What a great video! The reality of working major commercial projects. I hope all the young guns with their new DSLR's watch this so they can see that it takes years of experience to get tho that point! Thanks Luke!
I know you don't always have permission to show the final look but it would be great to see what the lighting looks like on camera even if its a mockup. Thanks.
@@meetthegaffer I understand I've run into the same. That's why I said "Mockup". Maybe just you as the stand-in on camera. Just a thought. Thanks for all of your videos, they are very informative.
Love the shirt. Where can I get one? We had a gaffer die from a non earthed light, (we are 240v) because of that our laws changed. In Australia we have to "tag" our AC gear every six months to show they have been tested for ground connection and earth insulation. If someone got electrocuted by my gear, and it wasn't tested, I can get 4 years jail time. No one has been electrocuted since these changes.
I loved Stellar and especially the auto-populate feature where are your lights just show up on-screen and you just need to label them. If and when it can handle outside vendor lights I will be one of the first to try int out.
I wouldn't say your wireless DMX setup was cobbled together, all the products (transmitter base station, recievers) are still using LumenRadio chips, isn't that what's so great about it? :D Cheers and thanks for the detailed breakdown as always. And why is the S-360 plugged in with a receiver? It has wireless built-in!
Alan Steinheimer I don’t know if you remember me. I worked at CineRentWest in Grip and Lighting Rentals. Please tell Joe next time you see him that Mark Mayer says hi! I’m in San Miguel de Allende, México now. Hit me up if you’re ever in the neighborhood.
Love the video-- a wealth of practical information, as always! In order to put that info in perspective, I'd like to know a little more about the design of the shoot. Did you set a t-stop for your key (which I suppose is the position closest to camera where the Octabank and the two low fill lights are hitting), and build your lighting ratios around that? What ISO are you rating the Alexa at, and what speed are you shooting at (in fps)? How far down from that t-stop is the backdrop in order to get the appropriate shade of gray? Thanks for sharing!
Like so many jobs I have forgotten some of the details already. The t-stop is always a topic to discuss before planning what you want to do. In this case we did do a little slo-mo and the actor/models walked straight towards us so I think the request was for a t-5.6. In the end I could have used fewer S60s overhead (they were all dimmed) but the Octabank was maxed out and I had to go to 1/2 grid to get enough foot-candles.If i was desperate I would have used a Joker 800 into an Octabank and I had it on hand but we squeaked by with the S60. I don't know what the Alexa was rated at but most DPs do ISO 640-800, and push it higher if it makes life a lot easier. I don't know how far down the back wall was but would guess one stop. That was the hardest part to dial in ...everything being a little interactive...we set the overhead lights...mostly in conjunction with what we could get out of the end mark framing/fc near camera, then worked backwards to control the light on the back wall. Ideally we would have had separate lights to do the back wall, and I considered that, but we were already maxed on budget and it would have taken more time, so in the end what had been a black teaser chopping the overhead off the back wall turned into a white teaser to pickup the S120 backlights and put just a little bounce light into the upper portion of the wall. The lower portion near the cove was already getting some of the overhead downlight so I just need to push a little more light into the higher portion of the wall. If I ever learned anything from reading Masters of Light it is that no matter how big the production you will always run out of time and $ and there is always a certain amount of punting/improv going on. I could have taken the time and used my own lights to hang separate lights for the back grey wall but that might have put us behind schedule and wouldn't necessarily bolster production's confidence/opinion of me. Also it was easy to just try turning the teaser from a solid into a bounce...if it hadn't worked then I would probably have had to hang more lights.
@@alansteinheimer4274 Thanks for the detailed response, great stuff! I thought the "teaser conversion" was a great solution. A pet peeve of mine is the wastefulness of some lighting approaches, so I especially appreciate the inventive use of a fixture to do double duty. (Of course, if you find that you need to adjust that backlight, then you're also stuck changing the quality of your background...)
Amazing video as always! I was curious about your menace arms. I’ve always seen them with ratchets up top to take care of pipe flex. Are you using steel pipe? I’d love to be able to hang an S60 with an octa that way. It seems much simpler but my 1 1/4” speedrail would bend like crazy.
