Author: rhansen

Production is a Drag Race

Big Easy Queens is a campy romp of a movie that tells the story of archrivals Miss Bouvèé and Poodles Makenzie fighting for turf supremacy in New Orleans.  Budgets are always tight and time is a precious commodity when shooting independent film, and especially so for a glam horror project like this one, with its big set pieces and colorful sequences. 

We check in with director Erynn Dalton and cinematographer Laszlo Thomas Nador for their thoughts on the ways Kino Flo gear saved time creating big shots and capturing big performances with fast lighting setups.

Lightweight. Fast to set up. And ready to be dialed in.

“It was incredible what we did with a small crew.  It is such a difference when you set a light and you don’t have to run for a gel, or you don’t have to run for a diffusion, or you don’t have to go tweak. The versatility of these beautiful Kino Flo Celebs allows us the opportunity to just dial it in.”

–Laszlo Thomas Nador, cinematographer

Saving on color correction whether filming sequins, machine guns or drag queens. 

“The speed of setup was a big consideration. We shot this in ten days. If we didn’t have the speedy setups that we did with Kino Flo, we wouldn’t have been able to do it in that amount of time.  And, the raw footage, because of these lights, looks amazing, and it’s gonna save us a lot on color correction.”

–Erynn Dalton, director

Matching Color Temp to Practicals

The star of South Korean film Da Capo finds himself frustrated by the creative compromises involved in composing music for commercials.  Reconnecting with a former bandmate reminds him that music is not just a fantasy to sell to others, but also an element of daily life.  A one-minute trailer is available to watch online.

In order to create cinematic lighting that convincingly captures the mood of the lighting we experience in day to day life, Kino Flo LED soft light systems provide the ability to quickly and accurately dial in the correct color, whether it’s matching a piano lamp practical or a color gel used in a previous day’s work. 

Director of Photography ByongHoon Jo explains his use of Kino Flo to achieve a cozy mix of the warmth of a piano lamp and soft pink added to the natural light bathing this studio scene:

“We used one Celeb 850 and two Celeb 450s outside the window, on X,Y mode to match a Moroccan Pink gel we used on another day.  Inside we had two FreeStyles matching the color temperature of the practicals, which I think matched really well with the lamp on the piano.”

Color is Not a Game of Chance

Sun Bingo is one of the UK’s best-known Bingo brands, with millions of players every month.  ‘Are You Gonna Bingo?’ is a one-minute TV commercial that leans into that popularity with a lighthearted game of phone tag, and is available to watch online

Director of Photography Ian Murray walks us through his approach to establishing color control on set with the use of a reference white and pairing softness of light to skin tone:

“I always like to start with a reference white in the frame, which on this occasion was our Kino Flo FreeStyle T24 key light, and then build the colors around that… integrating single Kino Flo LED tubes into the location. We lit our subject with a FreeStyle T24. These FreeStyle tubes are slightly softer than the FreeStyle panels and give a very flattering reflection on darker skin tones.”

The objective on set was to achieve a hyper-real aesthetic and getting there required color rendering that allows for adding realistic texture to the environment.

“To build up the hyper-real look, we wanted to have complete control of our color palette. You’ll see this in the monitor shots on our sets that the finished results are usually very close in terms of the color rendition. I really believe this is how you get high-end work, by having control of your color. Kino Flo have complete color control throughout their ecosystem, unlike the color chaos you often get with LED fixtures.”

Landing on the right colors on set is never a matter of luck and nothing like a game of Bingo.  The recipe for achieving realism on set calls for controlling the color palette and removing the element of chance.   

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