HMI

[bcooter]

Very interesting thoughts and experiences, Tmark and James, thanks for sharing !
I'm integrating 3D modelling into my (still life) photography now, but some sort of moving pictures might well be the next step - on a smaller scale than what you described.

As for the OT, http://www.dedolight.com/www/dedolight/default.php?la=0 have been my fav for many years now; well made and extremely efficient design .

Thanks.

I know continuous lights are a good investment . . . and I see the change coming in commerce and editorial;

When rental at Adorama says they have 34 5d2's and all are out and to everyone they speak to it's because of the motion capabilities.

When i see that Ipad commercial and a still image comes to life.
 
When I count it up and notice I moved over 3 terabytes of retouched still images on line through a fiber optic hookup working in LA, the retoucher in NY the client in Chicago.

When I see from the same "still" shoot 24 quick video clips we shot between sessions we color time and deliver.

When I see this:

http://www.zacuto.com/robert-rodriguez-canon-7d-zacuto

When I rent a still stage in NY last week and three signs are hanging on other studio walls "quiet video in progress"

When I have two video crews on my "still" shoot.

When I buy this little sprint 4g gizmo you set in a room and have instant semi high speed wi-fi for up to 4 computers.

I didn't want it this way, but it's here and it's going to come faster than any of us ever dreamed.

Our roles are changing, or morphing or something, but regardless of our title, if you are going to shoot for money your going to have something on set that shoots a lot of frames a second whether you personally do it or not.

BC

[UlfKrentz]

snip
I was at a store Saturday that use to carry a lot of Hensel and tried to find out about the combination HMI and strobes you mentioned but they knew nothing about them and don't sell much Hensel anymore.

Actually as you know the only still lighting standards of our industry are profoto and maybe a little bit of broncolor.    Everything else is much smaller in market share and use and I assume just because of the availability of rentals.

snip

Hi BC,

I remember the twinstar series. Must have been around 1996. Scan backs were popular at that time and you still used a lot of film these days. They had compact units and also a lampbase that could be used with a standard Hensel pack. These heads were equipped with HMI Modelling lights ( 575 and 1200W).
I phoned them today, the twinstars are discontinued for a long time and can only be found used from time to time. They do not plan a revival as they don´t have request for HMI.

Briese has finally launched their new website. You can see a lot of new focus light shapers that can be seriously used with flash and continuous light - tungsten or HMI.
Unfortunately it is only available in german language at the moment, but still worth looking: www.brieselichttechnik.de

Cheers, Ulf

[BJNY]

Who will be the first strobe manufacturers to offer flashheads with daylight-balanced LED continuous light.

Some of the LED fresnels from LitePanels have high output:
http://www.litepanels.com/lp/products/sola_led_fresnel.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae46WGvSB20...player_embedded

[eronald]

Hey Cooter I hope you got james Russell's permission before using his pics to illustrate your point..

Now speaks the Colonel's Lady an' now Judy O'Grady

Edmund

[bcooter]

The difficulty of producing motion is a gate keeper in its self, which is better than cost being the gate keeper.

We need some gate keepers in this biz.

Not to hinder creativity, but to filter out the noise and raise the budgets.  

In a still production we hear it  all the time.  We'll fix it in post, he/she has a style that works in post, we'll do it in post, we'll change it in post, we'll add that in post.  Post is fine for stills  (well I guess) but it's cheap in post compared to motion and that's where the real separation between the two mediums come in.

Money/budget will be the gatekeeper in motion, even if the camera's sell for $50 and honestly as fascinating as the 5d2 is I don't really find it a 100%  true cinema alternative.  If anything the sensor is too big.  Try pulling any focus at night, even lit and you'll see it pretty quickly.

Regardless, if motion becomes part of our game, (and I'm not even 100% sure of that once the economy picks up), the still guys migrating to motion are going to have to up their game big time to make any real impact on the artists that have trained in film/cinema/commercial production.

I guess in a few days we'll see what comes out, though as it stands I'd rather see Red make more moves forward than Canon.  Just the cost of a RED is another gate keeper.

I don't mind cost being a gate keeper as long as it goes to the over/under line segment of the industry.  Now low cost, that can be a problem.

BC

[eronald]

I look at these amazing french films shot on location in the sixties with young casts, amateur 16mm equipment; then I look at the formulaic stuff which comes out of Hollywood these days with budgets that would put a small country to shame. Even the cinematography is often -brutal- that's the right word. And I wonder whether money as a gatekeeper is going to further quality. I don't think we need gatekeepers.

I tried to sell my fashion stuff to Elle in Paris. The response: We already have people we work with so we cannot work with you. But can we photocopy these images, please?


Edmund

We need some gate keepers in this biz.

