights (Key, Fill and Back), stands, etc.  I have no idea who would be considered “good”, as “For God sakes Jim, I’m an editor, not a lighting director!”

What followed was a flood of very useful advice on lighting equipment - as well as its applications, from outdoor shots to greenscreen. Rather than keep the replies private, we decided to share the wealth with our PVC readers. (Note: We’ve added replies from Steve Hullfish, Alex Lindsay, and Art Adams since this article was first posted.)

Greenscreen Resources

As much as we like to keep up with the newest products and latest trends, some information is timeless - such as advice on shooting greenscreen. The After Effects Facebook feed forwarded a link to a very useful article by Jonas Hummelstrand of General Specialist posted back in 2006 that everyone should read before setting up a keying shoot. If I had to add one amplification, it would be to try to hire a stage that has some depth to it, so that the screen - and lighting for the screen - can be some distance behind the action; this will further blur it out, and reduce spill.

Here’s a few more links of note:

• We recorded a quick video tutorial on using Keylight in After Effects with lynda.com for Adobe
• Rosco and Composite Components sell paint, tape, fabrics, and lights for keying
• Alex Lindsay of Pixel Corps wrote a two-part Greenscreen Primer for PVC, broken down into the set and the camera

(By the way, we also overhauled the keying chapter in Creating Motion Graphics 5th Edition, including high-def sources to practice with courtesy of Hollywood Camera Work.)

If you have any other favorite resources, please feel free to post them in the Comments below!

Photos: On Location with Art Adams and the Arri Alexa

Seen Art Adams’ writeup on his Alexa shoot? I have a whole mess o’ photos from that long, cold evening…

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