Here’s a really effective good lighting tip called the Rembrandt
Patch It is called that because this great painter used this
technique to paint his models.

Ok, so you’re outside on a sunny day and you are making a
Video and you have a subject for your shot.

If you place your subject with the sun directly on her with the
Sun coming over your shoulder she is going to squint!! No good!

If you have the sun over her shoulder and hitting you in the face
you will find she isn’t squinting but you will probably under expose
her face unless you can bounce some light into her face to reduce
the overall contrast. (In movies we do this all the time but use
lights and reflectors to help bring down that contrast) I am
assuming you don’t have the tools that I have.

Try positioning your subject so that the sun hits her face but in
such a way that you notice a triangular patch of light under her
eye that is the furthest from the sunlight. You may have to get
hour to turn her head slightly to see the patch but you will see
it.

Think of it as a circle with your subject in the middle and the sun
light coming from somewhere between your camera and 90
degrees to your right or left.

This is the Rembrandt Patch and is the same lighting as the great
painter used on his models. The only difference being that he
used the sunlight (diffused) coming in through a window on the
north side of his studio. He chose this because the shadows would
pretty well stay the same all day as apposed to shooting on the
south side where the shadows would continually move.

*A simple idea than most camcorder users don’t use”

It amazes me when I see friends who come back from a
vacation with numerous tapes of their trips and now have
to start figuring out what’s on each tape. Most of the time
It’s one big job trying to remember which church steeple that
was or in which city was the interesting grave yard etc. etc.
This is a very common problem that can be solved very
simply.

Go to your nearest plastic store and get a piece of rigid
plastic about 10” wide by 8 “high. You may be able to find
a piece around your house. Now take some thin black tape
and put it on the plastic so that you have 9 different areas.
You might divide the surface of the plastic by having
two vertical strips and two horizontal strips.

This will give you the 9 areas that you can write in with a dry erasable
marker. You could have less than 9 and you can make up your own designations on the plastic but you may want to have headings like: date, City, the tape number (important if you have lots of tape) time of day, and any other designations that will help you.

What you do now is keep this piece with you in your bag
whenever you are going to shoot something. You simply
make sure the camera lens is on the wide angle setting.
then just mark your plastic with the info and hold it out in
front of your camera for a few seconds before you shoot
anything.

All your tapes will be numbered and you will have a great
Identification of all the material you shot. Pretty simple
stuff but you will appreciate your efforts when you come
to look at the tapes later.

YOU’RE OUT OF DAYLIGHT AND YOUR VIDEO VIEWFINDER LOOKS DARK?

This happens to all shooters. In shooting film when this happens you can switch to a faster or (more sensitive to light film stock) or you can put on some high speed lenses. (lenses with a faster aperture opening).

That extra hour of shooting can mean big savings to the producer of a feature film with 150 people on the crew but what about you with your camcorder?

The most obvious approach would be to hit the DB boost setting that a lot of cameras have. In other words instead of shooting at “0 DB” you push the button to “9 DB “ or “18 DB” or whatever your camera has for this.

The big problem here is that as you do this what you are actually doing is getting the camera to boost its sensitivity to light at the expense of a weaker video signal. (a less contrasty, less sharp and more “noisy” ,this is like grain in film image).

An extreme example here would be those shots from the gulf war showing rockets being fired at night. Remember how grainy these images were?? In this case the content far outweighs the technology.

The other things that you can do is to wait till you have more light or change the position of the camera to obtain more light or add some artificial light to the subject. Those are your choices.

Let me start by saying that YES! There is a way to become successful working in film. Now when I say working in film, I am of course including video production as well. While I am at it lets include all forms of production, feature films, Movies of the Week or (MOW’s) as they are known, short form television dramas, educational films, training films, television commercials, both the theatrical and non-theatrical areas of production.

Some years ago, before I went to film school in Hollywood, I was a press photographer for the Colonist Newspaper here in Victoria I was pretty good with a camera and figured that I had about 8,000 published photos over an eight year span. I won some awards and had some sales from photos in magazines along the way. At that time there were several other photographers working in the news game and still others that did weddings, postcards and commercial work. One guy in particular had his shots popping up everywhere; in magazines, posters, postcards, if it was anywhere but in the paper, his name seemed to be attached to it.

At the time I would say that we both had passion for our work, but he turned his passion into a very successful business because he educated himself in business practices and learned how to market himself. Most of us that get into this game do so because of our passion for what we do and how it makes us feel when we are doing the one thing that we know keeps us happy.

Remember the old saying, “There’s No Free Lunch”, well it is still true today. What I am getting at here is that passion for what we do is great but it has to be passion that causes you to take action. passion that moves you into learning all you can about the “business” of film production.

Do you remember meeting someone who really enjoyed their work and as you converse you can feel this coming through in their conversation. That kind of passion causes that person to succeed. They don’t worry about the hours involved in working at something that they enjoy. All they see is the end result. Let me give you an example of what I am saying here. I recently wrote a book called “The Video Bible” (step by step tools for promotional video production).

If you had come to me a few years back and told me that I would be writing a book, I would have said you’re crazy I don’t know how to do that? Well, someone did say to me “why don’t you write a book? You have done a lot of production and teaching and you probably have some good experiences and information to share with others”.

So one day I sat down at the computer and started writing and WOW!! This stuff started flowing out of me. I was feeling great passion for writing and I was engaging in a new area of film that was making me feel happy.

Now, I had some good material worth sharing but I knew nothing about how to lay out a book, how to get it published, how to market it etc. etc. This next part is very important. My passion was strong enough that I was willing to make whatever sacrifice were necessary to get the book published, which meant learning about the business end of things, spending money I hadn’t budgeted for, committing my time to the task. This is the point that many of us arrive at but never get beyond. Suddenly, the effort in front of us causes us to change our thinking. It’s almost as if we say to ourselves, “If it doesn’t come with a free lunch then I’m not buying.” Your passion has to be so strong enough that it will force you to not accept anything less than the achievement of your goal.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be the best grip, the best cam op. the best writer, the best producer or AD, your passion has to be strong enough that you are willing to charge through those things that are standing in your way. It has to be strong enough that you will take on the task of educating yourself on a regular basis to achieve your goal. It needs to force you into learning about the business end of things, something I am sure most of us do not relish, after all we are artists first and anything else later. In other words the extent of your passion will cause you to knock down all obstacles that stand in the way of you achieving your goal.

Some of the students that attend Victoria Motion Picture School have this passion and it can bee seen on the first day of class and I have now doubt that they will achieve what they want. Our training will help but it is that passion that they have for their work already built in that will make them a success.

A recent inquiry about our full time film program came in the other day from a girl who really wants to go to film school. She said she had the passion but not enough sustained passion to make the sacrifices she would need to make it all happen. She had a litany of excuses why she couldn’t get the funding together, or her credit was not good enough, or the timing wasn’t right or, or, or, or. She was looking for the free lunch. I’m sure if I had said that I would pay her way and that she didn’t have to do any work towards film school, she would have accepted that.

She talked about having passion and that going to film school was the most important thing in life to her, but it really wasn’t. “What she had was desire not passion.” Do you have passion for what you do? This can apply to all forms of work and play not just the film business. Are you talking a good game, but when it comes to making the sacrifices to achieve your goal, you fold. Have you arrived at the point where you say “I’m going for it” and throw every bit of your being in to the task. Are you willing to accept the inevitable failures along the way but recognize that each set back is a learning experience that is moving you closer to your goal?

In closing let me add this. Some months back I was sitting in the hallway of a high school waiting to give a talk to some students (I am doing much more of these motivational talks now, to schools, colleges and business groups) anyway as I was thinking about life and what I do, these words came into my mind. So I wrote them down right away.

The chances of you being healthy
are greater if you are happy.
The chances of you being happy
are greater if you are enjoying your work.
The chances of you enjoying your work
are greater if you are doing what you like.
Doing what you like is good for your health.
..Barry Casson

Here’s to sustained passion in your work.

THE SECRET – a bit of topic

There was a lot of buzz around recently about “The Secret”. It’s a film you can get on
the web by going to Secret TV.com. It is certainly worth taking a look at.

For those of you like me who believe in a higher power, in my case his name is God,
We appreciate that this universe didn’t happen by chance. We believe in a cosmic law, intuition, gut feelings, vibes, promptings and a host of other terms relating to the unseen parts of our lives.

The Secret delves into this area and calls it “The Law of Attraction” and I for one know
that it really does work. Earl nightingale, a great speaker and philosopher said it best,
“You will become What You Think About”. In my own case:

I wanted to be a drummer in a rock band – I became that drummer
I wanted to be a newspaper photog. –I became that photographer
I wanted to see my films on national television – it happened
I wanted to open a film school – it happened
I wanted to write a book – it happened
I wanted to be a public speaker – it’s happening.

If you look at your own life you may see a similar pattern to the things you have
accomplished.

Did anyone every say to you “stop daydreaming”. I used to get this all the time in school? Boy, where they out of touch. Focused daydreaming is what creates your future.

You are where you are now because of your thoughts. The more you daydream about
the future and how it will be, the greater your chance of it happening.

Maybe you want to be a great gardener, a great cook, a great bus driver, a great teacher, lawyer, accountant, filmmaker. It really doesn’t matter what it is. Dream about it, feel what it would be like and bring it about with your thoughts.

If all this sounds a little simplistic, well it really is. It’s all a matter of choosing the right kind of thinking.

If you want to be a good camera operator, bury your head in the viewfinder. Don’t stand back looking at the side flip out viewfinder on your camera. You need to be totally absorbed in the frame with no distractions to do your best work.

Remember this: “The fewer elements in the shot - the more power the
shot will have”. Try to compose your frame with no more than six main items in the frame.

Always check the end of your tripod legs after shooting out doors or in farmer’s field. You don’t want to set up on Aunt Fanny’s new carpet after working around cows.

Composition has a lot to do with balance in the frame. You want to also have some object as your point of emphasis. Smaller objects can balance large objects.

Lets say you are on the beach shooting out toward the ocean. You have both sky and sea in the shot. Don’t place your horizon line directly in the middle of the frame. When you do this you’re inviting the audience to make a choice on which is more important in the shot, the sky or the sea? Better to give two thirds of your frame to either of these to make a stronger shot.

Remember also that in our world with buildings, telephone polls, lamp standards etc., we know that these objects are straight, so they should line up with the edges of your frame. The same applies to horizontal lines. If in your shots the lines are not straight, then you as the camera op. are not paying attention to composition.

Now there is in the film business a term known as “Dutch Angle”. This simply refers to tilting the camera by at least 20 degrees to throw off vertical and horizonal lines to give the audience a feeling of unease. You would see this kind of thing horror films or when people are under the influence.

To really understand great composition take a look a the great painters of a few centuries ago. They were masters of composition. You could also just study photographs in a magazine such as National Geographic or Life Magazine.

It is second nature to any seasoned cinematographer to always have a well composed shot. This person is totally concerned with keeping the picture pleasing to the eye.

Cheers, Barry

You can pay a lot of money for camera filters these days, with the biggest problem being what filters do you really need?

In the professional world you can purchase low contrast filters, soft contrast filters, ultra contrast filters, fog filters, double fog filters, enhancing filters, diffusion filters, net filters, star filters, sephia filters, coral filters, polarizing filters, neutral density filters to name a few.

To make things even more complicated, many of these filters come in grades ranging from one eighth to a number five. Each increasing grade has a little more density in the filter.

In the professional world we often try to make video look like film by using filters. (I might point out here that it is rare that we try to make film look like video) The idea behind this is to take out the overly sharp look of video and soften the look. Often a double fog or black promist filters are used for this effect.

Rather than going out and spending a lot of money on filters you can actually create your own filters that will do a similar job. Of course if you want to spend the money you will find that filters can run you well over $100 each. The 3 X3 filters that fit onto the mat box
(the hooded black unit on the end of lens) for my Betacam camera can run anywhere from $130 to $200 each.

Try putting a nylon stocking over your lens. Secure it with an elastic band and pull the stocking so that t is smooth across the front of the lens. You can use a white stocking or even a brown or black stocking. Make sure you check the look on your monitor or TV
set to really see the difference in the look. This stocking idea was created in the early days of filmmaking and is still used today by some directors of photography.

You could even try using a splatter screen from you frying pan or anything that will let most of the light through but still soften the image.

Try shooting a candle in a dark room with the stocking on the front and notice what happens to the glow of the candle?? Kinda cool looking isn’t it.

Give this idea a whirl and let me know what you think.

You all know that I’m pretty big on marketing your business with video.
Having produced, directed and shot over 40 promotional videos, I’ve
learned a thing or two.

One client I had followed up on a suggestion I made about how to use
video to his company’s advantage. The names have been changed to
protect client confidentiality.

Bill Fisher is a sales person for a stationery story. One day he called up to make an appoint with Sam Ogden, who runs a very successful manufacturing company. The appointment is set for 10 a.m. next Wednesday.

Wednesday arrives along with Joe Simmons ready for his meeting with Sam Ogden. Joe walks up to the secretary and announces himself and his appointment with Sam Ogden. The secretary picks up the phone and says, “Mr. Ogden, Mr. Simmons is here for his appointment”. She puts down the phone and says “Mr. Ogden will be with you in about 8 minutes”. She offers Simmons a cup of coffee and escorts him to a small room off to one side.

The room is about 8 by 10 feet. There is a nice tall plant in one corner and another plant hanging from the ceiling on the opposite side. In the room there is a small table and two chairs. There are no newspapers on the table. There are no magazine racks or any brochures anywhere. There are also no pictures on the wall. The only thing in the room is a large television monitor attached to the wall.

The secretary returns to her desk and pushes a button next to her phone. Up the screen in the room where Joe is enjoying his coffee comes the images and sounds of a well produced corporate video. The only place Joe can focus his attention is toward the screen. The video tells all about Sam Ogen’s company, from its origins, the projects in development, the company successes etc.

After 8 minutes the secretary returns and says Mr. Ogden will see you now.

Now lets you and I take a look at what just happened. Joe Simmons came to sell Sam Ogden. 8 minutes have gone by and Sam Ogden hasn’t opened his mouth or even left his desk, but in 8 minutes he has been able to provide a ton of information about this company to Joe Simmons.

This effort results in two major outcomes.

•Same Ogden’s time is not wasted by a sales person asking a lot of questions about his business.

•Bill Fisher is in a much better position to know what Sam Ogden’s company is all about and therefore able to zero in on What might be important to Ogden’s company?

CINEMATOGRAPHY. This is the word that turned my crank a number of years. Today’s
Cinematographer often works in both video and film. Not only does the professional have to know the technical aspects of film and video cameras but also the art of “painting with light”. I think that’s where most of us get our jollies. Being able to light a scene and set a mood but make it look like I didn’t do anything gives me a real kick.

I remember reading an article on the the television series “Law and Order”. A compliment from a fellow cinematographer was passed on to the DOP (Director of Photography) of that show that went like this “What I really like about your work is that you don’t light it”.

The DOP whom I believe was Constantine Makris, works very hard with all his lights to achieve the natural look and I am sure he appreciated that comment.

THE MASTERS
You can learn a lot about composition and light by studying the great painters. Look at the cinematography work of James Wong How and you will see how great black and white can look. Look at anything by Connie Hall ASC or Allan Daviau ASC or (The Prince of Darkness) Gordon Willis ASC, and you can get an idea of how great the art form can be.

Remember, many of the films these people shot did not have monitors on set. They were paid hansom salaries because of their ability to see with there eyes. This is something I am afraid is being lost to knew filmmakers. Often the monitor becomes god on the set, slows things down (cause we all have to look) and can cost the production company more money.

LIGHT METERS FOR VIDEO:
Not all videographers use light meters when shooting video. If you can afford to pack around a monitor along with a waveform monitor and possibly a Vectorscope you can certainly get quality images.

Figuring out the ASA or ISO sensitivity of your video camera compared to a film camera
and using your light meter as you would in film can deliver excellent results with less equipment to pack.. This is the method I have used for years. The principle is one of many I like to turn students onto in our program.

Recommended readings:
“Matters of Light and Depth” by Ross Lowell
Broad Street Books, Philadelphia
P.O. Box 4107 Philadelphia PA 19127
ISBN 1-879174-03-0

“Cinematography” by Kris Malkiewicz (second edition)
a fireside book published by Simon & Schuster
ISBN 0-671-76220-6

“Lighting for Location Motion Pictures” by Alan J. Ritsko
Published b Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc.
ISBN O-442-26957-9

“Set Lighting Techniques” by Harry C. Box
published by Focal Press /Butterworth-Heinemann
a division of Reed Publishing U.S.A.

Words of wisdom:
One of the exercises I sometimes had students do is to spend time in various locations such as a supermarket, a restaurant, library, etc. and study the light. You can learn a lot from this exercise in terms of how you would create a similar look if you were asked to as the Cinematographer on a shoot.

You have heard the term “The world is your oyster”, well in our case the world is our set. One final thing, remember, “There’s lots of room at the top, it’s the bottom that’s crowded!

The lens on the front of your camera is often an expensive piece of
glass. You need to take care of it as repairs can be very expensive.

Inside a zoom lens there are many of elements that are aligned very
precisely giving you a focused and sharp image.

A severe jolt can knock these elements out of alignment and you
wind up with soft focus (not very sharp) images.

Some years ago while studying film in LA this happened to me so
I took my Angenieux lens to the Angenieux factory for servicing.

I was amazed how these guys in there white coats put my lens into a
piece of equipment that magnified a chart showing how my lens was
working. The huge circular image pattern projected on the wall
clearly showed that at certain points the focus was off due to the
elements (pieces of glass in the lens) being out of aligment.

It wasn’t cheap to repair this problem. What I learned from this was
don’t bump the lens.

If you haven’t already done it, get a skylight or UV filter for the front
of your camera lens. These two filters don’t have any filter factor
which means they won’t absorb any light as they are mostly clear.

What they will do is protect the front element of your lens from any
damage. If someone hits the front of your lens with an object that
could scratch or break the glass, the worst that can happen is the
filter will take the punch. It’s cheaper to replace a filter than the
front element of your lens.

Here’s to good shooting.

Cheers, Barry