American Cinematographer 1

by Christopher Probst

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For cinematographers, the needto craft and control images is asimportant as ever — particu-larly for those working in theemerging independent and digi-

tal-video (DV) feature markets. Theshoot-it-as-is, run-and-gun mental-ity propagated by ardent promotersof the DV “revolution” only goes sofar in the aid of good storytelling.Regardless of the size of the budgetor crew, or the format in which it isshot, a film’s imagery can strengthenthe written and performed script inways that often exceed the expecta-tions of the writer and director.Indeed, the craft of cinematography— the telling of stories with images— has been evolving since 1877,when a horse’s gallop was firstcaptured in the famous series of stillsby Eadweard Muybridge.

As veteran director of photog-raphy Stephen H. Burum, ASCpoints out, however, the art ofhoning imagery to suit the needs of astory needn’t drain your bankaccount. Foremost on Burum’s list oflow-budget image-making tactics isthe effective utilization of the cheap-est light source available: the sun.“Painters and photographers knowthe best light conditions are the twoor three hours after sunrise andbefore sunset. They want to avoid

Using Reflectors:Some handy do-it-yourselfsolutions for cinematographers challenged by small budgets.

shooting during the middle of theday. That way the light will lookconsistent, so the audience is notdistracted from the story. To ensureconsistent images all day long, a cine-matographer often needs many toolsto manipulate light.

“One of the most effectivetools we use every day in cine-matography is very cost-effective:reflectors. All sorts of reflectors have

been used in the motion-picturebusiness from the very beginning.In fact, even Renaissance paintersused reflectors to help them lighttheir subjects in a more pleasingmanner.” (See sidebar.)

Augmenting available daylightwith reflectors requires planning andstaging according to the arc of thesun throughout the day. Burumoffers, “When the studios used to

2 Reprinted from American Cinematographer March 2001

Previous page:Common in most

assistants’ dittybags, the “spaceblanket” makes

a great dual-purpose

reflector.Normally 6' x 6'

in size, theseblankets even

come withcorner-fasteninggrommets. Whilethe silver side is

particularlyuseful, one

shouldn’t ruleout the

multitude ofcolors availableon the opposite

side. Blue andolive-green are

especially handyin emulating

cooler skyshadow and

foliage bounce,respectively.

Top: Althoughnot the most

robust frame inthe world, this

7' x 5' screendoor retails for

under $30.Middle:

A removable O-ring holds thescreen material

in place,and also

enables easyreplacement

with othermaterials and

fabrics.Bottom:

Additionaldensities of

screen materialcan also bepurchased in rolls for under $2.

have their large backlots, theyoriented their streets so that theywere built running north and south.As far back as the silent-film days,they’d always try to shoot toward thesouth, because that way they’dalways have a consistent backlightand would be able to use reflectors tofill and model the actors’ faces.Reflectors were positioned on theactors in exactly the same way you’duse lamps on a stage.

“You never want to plan yourshoot for a whole day at a locationthat runs east or west, because you’llonly have half a day of consistentlight. If you have a street runningnorth and south, in the morning thewest side of the street is lit and theeast side is in shadow. If you chooseto shoot in shadow, you’d start out inthe morning shooting east. Whenthe sun starts to flip over, you’d beginto turn around, shooting south intobacklight; then, as the sun begins toset in the west, you’d shoot towardthe west.

“In this manner, you canmaintain a consistent look and mapout your shots according to thedirection in which you’re shooting,”Burum continues. “Also, you canplan to do all of your big wide shotsearly in the morning or later in theafternoon, while the sun angle isbest. Then, while the sun is directlyoverhead and harsh, you can coveryour actors with a silk and light themto best advantage, with reflectorsdoing all of your close-ups andmedium shots. That’s one way youcan effectively use the middle of theday [when the light is not ideal] andstill shoot under the burden of aschedule.”

Burum stresses that reflecteddaylight is often overlooked as atechnique for illuminating day-inte-rior scenes. “You don’t always needlights in your location interiors,” hesuggests. “You can use daylightcoming through the windows andaugment that light with a few reflec-tors — such as mirrors if you want toget a sharp shaft of light and hard

Reprinted from American Cinematographer March 2001 3

shadows, or a softer reflector like asilver, shiny board — angled outsideto perhaps come in through awindow off-camera. You can furtherrefine the reflected light by puttingup a bit of diffusion to soften it evenmore.

“On two of the films I shot,Casualties of War and TheUntouchables, we built houses onlocation that were constructed sothat the roofs could be removed, andI could then cover the top withmuslin and use some neutral densityor scrim on the windows. To balancebetween the light outside and thetoplight from the muslin, it didn’tmatter whether the sun was in or out;as the light changed, the balancebetween the two stayed the same.With this method, all you have to dois change your f-stop. It works veryefficiently.”

