One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.
If you take 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of somebody who creates a new language in film by what he was able to accomplish with art direction, photography, lighting, etc., it is still a gold standard for science fiction.
Something we often struggle with on pictures is the right way to shoot live-action elements that are for an environment that’s very complicated from a lighting standpoint. An example is a starship flying through an environment that’s constantly changing.
I’m the one who gets called up about a problem. I’m the one who gets called up about the street lighting and the abandoned car. I’m the one who gets blamed if the police don’t arrive. I’m the one they blame if a city truck is broken down.
I love playing the Hard Rocks; they’ve got a great stage, great lighting, great sound, and not so humongous; its more intimate, so we love playing theaters and clubs where the audience has a really good chance to see and hear the group and where the acoustics are good. I like it when we can hear what we’re doing.
When I went on to the team on ‘Korero Mai,’ I realized how much I didn’t know and how much I wanted to know in terms of sound, lighting and editing which is a process you don’t go through in fast turnaround TV.
I remember the noise of the bells ringing at school as the effigy of Guy Fawkes we’d prepared earlier was carried out on a canvas stretcher, hoisted on to the huge bonfire and set alight. Then the revelry would begin. My school friends and I would all have sparklers we passed around, lighting one from another.
I didn’t know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!
The thing about acting that’s unlike any other art form is that it’s collaborative; directing and acting are a collaboration, and your acting won’t succeed if the lighting design doesn’t succeed or sets don’t succeed.
People imagine that there are rituals, like lighting candles or sacrificing chickens. They really just want to know what the magic formula is for writing. I inevitably disappoint them by saying you just put your butt in the chair, and you write 500 words a day, and then you get up and repeat it the next morning.
When I make my own videos, I am the writer, the editor, the lighting person, everything – that’s why my videos are blurry.
When I play live, I jump around like an idiot for an hour-and-a-half or more under a lighting rig that’s hotter than hell.
I am a showman in the traditional sense, but modern, too. I like to use sets and lighting to create magic.
As far as lighting and blocking, camera angles and facial expressions, all that stuff that has to be very specific in film, as opposed to in wrestling where everything is larger than life and you’re performing to the masses.
The Alanis Morissette tour, everybody thinks that was all sitting around, lighting candles and talking intelligently about synergy and big words. That band was so gnarly. We were such scumbags. Alanis had no idea. We were like Van Halen.
Whether it was working on theatre sets or stage lighting, I didn’t realize most all of the skills I was exposed to were going to come in handy later on when I became a designer.
Neon signs don’t consume much power, but they look like they do. A cousin of fluorescent lighting, neon is actually quite energy efficient. A neon tube glows coolly when high-voltage, low-amperage electrical power excites the gas within it.
A good home must be made, not bought. In the end, it’s not track lighting or a sun room that brings light into a kitchen.
Although there was a point with the Tijuana Brass where we were playing for such huge crowds that I kind of lost contact. At one point, the only connection I had with the audience was with people out there lighting cigarettes.
I worked on ‘Sarah Connor’ even longer than ‘Firefly.’ And I always remembered how generous everyone was to me when I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t know the rules, and I didn’t know camera angles, and I didn’t know lighting.
There is nothing worse than bright lighting – it isn’t flattering and makes the glamorous women want to leave.
If you go into a studio without a set effectively, you’ve got a blue screen. As a DP you have to light it of what you think it should look like. You don’t have any reference of what the background looks like. You might have some concepts, but effectively you’re lighting it as what you think it should look like.
Sometimes the best lighting of all is a power failure.
Most people went to dance shows, but it was basically a table and a DJ playing and not really a spectacular thing. I brought the whole production with the effects – the best sound, the best lighting to blow the fans away.
I think lighting is a reflection of what is at stake emotionally in a movie.
Life is unpredictable, and I feel, to some extent, lighting and cinematography should be a reflection of that.
What a cool job to be part of – whether it’s doing lighting or acting or serving food on set. You’re part of telling a story that hopefully has an essential component, and that’s super exciting to me.
I think when you have your hair and makeup done, and there is good lighting, and you love your outfit – I think that’s when you feel most sexy. But also, I think when you are working and people are complementing you, that you are doing a good job.
Filmmaking is a very complex form – ya know, acting, lighting, screenwriting, storytelling, music, editing – all these things have to come together.
Chinese dumpling and noodle trainspotters know that the best versions usually come from obscure hole-in-the-wall joints where personal space and flattering lighting isn’t a consideration and splatter-proof menus are customary.
My dad’s a lighting director. Growing up in Hollywood, I was around the entertainment industry all the time. I knew I’d end up in show business in some capacity, eventually.
Sometimes it’s a struggle to keep up with my own photos, where the lighting is perfect, the makeup is done, and the images have been retouched. That’s not what I see when I look in the mirror!
I have a very ‘theatre’ face. I have what they call a wide mask. I probably would have been a big film star in the ’20s with the silent films where they used a lot of key lighting, and make-up carved out your face.
A whopping 89 percent of buyers start their home search online. How your house looks online is the modern equivalent of ‘curb appeal.’ Rent a wide-angle lens and good lighting, get rid of your clutter and post at least eight great photos to win the beauty contest.
Documentaries are inherently instinctual; you’re constantly moment to moment, determining what the best place for the camera is to tell the story, usually in service of natural lighting.
