大景堂

在CF史上,用已故巨星新演出30秒以上的短片倒不乏前例;比如重出土已死去幾十年的舞王佛雷亞斯坦及金凱利在舞台上大跳其舞;或請出老牛仔約翰韋恩騎在馬上講幾句廣告詞等等.
但基本上都是剪接其舊片片段重組.充其量補上若干電子影像之填充,讓影片略顯完整....
而如赫本的此片,幾乎可說是空前的了----畢竟,雖說CGI技術已無比進步,但要做到能完全摹擬其面容神態,且其人形貌又是全球影迷無人不知/纖毫可辨的;
更難的是須完整於外景中千變萬化的自然光線下演完一整場戲....
而這門檻之高,製作方也是著手進行後方知障礙重重!

原先的計劃倒也想得設想周到:
一.找個外形神態上肖似赫本的替身.
二.掃瞄其臉部,用一套FACS(facial action coding system)建立一操控七十個部位臉肌變化的母型
三.出外景時用全方位/包羅各角度的攝影機組,補捉演員扮戲時的神態及所有動作(包括光線變幻)
四.搜羅赫本所有影片/紀錄片及報章雜誌的定照,建立其臉部資料庫及CGI檔留待RENDERING.

於是乎,千辛萬苦終於覓得如意替身,也順利於意大利AMALFI海岸拍完外景.....方發現關隘全卡在後製上,

原因是,此替身演員固然身形俏麗,舉止神態也頗具赫本那種輕巧如風的韻味,大致也能傳達幾分赫本那種難以言傳的優雅風姿.
更足令製作單位雀躍的是:她有雙酷似赫本的翦水美眸-----他们一開頭擇角的盤算,就是想盡可能走捷徑:如能以現成素材直接置換,該可省去最繁瑣費事的重造眼睛一務.

沒料,殊與願違 ----等開始RENDERING,才發現欲以之重現赫本那眼神燦亮/既慧黠頑皮又帶點男孩氣的舉世獨一無二笑顏簡直是失之毫釐差之千里了....

於是唯有捨棄重來.....最後仍只能動用人工,一格一格/精工細琢出影片所見眼眸;總算也還差堪神似了.

於是乎,整部影片足足耗時一年終才完工.
 
CG VFX總監Simon French不免歎言:經此一役方有體會:原來摹擬某個熟臉孔之笑靨竟是如此之難!!

opyright, Annie Leibovitz.

Thanks to everyone who responded to the poll on the GTL facebook page. Annie was the hands-down winner of readers’ choice for my next guess. So, as you’ve requested, here’s a cool shot by Annie featuring Lady Gaga for the December, 2009 edition of Vogue.

As would be expected, Annie’s interpretation of the childhood Hansel and Gretel story rocks with drama and a high fashion sensibility. This image reenacts the scene where the two children turn the table on the witch and throw her into the oven. Having Gaga and model phenom Lily Cole on hand certainly doesn’t hurt.

I’m also guessing this image was not all shot together, in-camera. I don’t see how Annie could have achieved the vibrant red light on the oven and ground while keeping the models lit mostly white. I think the camera was locked off with Gaga being shot by herself, then the two models shot separately. 6 lights were used in total and the final image was composited in post.

Camera: DSLR with 50mm lens set on a tripod 15 feet back. Shot at 1/125, f11, ISO 400.

Lighting: The key light on Gaga is a Photek Softlighter at f16 (+1 stop), handheld by an assistant, high and 6 feet to camera right. It has been removed in post. A large octabank with a red gel at f8 1/2 (-1/2 stop) is set directly behind camera. This fills in Gaga and gives the red hue to the front of the oven and ground. A gridded magnum reflector with a full CTO gel at f22 (+2 stops) is behind her on the floor of the oven, aimed slightly upward. This adds the yellowish highlights to Gaga’s hair.

In the second setup, a medium octabank at f5.6 (-2 stops) is set high and 10 feet to camera left, providing fill on Lily’s back. Another medium octabank at f8 (-1 stop) is set similarly to camera right for fill on the man. The same large octabank with a red gel at f8 (-1 stop) is set just behind camera. A small, Profoto striplight with barn doors at f22 (+2 stops) is boomed directly above the models and aimed downwards, creating the areas of high contrast on their shirts, faces and legs. I’m guessing the red on the man’s hair has been accentuated in post. Probably lots of the red has actually been accentuated. Finally, the same gridded magnum reflector with a full CTO gel at f22 (+2 stops) sits on the oven floor and creates the yellow highlights on the man’s face. The final image is a composite of the two shots.

Comments: Lady Gaga thought it would be totally rad if she literally set herself on fire for the shot. But the level-headed Leibovitz (who ordinarily has a penchant for “reality” too) convinced her that sometimes “figurative” is just as good as “literal.” Especially when dealing with flames.

英國巧克力廣告重現奧黛麗赫本風姿
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_VXQ8hjwMU8?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_VXQ8hjwMU8
現代CG科技簡直已入化境;繼前年的DIOR廣告驚鴻一瞥GRACE KELLY/MONROE風情,這回則更全面/更大幅地詮釋了赫本於羅馬假期的風姿.
配上她於第凡內早餐的原聲獻唱,真有栩栩如生之感,WELL DONE!

Stephen Eastwood | Photography

BeautyDish

BEAUTYDISH

Q. I’ve read in a lot of your other threads that you use a beauty dish quite
often but usually it is a gridded beauty dish.  Is this a specialized beauty
dish that accepts a grid or do all beauty dishes accept a grid ( looking through
B&H the only gridded dish I saw was a Hensel).  For example I just
got a Alien bee beauty dish, can a grid be used with this and how.