Maximizing the sun’s lumi-nance by using reflectors as a sourceof light is an idea that goes backthrough the history of art.“Everybody wants to make picturesinexpensively and efficiently, but it’snot equipment that makes goodphotography, it’s a person’s mind,”says Burum.“If you understand whatthe principles are, you can use what’saround you. The question I alwaystry to address in articles for AC is:‘What is the underlying principle?’Once you understand what that is,it’s up to your imagination to figureout how you can modify somethingthat’s available to you. Where do youthink all the gear we use today camefrom in the first place? In the begin-ning, there were no companies likeMatthews or Mole-Richardson!

“Now you can buy and/or rentall of these wonderful frames, reflec-tors and stands from the equipment-rental houses, but you may not beable to afford them,” he continues.“There are many substitute itemsyou can find very inexpensively in astandard hardware store.

“One of the best materials tomake frames with is electrical

conduit (EMT). The pipes come in1⁄2-inch and 3⁄ 4-inch sizes in lengthsup to 10 feet, and you can get 90-degree elbows or straight couplingsso that you can fashion them intoframes. You can also use plastic PVCplumbing tubes. They have 90-degree PVC corners as well, but PVCis a little flexible. There are two waysto stiffen it up a bit. First, you can fillthe tubes with spray foam, whichmakes the PVC very stiff. Just make

sure you do it somewhere flat,because if the PVC is bent while itdries, the tube will stay bent. Theother way is to put a wood dowel init, just like they used to do when theymade old aircraft; the crews drove awooden dowel into the aluminum

Top: 90-degreeselbows, fromtop left: 1 1/4”aluminum speedrail, 1 1/4” PVC,3/4” PVC;bottom 3/4”electricalconduit elbowand coupler3/4”.Middle: Top andbottom brassand plasticgrommets, leftand right plasticfrabic clapsused for holdingtarps at thehardware andcamping stores.Bottom left:3/4” pipe repairclamp withhomemade c-stand adapterholding 3/4”PVC pipe.Bottom right:Top is the 3/4”pipe repairclamp openedup, bottom isthe homemadec-stand adapter.

Using Reflectors

tubing, and this made the tubingvery strong while still keeping it verylightweight.”

Burum has discovered thatmany of the materials used in film-ing can also be found at local hard-ware and fabric stores. “A lot ofpeople like to use Griffolyn in framesas a bounce reflector. Griffolyn wasoriginally developed for farmers inthe Midwest to cover their haystacks,and then somebody thought itmight work for movies. Anotherpopular material to use in frames isgridcloth, which is essentially rip-stop nylon. You can go to any fabricstore and ask for white rip-stopnylon; you’ll have the same thing asgridcloth, only it will cost you half asmuch. Other useful fabrics includepercale sheets, sail cloth, silk andtaffeta.

“There are all sorts of ways toattach the material to frames,” hecontinues. “You can put grommetsaround the edges, or use the littlegarter-snap-type fasteners that youcan find at camping stores. To makea fold-up reflector, use a space blan-ket [plastic material with onealuminized, reflective side], whichyou can get for $13 at any campingstore. For less than $25, you canmake a great reflector.”

Another material many cine-matographers use for exterior lightmodification is scrim, also known asbobbinet. “Scrim is very expensive,but your local home-builders storehas a substitute that works terrifi-cally: fiberglass windowscreen. Itcomes in very large widths because itoften has to cover large sliding doorsand such. Again, you can use grom-mets or those garter-snap tie-offsfrom the camping store to tie thematerial to your frames.”

For not-so-handy cinematog-raphers, or those who are in a rush,Burum recommends whole pre-fabricated windowscreens. “Thoseare nice because the frame is alreadybuilt with plastic corners, and theplastic screen is held down with an

4 Reprinted from American Cinematographer March 2001

Part of the heritage of cinema is thetireless inventiveness of its practi-tioners. With few iron-clad rules

dictating equipment and techniques,the film industry has evolved as alogistics and problem-solving pres-sure cooker, with roots reaching backto the Renaissance painters. “Whendoing still-life portraits, painterswould often go outside and stretchmuslin over their subjects to get softlight,” says Stephen H. Burum, ASC.“When photography first started inthe 1830s and 1840s, they hadstudios with big, glass ceilings andwalls that faced north, allowing themthe same kind of consistent light;they would seat people there and takevery long exposures. If they wantedto manipulate light, they used large,black panels, or white muslin thatthey could pull over the top or thesides to create different lightingeffects. When the movie industrystarted up in the early 1900s, film-makers basically borrowed from thesame traditions.”

