PJ Palomaki
Cinematographer | Motion Graphics
PJ is a skilled Cinematographer and Camera Op with extensive experience in lighting, composition and camera movement.
Most of 20th century was lit like this and not always women only.. And lighting was much more complex than 'lit by three lights'. If you read John Alton's Painting with Light, he argues how important things like hair light (different from back light) and clothes light are for instance, not to forget the all-important eye light... No wonder actor's weren't allowed to move an inch from their mark.
The funniest / scariest section of his book goes on to describe how women should learn cinematography so they can 'position' themselves in real life to maximise their attractiveness and be noticed. He even gives a real life example of a woman who was being ignored by the men in a company, until she positioned herself in front of a window where light pours in and lit up her hair. She of course was noticed and given praise and opportunities she hadn't enjoyed before - the exact point Alton was trying to make..
This is my ramble from a previous Resolve post, thought I'd share it here too.. :
I've actually been testing Resolve 12 for the last few projects from start to finish and I'm fairly impressed with the edit page now. Still needs some tweaks and performance isn't quite the same as PPro, also missing some key shortcuts from PPro, (del)including the invaluable "Ripple Trim Next/Previous Edit to Playhead" (http://nofilmschool.com/2013/06/premiere-pro-tutorial-keyboard-shortcuts...)(/del) (Had a discussion about this on BMD Forum and there _is_ ripple trim in Resolve(!) see here: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=30128). But all things considered, for simple edit projects, I'm happy to continue with Resolve, but would probably use PPro for anything more complex edit-wise. Of course Resolve's other strengths are just too good to overlook and will sway my decision heavily on each project..
Just on edit<->grade workflow in Resolve - It just so seamless in the final stages to go back and fort between edit and grade pages and tweak both simultaneously as you need without having to export anything, worry about footage mismatch or having to perform last minute paperclip & chewing gum fixes in Resolve which doesn't match PPro edit etc. There was definitely a moment of 'I'm sure I'm not supposed to be able to do this' followed by pure delight when I first went back and forth between the two pages and seeing all the grade changes in your edit page and tweaking the edit accordingly (even swapping takes if the grade revealed issues).
I know people probably say (as I would've in the past) that you have to have a picture-locked edit before you go to grade, but that's just not realistic these days on sometimes massively evolving projects.
Just to point out, make sure you use the link that Rob put on the end of the post as it'll give you 70% off the course price. Bought Alex's course to help my slow (hopeful) transition from PPro.
[ramble] I've actually been testing Resolve 12 for the last few projects from start to finish and I'm fairly impressed with the edit page now. Still needs some tweaks and performance isn't quite the same as PPro, also missing some key shortcuts from PPro, including the invaluable "Ripple Trim Next/Previous Edit to Playhead" (http://nofilmschool.com/2013/06/premiere-pro-tutorial-keyboard-shortcuts...). But all things considered, for simple edit projects, I'm happy to continue with Resolve, but would probably use PPro for anything more complex edit-wise. Of course Resolve's other strengths are just too good to overlook and will sway my decision heavily on each project..
Just on edit<->grade workflow in Resolve - It just so seamless in the final stages to go back and fort between edit and grade pages and tweak both simultaneously as you need without having to export anything, worry about footage mismatch or having to perform last minute paperclip & chewing gum fixes in Resolve which doesn't match PPro edit etc. There was definitely a moment of 'I'm sure I'm not supposed to be able to do this' followed by pure delight when I first went back and forth between the two pages and seeing all the grade changes in your edit page and tweaking the edit accordingly (even swapping takes if the grade revealed issues).
I know people probably say (as I would've in the past) that you have to have a picture-locked edit before you go to grade, but that's just not realistic these days on sometimes massively evolving projects.[/ramble]
Pleased to see Concrete Night there. Though not the best film in terms of script & directing, Peter Flinckenberg won ASC spotlight award earlier this year for his work on this. Excellent cinematographer from the home country, one to watch!
Very interesting... developing this idea further could result in some excellent light effects, both dramatic and subtle.
I haven't seen the FB comments, but I'm not surprised how it's gone down with 'some' people. As an essay I agree with Allison and I think it's just a study how lighting has changed, I don't think she really made any comments about it being sexist etc. I think we've added that spin to her essay.
The only thing I would like to point out as I said in the earlier post is that it was far more complex a case to light back in the 20-50s rather than just three lights, especially for closeups. And yes, often the studio bosses, producers, directors and cinematographers agenda was sexist (i.e. based on the sex / role of the actor/acress) in these decisions, sometimes for a legitimate reason, sometimes not.