Pierre- there is a bit of a division in San Francisco between owners of 1.5" speedrail and 1.25" speedrail. As a 1.5" owner I find the pipe is strong enough to do menace arms, goal-post heavier lights, etc. Key grips have largely chosen 1.25" and consequently are more likely to use the supporting hardware for menace arms with the raised middle support and ratchets. Also, clients and DPs sometimes freakout when they see aluminum pipe bending under the weight of a rig - I often have to reassure them that it will not break...that aluminum is elastic, etc. Sometimes it is easier just to avoid a sound solution and op for one that looks better, e.g. using ladder truss when i know that a single piece of pipe would do but will show a lot of deflection. I do use steel pipe occasionally. Key grips seem to hate it...my theory is that it is an easy solution that cuts them out of doing a rig... . In theory I could use it for menace arms, but in practice I never do. That is aluminum 1.5" rail in the show. Check out ladder truss as a relatively quick solution for menace and goalpost rigs for your 1.25" speedrail.
How much would all of the lights and labor cost at full rental prices (without discounts) for prep/shoot/rap on this? Good for clients to know that it’s not cheap to make it look pro on a large scale!
I'm not sure you know but Luminair allows you to set color temps by kelvin numbers (e.g. 5600k) if you tap on the little color circle above the fader. Also SkyPanel S-360's have Wireless DMX buit-in so it shouldn't require a SkyLink dongle
Yes, that is a handy aspect of the tool. Re the built-in lumen radio in the 360, Alan has had some difficulty with one of his 360 units so until he has the opportunity to send it in, an add on receiver needs to be used.
Well...sheepishly, I just got another tutorial subsequent to the show explaining the color temp function on Luminair so yes, it does have a readout...I admit to not understanding it. I still find Luminair difficult to master...so many of the shortcuts are not intuitive. And yes, S360s have a built-in Lumenradio receiver...but most of the time I can't get mine to work so it is easier and faster to stick a receiver in. Part of the problem with the whole Luminair/Lumenradio setup is that it has to happen quickly at the beginning of the day. Nobody wants to see you struggling to get going. As a result often I look for the quickest solution such as sticking the receiver in the S360 and moving on. In LA the union is talking about a whole category of work for the board op/wireless technicians and I can understand why: it is not the easiest job to learn quickly, everybody is still expecting it to go fast, the pace of change is dizzying, and if you want to delve into color control the depth is nearly bottomless. I generally hire a board op for my more complicated wireless jobs and/or when I need more control over color. As always speed is of the essence in our business.
0:26 - What is that tchotchke above and a little behind the matte box french flag? Looks like a (double) scope on a rifle. I've noticed them recently on some sets and perhaps never noticed before as I dealt less with the camera gear. Pardon my ignorance... am here to learn. :-)
That is an ultrasonic distance measure. It measures the distance from the camera to the subject and displays it for the focuspuller. Especially useful if there is one subject standing/walking straight infront of the camera.
Thanks for the very comprehensive video! Matching someone else's lighting can be a big challenge. I don't recall ever seeing a gray/white split background like this. The rigging must have taken quite a while, and I suppose there isn't much time for trial and error. Was this a full day of pre-lighting?
One day of pre-light... a pretty typical scenario. It is rare you have more than one day so it is important to size the pre-light crew to accommodate this industry maxim.
@@alansteinheimer4274 I am always intrigued by the elaborate set ups you and Luke work on. Its informative for even the small budget projects I work on. I am primarily a DP, but lighting is of huge importance for me to do my job well.
Hi Luke! Just discovered your channel and love all the great content. Odd question: What camera/lens did you use to shoot this video? I quite like the feel and tone.
Haha. Well, believe me, this shoot is the outlier. Often I am asked to do the lighting for 10¢. In this particular case I knew we had a bigger budget. The parameters were to be even lighting walking side to side 20' and back to front 20'. You just can't do that with small lights. If there had been less money I would have chosen tungsten lighting. Most DPs prefer 5600K for modern cameras and the option of dimming without color change means that it is much, much easier to tweak lighting. There is a value to making adjustments quickly when you have high-priced models, some black, some white, cycling thru your setup. One of the major job aspects of being a gaffer is sizing the lighting choices to the budget, client expectations, and making the DP happy. Every single job presents competing interests; we are jugglers as much as lighting technicians.
