tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post8556806300543973086..comments2024-03-22T14:40:33.276-07:00Comments on Blood, Sweat, and Tedium: Confessions of a Hollywood Juicer: Just for the Hell of It -- Episode 36Michael Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02569781786039595929noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-72276369631439061602016-08-17T11:21:07.187-07:002016-08-17T11:21:07.187-07:00Anonymous --
I think you're right about the c...Anonymous --<br /><br />I think you're right about the cameras and film available at the time rather than the lighting equipment that rendered those movies so bright -- and so many of them really are garishly over-lit by modern standards. The complexity of the three-strip Technicolor process, which lowered the ASA to 5 (check out this website: http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/technicolor6.htm) had a lot to do with that. Such a low ASA demands a tremendous amount of light just to get a decent exposure, let alone any depth of field. Day exterior scenes shot under full sun weren't so hard -- they just brought in a few carbon arcs for fill light -- but interiors required intensive lighting. <br /><br />The look of those films was also a product of their time, but as cameras, lenses, and film stocks improved, the visual style of movies evolved accordingly -- and so did lighting equipment. The development of lightweight Panaflex and Arriflex cameras made location filming easier and led to smaller, lighter location lighting equipment as well. That evolution continues, and nowadays it's not unusual to see a very small digital camera filming interiors and/or night scenes using nothing but very low wattage LED lamps.<br /><br />If you want to see truly great lighting from the old days, go back to the Film Noirs of the late 40's and early 50's, which combined German expressionist visual style with story lines steeped in post-World War II existential angst. The best of them are grim but great films, and the crisp black and white cinematography in those movies is a revelation.<br /><br />Michael Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02569781786039595929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-26346814799100942212016-08-15T19:39:13.092-07:002016-08-15T19:39:13.092-07:00Your post and that old photo you included reminds ...Your post and that old photo you included reminds me of something I've always wondered about: technicolor period costume dramas and movie musicals of the 50s and most of the 60s always have seemed to me garishly over-lit: nary a shadow to be found anywhere; everyone seems to be baking under a desert sun, even in scenes supposedly occurring in, say, a gaslit Victorian drawing room. I always figured it was due to cameras, or to requirements of color film. Could the lighting instruments available have had something to do with it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-44164322651695189702016-08-03T12:52:49.013-07:002016-08-03T12:52:49.013-07:00JD:
I did a tool pouch post in response to a read...JD:<br /><br />I did a tool pouch post in response to a reader's question several years ago, but what tools you carry depends on what kind of show you're doing. My multi-camera sitcom tool belt (soundstage/tungsten lighting) is a lot heavier than my exterior shoot HMI-package belt.Michael Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02569781786039595929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-43544233006723041072016-08-03T12:48:35.595-07:002016-08-03T12:48:35.595-07:00JD;
Those searchlights you saw were definitely mi...JD;<br /><br />Those searchlights you saw were definitely military surplus. We used one of those beasts on a commercial in Mexico City twenty-plus years ago to backlight a statue -- it worked great. The advent of 12K HMIs (and later the 18K) finally pushed arcs out the back door of Hollywood. I recall using the early 12Ks along with arcs back in the early to mid-80's, but I don't think I've seen one on set since 1990. They're still around though -- I recently heard from a rental company in Hollywood that has half a dozen arcs available for rent. <br />Michael Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02569781786039595929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-58643026366202173952016-08-03T04:21:06.136-07:002016-08-03T04:21:06.136-07:00Still waiting to read your" What's in my ...Still waiting to read your" What's in my tool pouch/bag?" post.JDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-17313520116704888722016-08-03T04:19:12.527-07:002016-08-03T04:19:12.527-07:00I've never seen or worked with anyone who has ...I've never seen or worked with anyone who has operated an arc lamp on a film set on the East coast. Did see a few 6' or so arcs being used to draw attention at a sporting event or store grand opening. Guess these were probably mil. surplus? Approximately when did carbon arc lamps start to become phased out? JDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-24251117550011588662016-08-02T08:54:11.268-07:002016-08-02T08:54:11.268-07:00Mike, I can't wait for the ARC post.. I have ...Mike, I can't wait for the ARC post.. I have to admit i'm blown away sometimes when i catch an old t.v. show or film and see such incredible lighting... k Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-70906042179731662732016-08-01T18:01:28.865-07:002016-08-01T18:01:28.865-07:00JD:
Good question… and after reading your comment...JD:<br /><br />Good question… and after reading your comment, I blew up that photo as much as possible, and began to wonder... You're right about the lack of smokestacks, but I've used arcs without stacks many times. More troubling to me was the lack of a visible grid, and the closer I looked, the more I realized those two lamps really aren't the heavy head arcs I thought -- so I consulted a fellow juicer who spent his entire career in the IA working on tons of shows we've all seen, everything from "The Rockford Files" to "Little House on the Prairie". His dad was in the biz, so he knows his Hollywood history from top to bottom. He confirmed that those are indeed carbon arcs known as "170 arcs," for the 170 amps they drew -- as opposed to the 225 amps a heavy or light head Brute arc drew. He also said that at one time, there were no incandescent lamps at all on set, where all the lighting was done with a spectrum of small to large arcs -- the bigger arcs for key light, the smaller ones for fill. According to him, there were several manufacturers of these arcs back then, not just Mole Richardson.<br /><br />Clearly, I'll have to do a post about arcs one of these days… but I'll need to do some research first. Michael Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02569781786039595929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078779326914378322.post-60754446887201928722016-07-31T16:53:42.374-07:002016-07-31T16:53:42.374-07:00How can you be certain those are arc lamps? Age o...How can you be certain those are arc lamps? Age of the photo? Recognize that particular gear?? Only ask because the only arc lamps I've ever seen were the Mole variety. No chimneys on them?JDnoreply@blogger.com