youngliimages

Cinematographer @youngliimages and Director @lukejsalewski were anxious about the VFX driving shot at first… but in the end, they did an amazing job! (Swipe to view more) Learn more 👇 Words from @youngliimages - “I want to share some stories behind this VFX driving shot. Initially, we attended a visual effects class to learn stage techniques, which included even blue screen lighting, key and backlights, and car vibration. However, the final composite of this shoot wasn’t convincing enough for us. After seeing this test, I was intrigued by the idea of using natural sunlight for a more realistic effect. I believed sunlight’s intensity could create the desired harsh light and ambiance. With this in mind, we embarked on principal photography. During the first few days of filming, I captured reference photos of the actor in the car. Backlit by the sun, I noticed the nice contrast between harsh sunlight on clothing and soft light on the character’s face. The day of the VFX shot arrived, marking the final day of principal photography. Initially, I front-lit the blue screen to get a evenly lit surface, but quickly discovered issues with character visibility due to the lack of ambience inside the car. After repositioning the car, adjusting the blue screen to back-lit, and some help of a bounce board and diffusion, we achieved this naturalistic look. Additional touches like placing one tripod leg on the car while shaking the car further improved the shot. I hope my experience is helpful to some DP and directors out there. I want to thank Key Grip @timtruesdell12, Grip team, 1st AC @itsnobugatti for sharing his experience, 1st AD on this day @avojohn , VFX supervisor @jessepinho, post-production Visual Effects Lead Bill Parker and his team for their contributions to these successful shots.” Foreground plate: Alexa Mini Background plate: Eos R #learnfilmmaking #filmcommunity #teamwork #cinematographer #vfx #arri #lfnnetwork

A simple lighting breakdown on the USC thesis short film ‘@abetterplacefilm’ that I had the pleasure of being the DP for. This scene depicts a dinner where the son is about to ask a difficult question of his parents. We aimed for a natural look, avoiding excessive stylization. On top of the table, we placed an F21c, and for the room tone, we used an F22c. To prevent the outside from being completely dark, we added lights outside the window, illuminating it and the trees. Thanks to the excellent production design by @s2073601 , @yihang_tan tan, and their team, enabling us to achieve this look quickly and efficiently. Director: @hsiaoshihchun Producer: @hsiaoshihchun @zongshianlu @crispymerola @luna_deb Gaffer: @peterfilimaua @martin_fantasy Color: @zongshianlu Camera Setup: Alexa Mini Lf with Signature Prime Rental support: @birnsandsawyer Full credit list on my last post. @ciloversgroup @filmlights @aputure.lighting @cinematic_lighting @camera_setups @arri

More stills from movie “A Better Place.” It was a hot summer. A USC thesis film by @hsiaoshihchun Cast: @thesamlitv @jenkuosung @thelydia_look Writer/Director/Editor: @hsiaoshihchun Producer: @zongshianlu @crispymerola @luna_deb @hsiaoshihchun Production Designers: @s2073601 @yihang_tan Sound: @yushushen Music: @josephsdjafar Costume: @yw.hu Hair and Makeup: @luna.the.phantom 1st AD: @blazeyit_up 2nd AD: @adambloodgood Co-editor: @tyrannosaurusrex17 @jocelyn_jihyun_koo VFX: @aprilaprillllllll 1st AC: @magician_anto @yihuan.z 2nd AC: @katecyn03 @dai.leyi , Aaron Galegos Steadicam Operator: @steadieagle 🔥 Gaffer: @peterfilimaua @dai.leyi @martin_fantasy @raphael9619 Key Grip: @colin_pitt1453 Grip: @armankhaghani , Jiayan He, @ray.n_official @richard.li.am Art Director: @frank_mr.d Assistant art director: @jam1e.wang Art assistant: Ana Vega, Shirley You, Han Lee DIT: Cecily Lo, @zongshianlu Production Sound: @yushushen, Kevin Remy, Borna Moinpour Colorist: @zongshianlu Equipment rental support: @birnsandsawyer Thank you everyone who contributed their time to this movie!

More screenshots from movie “A Better Place” that I had the pleasure to DP. In this film, I went with a really naturalistic approach. I try to capture the relationship of these characters more than just a beautiful frame. Cast: @thesamlitv @jenkuosung @thelydia_look Writer/Director/Editor: @hsiaoshihchun Producer: @zongshianlu @crispymerola @luna_deb @hsiaoshihchun Production Designers: @s2073601 @yihang_tan Sound: @yushushen Music: @josephsdjafar Costume: @yw.hu Hair and Makeup: @luna.the.phantom 1st AD: @blazeyit_up 2nd AD: @adambloodgood Co-editor: @tyrannosaurusrex17 @jocelyn_jihyun_koo VFX: @aprilaprillllllll 1st AC: @magician_anto @yihuan.z 2nd AC: @katecyn03 @dai.leyi , Aaron Galegos Steadicam Operator: @steadieagle 🔥 Gaffer: @peterfilimaua @dai.leyi @martin_fantasy @raphael9619 Key Grip: @colin_pitt1453 Grip: @armankhaghani , Jiayan He, @ray.n_official @richard.li.am Art Director: @frank_mr.d Assistant art director: @jam1e.wang Art assistant: Ana Vega, Shirley You, Han Lee DIT: Cecily Lo, @zongshianlu Production Sound: @yushushen, Kevin Remy, Borna Moinpour Colorist: @zongshianlu Equipment rental support: @birnsandsawyer Thank you everyone who contributed their time to this movie!