I like the white bounce teasers, never seen that technique before.
Someone else mic stayed open and gave this video a nice breathing bakground! haha :D
My bad:(
It's okay Luke. We still learn.
What a great video! The reality of working major commercial projects. I hope all the young guns with their new DSLR's watch this so they can see that it takes years of experience to get tho that point! Thanks Luke!
Alan is awesome. His new book is an amazing resource. Highly recommend for anyone in the grip and gaff world.
Indeed!
Thanks Alan, always great to have you guest star. You gave me some ideas for an upcoming shoot.
Thank you for the +1 at the end. Such a valuable channel!
ALAN IS BACK!!!!! Love that guy.
Tell Alan I said HE'S LOOKIN' SAUCY! Bench pressin' those combo stands and sandbags I see. 😂😂😂😂
Great process. Thanks for walking us through it.
Awesome informative video. Thanks to both of you! Love the Litemat 8. I want one :) So little grip to boom it out 10-12ft.
Thanks guys! Very useful and well made episode
Toni!
Amazing content as usual
I know you don't always have permission to show the final look but it would be great to see what the lighting looks like on camera even if its a mockup. Thanks.
Yup, couldn’t even say the name of the product:)
@@meetthegaffer I understand I've run into the same. That's why I said "Mockup". Maybe just you as the stand-in on camera. Just a thought. Thanks for all of your videos, they are very informative.
Copy... that was Alan in this instance:)
www.josephseif.com/film. I found the set on the DP's site. Looks great! It was a Levi' jeans shoot.
This is amazing content and very informative. Thank you for sharing!
You are very welcome, Taylor!
Best feature about the Roadrunners is that you can bring it down without having weight on it. Not so on a chain driven Supercrank.
Love the shirt.
Where can I get one?
We had a gaffer die from a non earthed light, (we are 240v) because of that our laws changed.
In Australia we have to "tag" our AC gear every six months to show they have been tested for ground connection and earth insulation.
If someone got electrocuted by my gear, and it wasn't tested, I can get 4 years jail time.
No one has been electrocuted since these changes.
Oi! That’s no joke. Good on Australia!
Alan says he got it in Bellingham, WA (the state of Washington not Washington, DC) at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention.
It would have been nice to see some shots of the models for the final look.
Yup. But NDA’s are NDA’s🤪
Great video as always! I heard Stellar will support non-Arri fixtures in the next update, so maybe that will bring a bit of order into the chaos.
That would stellar:)
I loved Stellar and especially the auto-populate feature where are your lights just show up on-screen and you just need to label them. If and when it can handle outside vendor lights I will be one of the first to try int out.
I wouldn't say your wireless DMX setup was cobbled together, all the products (transmitter base station, recievers) are still using LumenRadio chips, isn't that what's so great about it? :D Cheers and thanks for the detailed breakdown as always.
And why is the S-360 plugged in with a receiver? It has wireless built-in!
The internal WiFi of one of the units wasn’t responding that day:)
Luke Seerveld you mean the wireless CRMX? Oh okay :)
I may sound like I almost know what I’m talking about on the vlog, but half this stuff is still magic to me😂
Luke Seerveld HAHA. you still educate thousands of us with your videos and for that we thank you!
I figure if the car still runs, we’ll keep it going til the wheels fall off. Thank you for keeping us crusty old guys honest!
Wow! Alan! I worked for you on a couple of occasions in the 90s. Is Joe Victoria still around? I loved that guy.
Joe is still in the biz and seems to have traveled for work to more exotic locations than anybody else I know.
Joe is traveling the world as a Jimmy jib cameraman...as energetic as ever.
Alan Steinheimer I don’t know if you remember me. I worked at CineRentWest in Grip and Lighting Rentals. Please tell Joe next time you see him that Mark Mayer says hi! I’m in San Miguel de Allende, México now. Hit me up if you’re ever in the neighborhood.
