Cinematography in Canada Since 1957

#MichaelGalbraithCsc
@michaelgalbraithdp
For the Brooke Shields mini series I shot last year called ‘You’re Killing Me’ Brooke plays a mystery novel writer. Her main character in the books is a lady named Selena St. Cloud. In a few episodes Selena visits Brooke in her dreams. I thought it might be nice to give Selena a film noir vibe. I went searching for some iconic photos of stars from the past. Bette Davis and Lauren Bacall came to mind. I found this photo of Lauren and I presented it to show runner Robin Bernheim and to Brooke and they both bought in. It was fun to use a hard light with a pro-mist filter and no fill light. I used a source four with a 26 degree barrel and we drained all the colour for that classic black and white period look. I was really happy with the result and it was a nice departure from our usual soft light approach. We shot the overs with a photo double and it was fun to see Brooke really get into the period mind set. There are always special moments that you get to help create on a show and for me this was one of them. Email me at michaelwilliamgalbraith@gmail.com and share some of the things you have helped to create and were really happy with the end results. Tomorrow will be my last post so see you then.

#MichaelGalbraithCsc
@michaelgalbraithdp
These photos are screen grabs from a few shows I did. The actors in order are Morgan Kohan, Chad Michael Murray, Yanni King Mondschein, Lyndie Greenwood and Natasha Rothwell. All these actors and many more are number ones on their respective shows. They all have to go home at night and learn 6 to 10 pages of dialogue to be ready for the next days work.
They also need to think about the physical and emotional needs of each scene. Every one of them are also willing to alter a look or change a mark to accommodate what I need. They know when they are blocking another actor’s light and they know to hit their mark. The needs and demands of a series or show put a lot of strain on them. Yet they know their lines and we don’t lose takes because of it. I have seen day players who have had lots of time to learn their lines, stumble over them on the day. It causes us to lose time and is in my opinion not very professional. One fun story aside from this is I was on show where a very successful feature actor came in to be a guest for a few weeks. She was a very seasoned pro. We lit the scene and when the time came she stood on her marks and with a mirror, looked at her face. She knew where all the lights were coming from and in her first mark pointed at one and said ‘turn that off. She then hit her 2nd mark and once again used the mirror to look at her face and pointed out another light and said
‘soften that’. We of course obliged and everyone was happy.
It’s always important to take care of the ‘money’! I want to thank all the professional actors out there for making our jobs as dps so much easier.

#MichaelGalbraithCsc
@michaelgalbraithdp
Every project you do will present some challenges that force you to think outside the box. That’s part of the fun. Problem solving is a big part of any film crew’s mission. On Pixels (don’t judge me) I was the gaffer. We were tasked with creating a reference for what would become a giant Pac Man for the VFX team. We rigged up a mini with banks of yellow led lamps powered by 2k generators. The vehicle would mimic the path that Pac Man would take. It was all night work. We could not hide any big condors or cranes because we were always looking up. So I had hundreds of our own fixtures manufactured to fit onto the various styles of street lamps. We imported over 2 thousand 300 watt mogul based bulbs. We bought over 40 2k generators. We rigged the fixtures at night for one week with 3 crews on multiple streets in downtown Toronto. The fixtures combined with the street lights gave us enough exposure and when we saw them the result was just a ball of light, they all blended in. The balloon and the LRX heads on the condor provided us with overall ambience or a direction back light in a park we shot in. We had 4 of these spread out and hid the bases in the tree line of the park. There is so much more to this story so if you want to find out more just email me at michaelwilliamgalbraith@gmail.com

#MichaelGalbraithCsc
@michaelgalbraithdp
These photos are from a low budget indy I shot called The Blind Owl. I was able to collaborate with director Mostafa Keshvari and really craft every shot. I’m curious to find out if any of you have a favorite type of project you like to shoot. Would you prefer a low budget indy with a director who has a great vision for the film? Do you prefer a series with multiple episodes? Does a huge budget feature shooting for 4 to 6 months interest you?If we are lucky we may on occasion find ourselves offered projects in various formats and structures encompassing different genres. Each comes with its own set of parameters. What do you think is the most important ingredient in each project that we never have enough of. For me it is time. So in response to that, I like to spend as much quality time in prep with the production team talking about, understanding and contributing to the final vision. The goal is to maximize the time spent shooting a scene without trying to figure it out on the day. I may have gone through the script at least 10 times before the shoot. Of course on a series if you are the only dp shooting, you don’t get that luxury. They say variety is the spice of life so here is hoping you all get an opportunity to bring your vision to many different projects!

#MichaelGalbraithCsc
@michaelgalbraithdp
So let’s talk about process screens. Usually they are either green or blue. For the students out there, we use these screens when shooting on a location or trying to shoot in a world that does not exist is just not practical, safe or cost effective. The idea is that the visual effects company will replace these screens with whatever world is supposed to exist within the story. There are many things to consider when using process screens. In the first photo, we knew we would be outside for a few days and we could not take a chance on weather playing havoc with our screens. Wind, rain or sun. We talked to the VFX company and they gave us the go ahead to use these shipping containers. We stacked one on another and our painters did the rest. The wind was not going to have any effect on the ‘screens’ at all. Even though the containers had a certain texture, our VFX team said it was no problem for them. When it comes to process screens, every VFX company has their own set of guidelines. I always give way to what they need as in the end the quality of the comps depends on their people and technology. The car in the other photo is on a 360 degree rotation rig. The idea was for the car to get hit into the side and send it toppling side over side for about 3 to 4 rotations. There were 3 external cameras and 2 interior cameras. The point of impact was shot in real time and we shot the rotation in slow motion which was really fun as you could see the hair falling all around the faces, the rubber glass going through the air and the faces contorting in fun ways as the actors went through the rotations. Now the ideal situation is to have enough room to place your screens far enough away that the screens do not send any of their colour back onto your people or objects. You will not always have that option due to space limitations so your VFX team has to be slightly forgiving in that situation. That applies to unwanted reflections of the screens that are impossible to eliminate. Virtual walls, front and rear projection are also other ways to create worlds and those are discussions for another day. See you tomorrow. Have a great day.