Presenting my latest DP work “A Better Place.” It was a great pleasure to work with yet another talented group of storytellers from USC. Although the process was hot and sweaty, it didn’t stop us from making the best film we can. Cast: @thesamlitv @jenkuosung @thelydia_look Writer/Director/Editor: @hsiaoshihchun Producer: @zongshianlu @crispymerola @luna_deb @hsiaoshihchun Production Designers: @s2073601 @yihang_tan Sound: @yushushen Music: @josephsdjafar Costume: @yw.hu Hair and Makeup: @luna.the.phantom 1st AD: @blazeyit_up 2nd AD: @adambloodgood Co-editor: @tyrannosaurusrex17 @jocelyn_jihyun_koo VFX: @aprilaprillllllll 1st AC: @magician_anto @yihuan.z 2nd AC: @katecyn03 @dai.leyi , Aaron Galegos Steadicam Operator: @steadieagle 🔥 Gaffer: @peterfilimaua @dai.leyi @martin_fantasy @raphael9619 Key Grip: @colin_pitt1453 Grip: @armankhaghani , Jiayan He, @ray.n_official @richard.li.am Art Director: @frank_mr.d Assistant art director: @jam1e.wang Art assistant: Ana Vega, Shirley You, Han Lee DIT: Cecily Lo, @zongshianlu Production Sound: @yushushen, Kevin Remy, Borna Moinpour Colorist: @zongshianlu Equipment rental support: @birnsandsawyer Thank you everyone who contributed their time to this movie!

Simply B&W #vancouver

A Random Stop Sign #vancouver

Running away #vancouver

The last lighting breakdown on short film @thelightsabovemovie that I had the fortune to DP. Sometimes it’s just as simple as using a bounce board and picking the right direction to shoot. (According to the Sun path, really important!) And having a great team! @film_lighting__ @filmlights @aputure.lighting @ciloversgroup Bts by @tammypremchan @jessepinho

Me and director Luke (@lukejsalewski ) were anxious about our VFX driving shot at first. At the end, I think we achieved our desire effects. Therefore, I want to share some stories behind this VFX driving shot. Initially, we attended a visual effects class to learn stage techniques, which included even blue screen lighting, key and backlights, and car vibration. However, the final composite of this shoot wasn’t convincing enough for us. After seeing this test, I was intrigued by the idea of using natural sunlight for a more realistic effect. I believed sunlight's intensity could create the desired harsh light and ambiance. With this in mind, we embarked on principal photography. During the first few days of filming, I captured reference photos of the actor in the car. Backlit by the sun, I noticed the nice contrast between harsh sunlight on clothing and soft light on the character's face. The day of the VFX shot arrived, marking the final day of principal photography. Initially, I front-lit the blue screen to get a evenly lit surface, but quickly discovered issues with character visibility due to the lack of ambience inside the car. After repositioning the car, adjusting the blue screen to back-lit, and some help of a bounce board and diffusion, we achieved this naturalistic look. Additional touches like placing one tripod leg on the car while shaking the car further improved the shot. I hope my experience is helpful to some DP and directors out there. I want to thank Key Grip @timtruesdell12, Grip team, 1st AC @itsnobugatti for sharing his experience, 1st AD on this day @avojohn , VFX supervisor @jessepinho, post-production Visual Effects Lead Bill Parker and his team for their contributions to these successful shots. Foreground plate: Alexa Mini Background plate: Eos R @film_lighting__ @filmlights @aputure.lighting @cinematic_lighting @amaran.lighting

Here is another lighting breakdown from the short film “The Lights Above” that I DP. In this setup, we are creating a sunny newspaper room. However, when we arrived on set that day, it was rainy and overcast. Fortunately, this worked in our favor because now we don’t need to contend with actual sunlight streaming into the set. This location has large windows on the second floor, but due to our limited resources, we couldn’t place any large lights outside. Therefore, we used a 600d with a spotlight to simulate sunlight. On the left side of the character, I used a silver bounce to add some definition to the actor’s face. Additionally, I positioned a skip bounce in front of the actor to replicate sunlight bouncing onto the floor and then back up onto the actor’s face. This is a technique I learned from behind-the-scenes footage of “The Wolf of Wall Street,” shot by the legendary Rodrigo Prieto. I employed a similar setup in other shots at this location as well. #cinematography #lighting #lightingbreakdown @film_lighting__ @filmlights @aputure.lighting @cinematic_lighting @birnsandsawyer @abelcine

This is the lighting breakdown of my favorite scene in the movie “@thelightsabovemovie.” It’s the movie’s ending scene, and we wanted it to be truly special. We decided to shoot the entire ending sequence during the blue hour, which presented a significant challenge due to the very limited time available. With the time we had, we could capture a maximum of 2 shots per day. We filmed the entire scene over three days during the blue hour. Thanks to some magic from our colorist, @aleks.color , we were able to seamlessly match all the shots together. To achieve our desired lighting effects, we used a Nova P300 in the background to mimic car headlights, and we positioned a book light in front of the character to serve as the key light. Since the blue hour fades quickly, the book light helped maintain consistency on the character’s face. Safety was a top priority when shooting in the open desert, as it can get quite windy in the afternoon. Therefore, we opted for a 4x4 bounce and diffusion setup in this scene. #lighting #cinematography #cinema @filmlights @aputure.lighting @lightingforfilm @cinematic_lighting @film_lighting__ @usccinema Behind the scene photo credit @jessepinho @tammypremchan