I have heard that there is a focus distance to a beauty dish that is ideal is
that true?

1) you can use an Speedotron grid on a Alienbee 22inch beauty dish, may take
a tweak to the clips but it fits, also on hensel 22inch dishes, again tweak
the springclips t stay on tight.

2) there is not a true point of focus, but a relative focus area, the shape
will focus the light somewhat and I have often found that a great range for
great effect on a BD with no direct light from center is anywhere from 1 foot
away to 4 1/2 feet away, beyond that and its fine but begins to lose the effect
of it being a beautydish and becomes more of an umbrella, except that a gird
can make the light into a smaller tighter area than a huge sprad of an umbrella.

Because I know its coming I will give some more info on them.

Below are a few examples, all with grid several different dishes, I am not a
huge fan of an unmodified mola, the spedotron blackline dish is my favorite
followed by a hensel silver with deflector, not the center grided one or at
least not using a center grid,  I do not use dishes without overall grids
unless I am outside using it as a sun from far away.   Broncolor makes
a nice one also.

As I said I only use them with grids, without it you might as well use an umbrella,
much cheaper and lighter.  The speedotron has a diffused center I would
place a mirror behind it reflecting the light back at the head and a black circle
to cut the center so no light comes through, you could also leave a white center
once the mirror back is in place light cannot go through anyway.   many
other brands of dishes including alienbee are 22inch diameter and as such the
speedotron grid will fit any 22inch,  you may have to adjust the clips
to hold it tighter or just weld it one I woudl it never comes off and if I needed
it without one outside I woudl use something else instead hmm
I also  have a few custom made with tighter degrees but the speedotron
is cheap, easy and works great no need to have any made unless you have some
lighting companies looking to do something for you.

I like to control spill, flags can but the grids are very directional more so
than a flag or barndoors or snoot even if its a tight grid.  I have grids
on almost everything except umbrellas, fresnels, and obscure things like likesticks,
globes, and glowing objects, I use them on Softboxes, Octobanks, octoboxes,
striplights, lightbars, even my snoots have a grid.  I would grid my grid
if I could,  I think I have a control issue I need to deal with…..

Now I am including many samples, mainly because I figure if I gave some examples
it would show some range of a BD without a major variation in photographer style
vast difference is technique or majot model quality location shifts that cloud
the issue more, so hopefully you get more of a feel for what the dish can do
for you.

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/v0005.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0060.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0066.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0067.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0071.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0069.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0092.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0091.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0097.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0101.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0104.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0047.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0049.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/ded0001.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0105.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/v0010.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/v0007.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/ded0002.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0106.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0025.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0131.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/0130.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/cf0019.jpg

http://stepheneastwood.com/portfolio/IMAGES/1_vr2d9803bw.jpg

 
Q. Do you have a lighting combination you like to use with
a beauty light? I want to get a beauty dish but cant decide between the profoto
silver or white, i was told to get silver and I can add a white diffuser sock
for when I wanted the softer white effect is this true?

I never use the sock, but no its not the same, the sock diffuses the light
and spreads it out more, if you use a grid the silver has more specular punch
and snap and the white a bot softer snap to it but both will follow a grid path
well and tight a diffuser will all but kill the grid effect and control

You can always paint a white with mettalic silver or a silver you can sand down
and paint white if you really have a need and desire for them.

And what the silver dish does in a more general sense compared to the white,
in non technical terms, (depending on which silver, smooth or rough, patterned
or bumpy etc) is it creates high and brighter sources of light from the mirrored
surfaces as compared to the less bright reflections out so when adjusting for
the light to keep the highlights you lose some of the lower end and get a more
vast shift from highlight to shadow creating deeper shadows and bright highlights.
A white dish has a more uniform light reflecting outward creating uniform highlughts
and shadows (within reason) which acts as the highlughts and fill on the surface
of the skin thereby softeneing the shadows.

That is obviously non technical and it is designed more to help people get a
vision in their head of what is happening with the dish.

Q. Would there be any way to recreate that lighting without a beauty dish
and a grid?

The studio that I am currently using is quite limited, with only 4 strobes.
1 320, 2 500s, and 1 1600.  Oh, and one fresnel.   We don’t
have any barn doors that fit the lights we use, so trying to stop spill is
nearly impossible without rigging up some kind of foam core.

Is there a way to get comparable results with limited equipment?

NO,  if you could do it with limited equipment there would be no point
to them still being made, this is not like fashion, people in this field buy
based on desired outcome, not look, so if you could get it from another item
you would.  That said a BD without grid is not much different from an umbrella,
and the nearest effect without getting a large reflector and making a BD which
is just making one, would bt to get a small softbox or octodome, say a 19″ to
25inch and then with no diffuser on it mount a mirror in front of the light
and bounce the light back so its basically a beauty dish, than get a grid for
the box.  This will likely cost more than a BD and grid would so I see
no point.  Many people never used a BD and have great stuff, if you look
around my main site there is plenty more there that is not done with a BD and
its all OK looking for not using a BD and grid to get it wink
so its not needed, its an option that some use rarely, some never some often
and some shoudl have them taken away and there camera replaced with a brick
so as to not cause my eyes to bleed when seeing what they produced sad
but in any event use what you have available and make it work how you like it,
you will find that its SO NOT THE TOOL, the tools do nothing but give you some
options and make things easier or harder to do, and basically they give you
something to keep you busy playing with so you don’t get bored and fall into
the same old routine everyday. hmm

And I love frensels,  I have broncolor, speedotron and hensel ones, in
6inch, 4 inch, 8 inch 12 inch and 14 inch they are all killers!!!!  very
cool, and at up to 6400ws on the brons and 4800ws on the speedos I can light
up the moon when I need a full one  wink