LA Week

This week was pretty busy. Monday I came into Mole, the class was cancelled but I organized and cleaned the stage. We had been having classes almost non-stop for the past month and the stage needed some attention. A new guy named Jason stopped by and helped. I also got to go across the street to sneak a peek at the new 10K Tungsten Par and the new 18K HMI par, the newest lights from Mole.

Tuesday was the regular AFI class. I hadn't been to one in two weeks because of that LA Film School shoot. Every seemed happy to see me, oh, and Wally Pfister was the guest DP. We did a low light/candle light scene... very The Prestigeesk. He was a nice guy, very easy and fun to work with. It was Halloween, so Wally worked through lunch and we all got out early. I just went home and slept(long weekend).

The next day was Wednesday, we had a class from Brooks Institute from 8am to noon. One of Larry's good friends and Brook's professor Cal Manning, a former studio gaffer, came over and did a bunch of power distro stuff. Cal was such a cool guy, we ran the genny and id all types of power scenarios. Brian stopped by and we all went down the street to this BBQ place.
During lunch I got a call from Rob Hauer. He wanted to give me some feedback about the footage from Aquarium, the short film I did in Boston. All the feedback was positive, I was preparing myself for some costructive criticism and for a few problems with the lighting, but the only thing "bad" he had to say was that he thought the processing would make the shadows darker but it didn't so he wished he had used more negative or had a slightly higher contrast ratio. I was excited to hear that he was happy with the footage, I can't wait to see it!
After lunch, Larry told me he got a call from LMU and there was a miscommunication and they were coming for a class in the afternoon. So I stuck around and made a few extra dollars teaching another class. We even turned on the 10K par and the 18K HMI par for them- yay! The lights looked very, very impressive and they performed better then expected.
Then Edwin and I went to a free screening of Cars at the Academy of Television in Burbank with CEO of Pixar, John Lasseter, Supervising Technical Director Eben Ostby and Production Designer Bob Pauley. I loved the movie and(as always) love Pixar a little more with each movie I see by them.

Thursday was LMU again. We did our normal dog-n-pony, turned on some lights, played with some c-stands, and distrobution a bit of power. Oh, we did do something awesome!! Larry turns to me and whisper, "oh, go turn the arc on, I know you like to do that." So I ran outside and warmed up the generator van and got the arc out. Larry showed the class a short video about the history of Mole and the history of lighting and then brought them outside. Then he blew me away by bringing out the 18K HMI and put it right next to the arc.
We did a side-by-side comparison color and f-stop test between them and I have to say, the 18K par is the closest light I have ever seen that even compares to the arc. The 18K blew it away with its intensity, but that is to be expected. The color temp on the new HMI was spot on, the closest HMI I have ever seen to true daylight. The new HMI also had very similar shadow detail and control to the arc. We still like the arc better because they are more fun but the 18K par is a beautiful light. We all walked away extremely excited.

And then today I helped out this DP who comes into Mole named Jongo. A bunch of the Mole crew helped out on this short film he is shooting. It was a semi-long day, but it was only DV and we could only shoot as long as the sun was up, which made it easy for us to pack up and wrap.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
The closer the light bulb is to the fresnel lens, the more flooded the light becomes, the further away it is, the more spotted it becomes. In general, you flood to the right and spot to the left.