After many years in this business, it came to me that each of us is directing
the greatest epic of all time….”Our life”. And when you think about life
In this way it begs the questions… Will we win an academy award nomination
for our efforts or will our epic dreams go straight to video??

Think about this for a moment.

Are you in control of (your film? your life?)

How are things going on the set each day? In the film biz. we have to handle
numerous changes throughout the day due to actors who are sick, camera
problems, script problems, location problems, time problems, budget problems.
(sounds kinda like life doesn’t it)

How are you handling your production each day? Are you in control as the
director? Does your crew respect you? Is your first assistant director supporting
you? How are you handling your budget?

This brings up the question of makes a great director? When you look at films
like Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, you recognize that these directors can
turn out a series of films that all look great and earn many dollars. So what is
their secret?

Great film directors often have great life experiences or at least have learned
The elemental truths about how to bring out the best in people who surround
you.

So?…as the director of your epic, how are you doing with your film, with your
crew. with your budget? Think about it!!

Back in the 1700’s I a man named Lord Kelvin found
out that objects vibrate at different colour temperatures.
Now for a moment forget the phrase “colour temperature”
and just think of the word colour.

What Kelvin found out that relates to film and video is
this…When the sun is rising it is a different colour than when
It is high in the sky. He gave a rating to this change in
colour that we call Kelvin degrees.

This applies very much to film and video in that the
colour of a shot you take at 8 a.m. will be different to the
colour of a shot you take at 1 p.m.

Here’s an example. The colour of direct sunlight at 8 a.m.
Is around 2000 degrees Kelvin, (very amber looking). The
colour of the light when the sun is high and we have a lot
of blue sky is around 6000 degrees Kelvin, (much bluer).

Your video camera does an auto white balance based on
the composition of what colours make up white light at a
given time. So if you’re shooting outside and white balance
in the early morning and don’t re white balance at 1 p.m.
then you will notice that when putting these two shots
together in editing there Is a major colour difference…
get it??

Always remember to re-white balance your camera around every
hour or so. This will help your colour a lot if you’re shooting all day long.

This is only part of what we have to deal with in the real
world of shooting film and video. There is a host of other
lighting sources that we also have to deal with including:
mercury vapour, sodium vapour, warm white fluorescents,
cool white fluorescents and other discharge lighting
instruments. We’ll save those for another time