Burum points out that earlyfilmmakers used either glass studiosor studio sets that could turn on bigLazy Susans, enabling them to pointthe studios towards the sun. “Themost famous of these was the oneThomas Edison built in New Jerseycalled The Black Maria. Also, film-makers often built their sets on plat-forms so that they were shootingsouth, placing everything in back-light so that they could then put outreflectors to bring light back into theset to get an exposure.”

On these “stages,” early filmpractitioners experimented with anarray of reflecting materials availableat that time.“They’d get a piece of 4-by-8-foot plywood, paint it white,and lean it against a post to reflectlight back at their scene,” Burumdetails. “They also used mirrors ifthey wanted a harder light or needed

more exposure. They soon foundthat big mirrors were too heavy tomove around and tended to breakeasily, so they began using theferrotype tin, which is basically alarge piece of chromed metal.

“Ferrotype tins were originallymade as a photo finishing tool to getglossy prints, they were made indifferent sizes, so filmmakers wouldhave them framed up to use as reflec-tors,” he continues. “However, some-times the light they created was toohard, so they’d take a ball-peenhammer and bang them so that thelight would be softer; they calledthose ‘dipples.’ The only problemwith propping any of those reflectorson the ground was that the light wascoming from down low, and in mostsituations that looks unnatural and ishard on the actor’s eyes. It was there-fore decided that reflectors should beelevated, so crews built parallels andset the reflectors up higher, anglingthem to catch the sun.”

As cinema continued toadvance and film sensitivities chargedtoward double-digit ASAs, the needfor softer, subtler bounce and reflect-ing sources became apparent. “Theearly filmmakers then decided totake a big piece of muslin and otherfabrics in frames and use those toreflect light,” says Burum. “Thoseframes were usually quite large, sothey’d lean the frames against twopoles. Sign painters leaf was appliedto 4’ x 4’ pieces of plywood for a softyet punchy effect; both silver andgold were much in favor. They even-tually came up with a sort of paint-easel configuration to support thesmaller mirror and tin reflectors.Finally, the collapsible stands-and-yokes system we use today becamestandard.

“This is also why filmmakerscame to California — there wasplenty of sunshine most of the time!”

— Christopher Probst

A HISTORY OF INGENUITY

2. Holders for scrims and flags usethe slotted 1⁄8" aluminum, steel or 1⁄4"plywood C-stand adapter bolted tothe scrim frame. (See illustration ofpipe repair clamp on page 3.)

3. Weld 3⁄8" steel rod to a flat piece of1⁄8" x 1" steel and drill two or three1⁄4" holes. The round rod is thecorrect size to fit the C-stand head.1⁄4" bolts will hold the adapter to flag,scrim frame or pattern cutouts.

4. Many sizes of fittings for schedule40 tubing and pipe come in standardsizes: 1⁄2, 3⁄4, 1, 1 1⁄4, 1 1⁄2 and 2".Plastic PVC, steel and aluminum allcome in these sizes. You can usefittings made of all these materialsinterchangeably. Electrical tubing(EMT) is a different size and must beused with its own fittings. The pipe-repair clamps fit schedule 40 pipe.

Using Reflectors

Reprinted from American Cinematographer March 2001 5

O-ring that goes into a slot, so youcan even change the material in theframe, perhaps putting in some ofyour cheap rip-stop nylon,” headvises. “The biggest windowscreenframes I’ve seen are about 8-by-8 feetand go for about $25. Even thoughthey’re not the strongest frames inthe world, you can still have an 8-by-8 scrim in a frame for $25!”

“There are many other hard-surface materials at the hardwarestore that are useful,” he concludes.“One old standby is plywoodpainted white or silver, or with vari-ous foils stuck on it. Solid foaminsulation — beadboard — some-times comes with a silver as well as asoft white side.

“These reflectors can be setdown on the ground and held at theproper angle by a single or doublepole, depending on the size. If youwish to elevate your frame, you mustuse a pair of century stands. To holdthe frame in the C-stand heads, youmust make an adapter to first holdthe frame, then clamp it to the C-stand head.Your local hardware storehas pipe-repair clamps in varioussizes that will hold PVC or EMTtubing. Then fit a flat piece of 1⁄8"aluminum, steel or 1⁄4" plywood witha 3⁄4" slot 2 inches long. This will dothe trick.

“The century stand is the onlymust-have piece of equipment. UsedC-stands can be purchased on theWeb. There are two sizes of centuryheads, 2 1⁄2" and 4 1⁄2"; the larger sizefits bigger stands to support frames

up to 20 feet square. The smallerheads and stands can only safely beused for frames up to 8 feet square.

Other Build-it-Yourself Tips

1. Standard sizes for flags and open-end scrims are 18" x 12", 18" x 24"and 24" x 36". To create your ownflag, take an 1⁄8" piece of lauanplywood and cut the wood to theappropriate size. Then paint it flatblack and cut a 3⁄4"-wide slot that is13⁄4" to 2" long. This makes a flag tocompletely block the light.