Love the video-- a wealth of practical information, as always! In order to put that info in perspective, I'd like to know a little more about the design of the shoot. Did you set a t-stop for your key (which I suppose is the position closest to camera where the Octabank and the two low fill lights are hitting), and build your lighting ratios around that? What ISO are you rating the Alexa at, and what speed are you shooting at (in fps)? How far down from that t-stop is the backdrop in order to get the appropriate shade of gray? Thanks for sharing!
Like so many jobs I have forgotten some of the details already. The t-stop is always a topic to discuss before planning what you want to do. In this case we did do a little slo-mo and the actor/models walked straight towards us so I think the request was for a t-5.6. In the end I could have used fewer S60s overhead (they were all dimmed) but the Octabank was maxed out and I had to go to 1/2 grid to get enough foot-candles.If i was desperate I would have used a Joker 800 into an Octabank and I had it on hand but we squeaked by with the S60. I don't know what the Alexa was rated at but most DPs do ISO 640-800, and push it higher if it makes life a lot easier.
I don't know how far down the back wall was but would guess one stop. That was the hardest part to dial in ...everything being a little interactive...we set the overhead lights...mostly in conjunction with what we could get out of the end mark framing/fc near camera, then worked backwards to control the light on the back wall. Ideally we would have had separate lights to do the back wall, and I considered that, but we were already maxed on budget and it would have taken more time, so in the end what had been a black teaser chopping the overhead off the back wall turned into a white teaser to pickup the S120 backlights and put just a little bounce light into the upper portion of the wall. The lower portion near the cove was already getting some of the overhead downlight so I just need to push a little more light into the higher portion of the wall.
If I ever learned anything from reading Masters of Light it is that no matter how big the production you will always run out of time and $ and there is always a certain amount of punting/improv going on. I could have taken the time and used my own lights to hang separate lights for the back grey wall but that might have put us behind schedule and wouldn't necessarily bolster production's confidence/opinion of me. Also it was easy to just try turning the teaser from a solid into a bounce...if it hadn't worked then I would probably have had to hang more lights.
@@alansteinheimer4274 Thanks for the detailed response, great stuff! I thought the "teaser conversion" was a great solution. A pet peeve of mine is the wastefulness of some lighting approaches, so I especially appreciate the inventive use of a fixture to do double duty. (Of course, if you find that you need to adjust that backlight, then you're also stuck changing the quality of your background...)
Amazing video as always! I was curious about your menace arms. I’ve always seen them with ratchets up top to take care of pipe flex.
Are you using steel pipe? I’d love to be able to hang an S60 with an octa that way. It seems much simpler but my 1 1/4” speedrail would bend like crazy.
Pierre- there is a bit of a division in San Francisco between owners of 1.5" speedrail and 1.25" speedrail. As a 1.5" owner I find the pipe is strong enough to do menace arms, goal-post heavier lights, etc. Key grips have largely chosen 1.25" and consequently are more likely to use the supporting hardware for menace arms with the raised middle support and ratchets. Also, clients and DPs sometimes freakout when they see aluminum pipe bending under the weight of a rig - I often have to reassure them that it will not break...that aluminum is elastic, etc. Sometimes it is easier just to avoid a sound solution and op for one that looks better, e.g. using ladder truss when i know that a single piece of pipe would do but will show a lot of deflection.
I do use steel pipe occasionally. Key grips seem to hate it...my theory is that it is an easy solution that cuts them out of doing a rig... . In theory I could use it for menace arms, but in practice I never do. That is aluminum 1.5" rail in the show.
Check out ladder truss as a relatively quick solution for menace and goalpost rigs for your 1.25" speedrail.
How much would all of the lights and labor cost at full rental prices (without discounts) for prep/shoot/rap on this? Good for clients to know that it’s not cheap to make it look pro on a large scale!
Total conjecture on my part because I didn’t work it, but one day of lights and labor would probably be in the neighborhood of $11-12K before OT.
