Category Archives: 728 member
Quality lighting doesn’t just happen. It’s what lighting technicians do!
Hollywood Lighting Partners knows that quality lighting doesn’t just happen. Many think you can just get a good camera and start shooting, but in reality the best way to get quality footage is to use quality lighting to enhance the look of your project. Taking this time and step ensures that your camera can actually see the story you are trying to tell as opposed to just seeing everything you point it at.
Hollywood is full of quality lighting technicians and many can be found on our IATSE Local 728 Set Lighting Technician roster. Unfortunately our local doesn’t list the roster on it’s web page so we remain nameless.
The good thing is that as technicians in Hollywood we get to work with some of the best equipment and biggest names in production on the biggest lots. It is great experience and can be a lot of fun.
Whether it’s conventional tungsten lighting, dmx controlled moving lights, LED, HMI, theatrical/commercial/live show or your christmas lights for the holidays, 728 electricians are knowledgable and familiar. We are there to support cinematographers and our Local 600 brothers and sisters to help create the looks that win the awards for the director’s chair folks and the video village crowds.
Caleb Deshchanel and Colin Campbell discuss Hollywood
Hollywood Lighting Partners worked with cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and his gaffer Colin Campbell recently and thought these Hollywood cinema moments were worth capturing.
Hollywood Lighting Partners likes the latitude in HD
Hollywood Lighting Partners owner and Local 600 DP, Pete Pearce loves the technology that HD recording allows. “HD chips see so much that you really have to be careful when painting with light and creating the dramatic looks. The light ratios must be considered and light control diligently monitored” says Pete.
In the photo above, a 1000w stage work light illuminates the stage wall and some phone wires. You can see the range of contrast from the shape of the bulb in the lamp which normally would blow out and you can see much detail in this relatively low light situation which is maybe an 8 stop latitude or more. Also, the grainy look is what many video film makers are looking for to imitate the film look which can be achieved when tricking and stretching the limits of the HD cameras and their CMOS chips.
Hollywood Lighting Partners knows sometimes gripping ain’t easy.
Hollywood Lighting Partners knows to help control light properly you need the assistance of the Grip department.
Some gaffers really need to control the light, using every C-stand available thoroughly peeling the Grip department and lighting techs that need to get to the light.
IATSE 728 Set Lighting Technicians at work.
Super-juicer candidates and IATSE 728 set lighting techs, Jorge Kunze and Seam Smith
stand ready to move gaffer, Colin Campbell’s light.
Looking West at the World from my scissor lift while getting ready for night.
The fall skies in Los Angeles are always so colorful.
IATSE 728 set lighting tech, Pete Pearce, looks west during a shoot near Valencia, California.
Haskell Wexler visits the set and meets Pete Pearce
The great cinematographer Haskell Wexler came to visit a set we were working on.
He has pioneered so many things in our industry (see mini bio below) and deserves maximum respect.
Thank you Haskell.
Haskell Wexler Mini Bio- Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (1966) and Bound for Glory(1976) (1976). He also shot much of Days of Heaven (1978) (1978), for which credited director of photography Nestor Almendros — who was losing his eye-sight, won a Best Cinematography Oscar that Wexler feels should have been jointly shared by both. In 1993, Wexler was awarded a Lifetime Achivement award by the cinematographer’s guild, the American Society of Cinematographers. He received five Oscar nominations for his cinematography, in total, plus one Emmy Award in a career that has spanned six decades. Wexler was active as recently as 2007.
In addition to his masterful cinematography, Wexler directed the seminal late Sixties film Medium Cool (1969) and has directed and/or shot many documentaries that display his progressive political views. He was the subject of a 2004 documentary shot by his son Mark Wexler, Tell Them Who You Are (2004).
Pete Pearce has been nominated for 2 television lighting Emmy’s.
Lighting tech Pete Pearce discovers ballast central.
Some shows have dimmer rooms. This new tv show has a room full of HMI ballasts. The grid in the bar has a ring of 4k’s around it that get turned on and off depending on the direction the camera is looking.
