80% of a typical motion picture is made up of close-ups of people having conversations. And by far the most commonly used lighting setup for such a close-up shot is the far-sided key. Master this one simple lighting setup and suddenly 80% of your shots will look “Hollywood.”
When is a light not THE light? When it’s a light you see on screen of course.
Cut a one inch slit in a tennis ball, squeeze the tennis ball to open it, then slip it on the end of a c-stand gobo arm (or anything else pointy you want to keep people from walking in to). Use a double crossed slit to slip tennis balls on light stand feet to protect […]
Loop the power cable from a light under the leg of the light stand instead of letting it hang free. If someone snags the cable with their foot as it runs across the floor the stand will move sideways instead of tipping over. Also a sand bag on that stand is probably a really good […]
In addition to the obvious elements of a creepy location, a frightening bad guy, and copious amounts of fake blood and gory makeup, every horror film ever made needs 2 pieces of equipment to set the scary mood. First is the ever-present blue-colored backlight that mimics moonlight in every outdoor night shot. If you have […]
A brief guide to the mighty C-stand… C-stand legs open in a variety of ways depending on the manufacturer. Some are spring loaded with a detent and snap into the correct position. Other’s have metal stops the catch on each other as the legs are rotated. The bottom line is make sure the 3 legs […]
To quickly calculate the number of amps of electricity a given light will require use this simple* formula: