- who needs lights? if chris doyle and wong kar wai can shoot chungking express in 3 weeks w/ no external lighting and the film looks as good as it does...
- wow, the godfather is pretty.
- maybe lights wouldn't hurt.
- no way it's worth spending 1.5-2K for lights.
- what can i use to attach anything to this tiny 250w worklight?
- when will this epoxy ever dry?
- i hate epoxy.
- what does he mean the paint is going to smoke?
- these primer fumes are crazy.
- use a coat rack? as a lighting stand? maybe that could work.
- why doesn't home depot carry coat racks?
- can i build a tripod with pvc? i should be able to build at least a makeshift stand.
- i hate epoxy.
- this drill is very loud.
- why does the primer take so long to dry?
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
work lights, barn doors
original email
from me
subject line: barndoors
http://www.shuttertalk.com/articles/diylighting
http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/barn/barndoors.html
i'm tempted to pick up a propane torch and take a crack at building
some barn doors. i don't know if it's a smart idea. but not
everything can be a smart idea.
- - - - -
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/2247/Tungsten_Lights_Kits.html
with light kits running in the range of 1,000$ and up, i decided to take a trip to home depot. i started with a 250w halogen worklight (13$), some sheet aluminum (8$), spray paint (4$), epoxy (5$) and some tin snips that i found in the garage.
these are the tin snips. they cut through sheet metal like paper. i think they run about 10-13$.
j-b weld is a brand of epoxy - one part resin, one part hardener, mix together and apply. the only problem is that it takes 4-6 hours to set, 24 hours to dry completely. for the first few hours whatever you apply it to needs to be held (gently) in place.
this is a 1.50$ clamp holding one of the aluminum barndoors to a hinge (1$ for a set of two). several times i tried to take a clamp off within a few hours, thinking that the epoxy was dry, only to watch parts a and b fall apart. i hate epoxy.
to avoid any further use of epoxy, i picked up some miniature screw/nut combos (1$ for 10-pack).
spray painting is interesting. a painter saw me doing this with regular spray paint and told me that it was going to smoke when it got hot. he spoke like that guy on king of the hill that no one outside texas really understands, boomhauer? except in korean. and sometimes english.
painter-boomer's advice was to get some auto primer and heat resistant paint.
several trips to home depot later, i ended up bringing home a stand + 2 500w halogen light set (40$). several days of drilling, cutting, measuring, and painting later - i had my finished project.
the close-up.
from me
subject line: barndoors
http://www.shuttertalk.com/articles/diylighting
http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/barn/barndoors.html
i'm tempted to pick up a propane torch and take a crack at building
some barn doors. i don't know if it's a smart idea. but not
everything can be a smart idea.
- - - - -
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/2247/Tungsten_Lights_Kits.html
with light kits running in the range of 1,000$ and up, i decided to take a trip to home depot. i started with a 250w halogen worklight (13$), some sheet aluminum (8$), spray paint (4$), epoxy (5$) and some tin snips that i found in the garage.
these are the tin snips. they cut through sheet metal like paper. i think they run about 10-13$.
j-b weld is a brand of epoxy - one part resin, one part hardener, mix together and apply. the only problem is that it takes 4-6 hours to set, 24 hours to dry completely. for the first few hours whatever you apply it to needs to be held (gently) in place.
this is a 1.50$ clamp holding one of the aluminum barndoors to a hinge (1$ for a set of two). several times i tried to take a clamp off within a few hours, thinking that the epoxy was dry, only to watch parts a and b fall apart. i hate epoxy.
to avoid any further use of epoxy, i picked up some miniature screw/nut combos (1$ for 10-pack).
spray painting is interesting. a painter saw me doing this with regular spray paint and told me that it was going to smoke when it got hot. he spoke like that guy on king of the hill that no one outside texas really understands, boomhauer? except in korean. and sometimes english.
painter-boomer's advice was to get some auto primer and heat resistant paint.
several trips to home depot later, i ended up bringing home a stand + 2 500w halogen light set (40$). several days of drilling, cutting, measuring, and painting later - i had my finished project.
the close-up.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
stupid jumping hobbits
a story is a series of events. sometimes emotions are attached to said events, but usually not in the way expected. but that's the thing with emotions - they arise from events. unfortunately, sometimes certain people feel the need to stretch events in order to carry the full weight of their feelings.
example. there's this scene at the end of peter jackson's lord of the rings when the film has been over for a while but keeps going anyways and all the hobbits run into the room where frodo is lying in bed, recovering, and they're all so happy and joyful and they start jumping up and down on his bed, laughing and jumping, all in very slow motion, their mouths moving but muted, because the orchestra is busy telling the audience how to feel and it doesn't want any distractions.
i mean, a joyful reunion is a joyful reunion. why can't it just take place in real time, without any violins, and without the gratuitous jumping?
it is as if the filmmaker was dissatisfied with the reality of "happiness," and felt the need to superimpose their own conception of joy, a special, idealized kind of joy, the kind that is born in slow motion and lots of major triads.
maybe i am wronging peter jackson here, but that's just how i feel.
aronofsky is guilty of the opposite, prolonging and dramatizing suffering to an almost comical extent. what, two junkies can't score any heroin between new york and florida? what, did they drive on some magical highway that bypasses newark, philly, d.c., baltimore, atlanta, and newark?
example. there's this scene at the end of peter jackson's lord of the rings when the film has been over for a while but keeps going anyways and all the hobbits run into the room where frodo is lying in bed, recovering, and they're all so happy and joyful and they start jumping up and down on his bed, laughing and jumping, all in very slow motion, their mouths moving but muted, because the orchestra is busy telling the audience how to feel and it doesn't want any distractions.
i mean, a joyful reunion is a joyful reunion. why can't it just take place in real time, without any violins, and without the gratuitous jumping?
it is as if the filmmaker was dissatisfied with the reality of "happiness," and felt the need to superimpose their own conception of joy, a special, idealized kind of joy, the kind that is born in slow motion and lots of major triads.
maybe i am wronging peter jackson here, but that's just how i feel.
aronofsky is guilty of the opposite, prolonging and dramatizing suffering to an almost comical extent. what, two junkies can't score any heroin between new york and florida? what, did they drive on some magical highway that bypasses newark, philly, d.c., baltimore, atlanta, and newark?
eisenstein
in david mamet's book, "on directing film," he says that the only thing he really knows about film is eisenstein's "theory of montage," - that the juxtaposition of images that creates a good story. or, as mamet says, tell the story in the cut, not in the shot.
i have to confess that i am not entirely sure exactly how this is supposed to work. one of mamet's examples was a pair of shots: (1) birds fly up and away from the treeline, (2) a deer raises it's head, that convey the idea of 'alertness.'
shot 1 by itself wouldn't really work, neither would shot 2.
but film is more than a string of ideas conveyed by the collision of two separate shots. there is music, dialogue, editing, rhythm, plot, etc etc. mamet shrugs off the responsibility by admitting that as he's only directed two features, he has no idea how anything else works, just that shots should be simple, and uninflected (or unemotional), that the story will lie in the cut, in the empty and instantaneous space between.
i have to confess that i am not entirely sure exactly how this is supposed to work. one of mamet's examples was a pair of shots: (1) birds fly up and away from the treeline, (2) a deer raises it's head, that convey the idea of 'alertness.'
shot 1 by itself wouldn't really work, neither would shot 2.
but film is more than a string of ideas conveyed by the collision of two separate shots. there is music, dialogue, editing, rhythm, plot, etc etc. mamet shrugs off the responsibility by admitting that as he's only directed two features, he has no idea how anything else works, just that shots should be simple, and uninflected (or unemotional), that the story will lie in the cut, in the empty and instantaneous space between.
intro
age: 25
summer plans: make a few short films, find others to record music with, write (for film, fiction, and non)
location: portland, driving down to los angeles in a few days
favorite film of past year: little miss sunshine
what happened on my way to see it: acquired 350$ moving traffic violation
weight: 59.2 kg
currently reading: a people's tragedy (figes)
mental status: somewhat sleepy
favorite dish containing beans: alubias w/ lamb
current frustration: slow-drying epoxy
number of times peter parker cried and i laughed during spider-man 3: several
summer plans: make a few short films, find others to record music with, write (for film, fiction, and non)
location: portland, driving down to los angeles in a few days
favorite film of past year: little miss sunshine
what happened on my way to see it: acquired 350$ moving traffic violation
weight: 59.2 kg
currently reading: a people's tragedy (figes)
mental status: somewhat sleepy
favorite dish containing beans: alubias w/ lamb
current frustration: slow-drying epoxy
number of times peter parker cried and i laughed during spider-man 3: several
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