Diffuser?

[david_lexicon]

The other day, I was watching a movie production going on at my town and saw this white 'tent' and I thought it was a diffuser. Am I correct?

 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11641072/production.jpg

[Brian]

It's an overhead frame holding a silk.  They are used on set to soften and control light but also can be used as a refector to bounce light onto a scene.

 

[shootinchina.com]

it's called "butterfly sheet" in here, used it few times for studio shoot and it's soften the light, but when you are outdoor, it can be good for blocking the nasty light that you don't want.

 

 

Clark Wang

Video Production Shanghai

[Brian]

The trick in production is to control light to enhance the scene.  Glaring sunlight on one side of the face and then deep shadow on the other side is generally not too pleasing – thus nasty – it just looks bad, isn't flattering and makes it tough to get a good exposure.  Frames can hold silks, solids, and other fabrics to control light, make talent look better, etc.  

Try it yourself.  Get a friend and head outside into harsh sun.  Observe what happens when you filter the sun with different materials.  Try a normal mesh window screen, a translucent white shower curtain or white bed sheet and a sheet of tracing paper.  These are really pretty close to the type things we use on sets.  Now go the other direction and leave your friend in full sun but use reflective things to bounce light onto their face to fill in shadows.  Try the matte and shiny sides of aluminum foil, a piece of white poster board and the same sheet you just used to filter light earlier. 

All the tools used on a set are pretty specialized pieces of gear but they all began with the same ideas you learn with basic household items.  

 

Get out and have fun

 

[david_lexicon]

Most helpful Brian.

 

I have another question if you don't mind. Does a shooting script have slate numbers such as scene number and shot number? Who takes care of these things in a production?

 

Is there a book or a website covering these issues?

 

Thanks.

[Brian]

The shooting script will usually have scene numbers but may not break down every variant.  For instance a scene in a cafe might be scene 12.  Generally that's the master wide shot of the action.  Closeup of actor 1 might be Scene 12a.  Actor 2 Scene12b, etc.  Unless it's an effects heavy script or something that's really planned out, the shooting script wouldn't have the coverage already labled out.  Now, I'll say that I do commercials and only worked on one feature back in the 80's.  Everybody works differently.  The feature I worked on, the script supervisor and assistant director kept up with the scenes on set.  I worked in the camera department and they'd give me the scene number as well as the a, b, c, d, etc suffix which I'd then add to the slate and camera report.  On commercial shoots, generally there is no script supe so the line producer will handle script and scenes.

As for books, hmm… Nothing jumps to mind but I've been doing this so long that we learned from stone tablets.  I've got a friend who just finished up in film school at USC.  I'll ask her for suggestions.

 

[david_lexicon]

[quote=clarkinchina]

it's called "butterfly sheet" in here, used it few times for studio shoot and it's soften the light, but when you are outdoor, it can be good for blocking the nasty light that you don't want.

 

 

Clark Wang

Video Production Shanghai

[/quote]

 

 

What do you mean "nasty light"?  Are they the dark shadows to be softened by the butterfly sheet?

[shootinchina.com]

yes, that's what i mean by "nasty light", usually when sunlight in the afternoon is too strong and you want to have a nice face shot, so you can use this butterfly sheet to cover the area.

[Author]

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