I'm not sure you know but Luminair allows you to set color temps by kelvin numbers (e.g. 5600k) if you tap on the little color circle above the fader. Also SkyPanel S-360's have Wireless DMX buit-in so it shouldn't require a SkyLink dongle
Yes, that is a handy aspect of the tool. Re the built-in lumen radio in the 360, Alan has had some difficulty with one of his 360 units so until he has the opportunity to send it in, an add on receiver needs to be used.
Well...sheepishly, I just got another tutorial subsequent to the show explaining the color temp function on Luminair so yes, it does have a readout...I admit to not understanding it. I still find Luminair difficult to master...so many of the shortcuts are not intuitive. And yes, S360s have a built-in Lumenradio receiver...but most of the time I can't get mine to work so it is easier and faster to stick a receiver in.
Part of the problem with the whole Luminair/Lumenradio setup is that it has to happen quickly at the beginning of the day. Nobody wants to see you struggling to get going. As a result often I look for the quickest solution such as sticking the receiver in the S360 and moving on.
In LA the union is talking about a whole category of work for the board op/wireless technicians and I can understand why: it is not the easiest job to learn quickly, everybody is still expecting it to go fast, the pace of change is dizzying, and if you want to delve into color control the depth is nearly bottomless. I generally hire a board op for my more complicated wireless jobs and/or when I need more control over color. As always speed is of the essence in our business.
0:26 - What is that tchotchke above and a little behind the matte box french flag? Looks like a (double) scope on a rifle. I've noticed them recently on some sets and perhaps never noticed before as I dealt less with the camera gear. Pardon my ignorance... am here to learn. :-)
That is an ultrasonic distance measure. It measures the distance from the camera to the subject and displays it for the focuspuller. Especially useful if there is one subject standing/walking straight infront of the camera.
@@janludwig7286 I just heard "NO...NOOO!!!" coming from my toolbox. Methinks it was the tape measurer. LMAO. Thank you so much!
@@devPunks Some ACs might claim a tape measure if more cinematic....LOL.
@@davidp158 👀 I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE! :-)
Thanks for the very comprehensive video! Matching someone else's lighting can be a big challenge. I don't recall ever seeing a gray/white split background like this.
The rigging must have taken quite a while, and I suppose there isn't much time for trial and error. Was this a full day of pre-lighting?
Yes, full day pre-light.
One day of pre-light... a pretty typical scenario. It is rare you have more than one day so it is important to size the pre-light crew to accommodate this industry maxim.
@@alansteinheimer4274 I am always intrigued by the elaborate set ups you and Luke work on. Its informative for even the small budget projects I work on. I am primarily a DP, but lighting is of huge importance for me to do my job well.
Hi Luke! Just discovered your channel and love all the great content. Odd question: What camera/lens did you use to shoot this video? I quite like the feel and tone.
GH5 and Veydra 16mm
Thanks!
what lav are you using for your audio?
AVX into the Panasonic add on audio adapter and Sanken lavs.
What did you use to suspend the diffusion up there?
Rope from the grid to the frame. Is that what you mean or something else?
Luke Seerveld yup! That answers my question
who is breathing? the boom mic must be in omni mode
Just bad sound editing on my part...
You know you can just add single channels and address them to work the skypannel
Good point. I’ve done that for units that didn’t already have a setting in the program, but hadn’t thought to do that with Skypanels... doh!
Darth Vader can really shoot videos
Ha, ha!
100 000 usd on stage lol. Where is the moto, ""good lighting is the simple lighting""? Other than this comment all is done super high end. !!
All relative given the parameters, budget, expectations, availability, and ability:)
Haha. Well, believe me, this shoot is the outlier. Often I am asked to do the lighting for 10¢. In this particular case I knew we had a bigger budget. The parameters were to be even lighting walking side to side 20' and back to front 20'. You just can't do that with small lights.
If there had been less money I would have chosen tungsten lighting. Most DPs prefer 5600K for modern cameras and the option of dimming without color change means that it is much, much easier to tweak lighting. There is a value to making adjustments quickly when you have high-priced models, some black, some white, cycling thru your setup.
One of the major job aspects of being a gaffer is sizing the lighting choices to the budget, client expectations, and making the DP happy. Every single job presents competing interests; we are jugglers as much as lighting technicians.
who da f*ck is breathing like that!!!!"!?