Category Archives: peter pearce
Hollywood Lighting Partners shares with Long Beach City College Radio/TV
Hollywood Lighting Partner, Pete Pearce, has been teaching lighting at Long Beach City College in the Radio/TV Department since 2001.
Hollywood Lighting Partners uses soft lights: Briese, Rifa & Gemball
Hollywood Lighting Partners went nuts and used a combo of Briese Lights, Gemballs and Rifa lights for the backstage and behind the scenes shots for a model tv shoot.
“The quality of the soft lighting is awesome and compliments the beauty of the models that compete on this show. The look of the show is important to me as the executive producer knows quality lighting and her models deserve it” said gaffer and Hollywood Lighting Partners member Peter Pearce.
“It gets tricky sometimes as there are many things happening and cameras everywhere, but it’s a lot of fun and the whole team is awesome to work with. I love them and have gone to Germany 3 times to visit the TMT Lighting Team in Munich just to say hello and drink beers with them.”
Hollywood Lighting Partners shares depth of field chart
Hollywood Lighting Partners would like to share this basic camera knowledge with you. Above is a great chart showing the viewer the relationship of lens and distance when it comes to depth of field and exposure.
As you can see the higher the number F-stop, the deeper the depth of field focus and the smaller the lens hole. This is easiest to get everything in focus but requires lighting or plenty of daylight. When the lens is at the highest numbered F-stop it is called ‘closed down’. So a cameraman could tell the director who is asking for a darker picture at the beach, “I’m closed down all the way.” In this case it may be that you need a ND 3 filter at the beach to knock the light down 1 stop further to maybe F32 and/or change exposure ASA/ISO setting.
As the f-stop number comes lower so does the depth of field focus and the lens hole gets wider. This might be needed for exposure in various lighting situations or for storytelling and viewer attention aspects.
When your lens is ‘wide open’ the f-stop number is as low as you can go. This lets the most light in the lens while shooting in the darkest of situations but is a nightmare for the focus puller who might be trying to follow a moving subject. As you dig for exposure in dark situations, changing the ASA/ISO setting may help, but also adds grain and can wash out detail to your picture.
The way Hollywood Lighting Partners will light the past in the future.
Hollywood Lighting Partners would like to thank the Arri Group of partners for their contributions to the entertainment industry. Besides great cameras, Arri makes an 18K daylight balanced light called the Arrimax. Since technically we have grown beyond film and into the HD world we have had to adjust lighting for video chips. Granted the new high end HD cameras can see 10+ stops of light we still need to be concious of contrast and exposure. These Arri lights are great for squirting diffused daylight onto your set where ever the camera may need to see it filling in the shadows or blasting in some hard light as if the sun was coming straight in the window.
Thank you Arri.
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.
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).