Open-end scrims to cut lightintensity can be made by cutting a U-shaped frame out of 1⁄4" plywood.Fiberglass or wire windowscreen canthen be stapled in double or singlelayers to complete the job. Thisworks for colored gel, too.

4'x4' professional reflector and stand.

6 Reprinted from American Cinematographer in the 1950s

is 4'. The frame has fittings formounting the reflector on a pedestalor for attaching a telescopingsupport at the back, where the reflec-tor is to be used on the ground. Theyoke and pedestal are constructed ofsteel tubing. The latter is adjustablefrom a low of 60" to a maximumheight of 96".

The simplest and most obvi-ous use of the reflector is to lightenup the shadow side of faces whenshooting in crosslight outdoors. Forthis, a fairly soft reflector — thealuminum papered surface — isusually best. The reflector should beplaced well back from the subject sothat the effect of shadow remains,but with the shadow area lightenedsufficiently to permit the camera tocapture necessary detail. Here, thereflector should be elevated so thatthe light strikes the subject at facelevel or from slightly above. In anycase, the reflected light should notbe so intense as to cause the subjectto squint.

Reflectors find important usealso when the cinematographerworks in backlight. Here, two reflec-tors should be used — one at eitherside of the subject throwing fill lighttowards both sides of the face — anda third placed somewhat closer to thesubject (with consequent “hotter”light) to provide a measure ofmodeling in the illumination.

The skillful cameraman willachieve results with reflectors thatare subtle, and do not make use ofreflectors obvious in the scene. Likeevery other cinematic treatment,when reflected lighting is overdone,it is distracting as well as completelyunnatural.

By using reflectors, action canbe staged in shade, as for example ona porch, under large shade trees, or inthe shadow of a house or tall build-ing. Here, reflectors can be set upbeyond the shaded area in such a

The function of the sunlight reflec-tor may be likened to that of theflashbulb in the still-photogra-

pher’s camera: to throw needed lightinto shadow areas of a scene tobalance the illumination for bestpictorial results.

Reflectors are essential equip-ment for any producer of motion-picture films. Even when boosterlights are brought along to a distantexterior location, invariably reflec-tors will be found in use also, forquite often they can provide light ofa different quality or can throw lightfrom an angle not possible with abooster light because of the terrainor power problems. The small-filmproducer, of course, will find reflec-tors indispensable, for reflectors canbe made to serve his purpose inmost exterior locations, making itunnecessary for his crew to employthe more costly booster lights andpower generator.

When reflectors first wereused in cinematography, they wereusually placed on the ground andtilted, with a stick supporting themat the desired angle. But the lightthus reflected from a low angle wasunnatural, and gradually reflectorswere elevated — mounted on paral-lels to produce reflected light from amore natural angle. Outdoors,sunlight comes from above, and it isonly logical that reflected light, toappear natural and unobtrusive,come from an elevated angle also.Ultimately, the studios startedmounting their reflectors on tripodsor metal stands, with the reflectortilting within a metal, U-shaped yokemounted atop the adjustable stand.

Until recently, users of reflec-tors built their own. Now, profes-sional-type dual-surfaced reflectors,complete with yoke and pedestal, areavailable. The reflector is constructedof plywood 1⁄4-inch thick supportedwithin a wooden frame. Overall size

manner as to throw reflectedsunlight into the scene. Of course,this calls for shooting on the locationat the time of day when the sun is inthe right position to make reflectoruse effective. Where action is stagedin deep shade, hard-surfaced reflec-tors are the best to use, as their lightbeams hold together and carry for agreater distance than do those of softreflectors. Professional cinematogra-phers have been known to use reflec-tors in relays for this type of shot —bouncing light from one reflector toanother until the light reaches thedesired spot. This is useful, of course,where access to sunlight is not direct,as in the average type of shot callingfor reflector use.

Another professional use forsunlight reflectors is to provide back-lighting and rimlighting. A typicalexample of using reflectors for back-lighting is where the subject is out inthe open, facing the sun. Cameraangle permitting, a hard reflector isplaced in back of the subject to throwreflected light upon him to provideadded separation. Sometimes tworeflectors are better for this — one ateach side, toward the back.

Use of reflectors in cinematog-raphy rarely poses an exposure prob-lem. Once the contrast effect hasbeen checked with the aid of acontrast viewing glass, the usualmeter reading — either reflected orincident light — is read and the lensset accordingly. It sometimeshappens that balancing the reflector-filled shadow side of a face with thebright side becomes a problem. Toget an effect of natural “open”shadow, there should be about half asmuch light in the shadow as in thehighlight. Increase or decrease theillumination of the reflector-lightedarea by moving the reflectors towardor away from subject or scene untilthe right balance is obtained.

The Professional Use of Reflectors