Not to hinder creativity, but to filter out the noise and raise the budgets.  

In a still production we hear it  all the time.  We'll fix it in post, he/she has a style that works in post, we'll do it in post, we'll change it in post, we'll add that in post.  Post is fine for stills  (well I guess) but it's cheap in post compared to motion and that's where the real separation between the two mediums come in.

Money/budget will be the gatekeeper in motion, even if the camera's sell for $50 and honestly as fascinating as the 5d2 is I don't really find it a 100%  true cinema alternative.  If anything the sensor is too big.  Try pulling any focus at night, even lit and you'll see it pretty quickly.

Regardless, if motion becomes part of our game, (and I'm not even 100% sure of that once the economy picks up), the still guys migrating to motion are going to have to up their game big time to make any real impact on the artists that have trained in film/cinema/commercial production.

I guess in a few days we'll see what comes out, though as it stands I'd rather see Red make more moves forward than Canon.  Just the cost of a RED is another gate keeper.

I don't mind cost being a gate keeper as long as it goes to the over/under line segment of the industry.  Now low cost, that can be a problem.

BC

[TMARK]

You are confusing business and art.  The French New Wave was the product of a vital time, and was not about business. I doubt Goddard was looking at revenue projections when planning Breathless. Budgets for crappy films are big because movies are big business, with big returns and big risk.   Much of Hollywood/Bollywood and the cliche, self-referential, smug and comfortable Canal + productions are business ventures above all.  

Cliche crap is always coming out of global cinema. Look at any Gerard Depardu movie from the 70's.  The last 15 years have been hard of French film.  The films that do well, like Amalie, reflect a retreat into a cliche of a France that never really existed.  New Orleans before the storm was like that as well.  Its an inward turn, a retreat into sappy Romantacism.  The American version of this can be found in the horrid, horrid, Titanic.  I'd rather watch 70's French films of Gerard Depardu juggling on the beach at Frejus tha sit through Titanic.

That being said, there are great low(er) budget films from every country.  They seem to win awards, like Hurt Locker, Precious, Slumdog Millionaire.  Look at Reservoir Dogs, a great movie shot and edited for $1M.  Or The Wrestler, shot by Darin Aronovsky on 16mm, real cheap.

I look at these amazing french films shot on location in the sixties with young casts, amateur 16mm equipment; then I look at the formulaic stuff which comes out of Hollywood these days with budgets that would put a small country to shame. Even the cinematography is often -brutal- that's the right word. And I wonder whether money as a gatekeeper is going to further quality. I don't think we need gatekeepers.

[eronald]

I have little patience for french autoerotic narcissism. Besides which I'm an engineer by training so I wouldn't get it anyway.

  However, I have bought some packs of Rohmer DVDs recently, and they are totally amazing in spite of heavy handed voice over narration and  black and white with amateur cameras. There is a sincere wish to create, and sometimes even to entertain, in there

 - once you establish money as a gatekeeper as our globe trotting friend Bernie the Hooter suggests, you remove freshness from the equation and replace it with professionalism.

 And in fact one can see the deletrious effects of money in the progression of Rohmer shorts, as the moolah comes in and he moves from amateur B&W to professionally shot color film, the acting becomes more rehearsed, the cinematography is pretty, the scenes are longer and less impressionistic, and the films become boring.

Edmund

You are confusing business and art.  The French New Wave was the product of a vital time, and was not about business. I doubt Goddard was looking at revenue projections when planning Breathless. Budgets for crappy films are big because movies are big business, with big returns and big risk.   Much of Hollywood/Bollywood and the cliche, self-referential, smug and comfortable Canal + productions are business ventures above all.  

Cliche crap is always coming out of global cinema. Look at any Gerard Depardu movie from the 70's.  The last 15 years have been hard of French film.  The films that do well, like Amalie, reflect a retreat into a cliche of a France that never really existed.  New Orleans before the storm was like that as well.  Its an inward turn, a retreat into sappy Romantacism.  The American version of this can be found in the horrid, horrid, Titanic.  I'd rather watch 70's French films of Gerard Depardu juggling on the beach at Frejus tha sit through Titanic.

That being said, there are great low(er) budget films from every country.  They seem to win awards, like Hurt Locker, Precious, Slumdog Millionaire.  Look at Reservoir Dogs, a great movie shot and edited for $1M.  Or The Wrestler, shot by Darin Aronovsky on 16mm, real cheap.

[BJNY]

Some of the LED fresnels from LitePanels have high output:
http://www.litepanels.com/lp/products/sola_led_fresnel.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae46WGvSB20...player_embedded

Another video showing panel controlling intensity & spread of LED fresnels :
http://blog.abelcine.com/2010/04/14/litepa...led-fresnels-2/