top of page
Search

Lighting chat...

  • Writer: Amanda Riddell
    Amanda Riddell
  • 2 hours ago
  • 1 min read

Regarding my film of the Palestine rally in December 2025, that's a pure assembly. R100 with no grading; every piece of footage that I shot. AMPP is largely assemblies, though the hīkoi film was cut. The new Canon cameras are amazing; we're going to use them in the Beatles film. NZ has harsh light, and I think they got my note about that. - With the Wellington Triptych, Andre and Aaron were excellent lighting experts. My version of Portrait of a Knight's colour grade was more saturated, but Andre dismissed it as LUT grading. His version was sculpted in China on his laptop. My belief is that LED panels are the main contributor to shit lighting. I used one in Te Whakaahua, but only one. Andre created a sepia-toned grade. Dave preferred my one; it made his clothes pop. My training with Paul Wolffram (the real reason Rachel's mentor is called Paul) was about using one light. I describe my approach as Soderbergh-esque. LED panels might be a bit low-grade for a big film, but streaming shows use them. Real films might use real lights, but with huge diffusion boxes. It's very similar. - Flat lighting is an American problem. Europeans have mastered digital grading. Like, think about Two Days, One Night. That's natural light, but looks beautiful. Portrait of a Knight had a camera team from New Zealand, France and Argentina. In New Zealand, we have FilmConvert. It's a local thing, but it really works. My brother swore by it for his music videos.

 
 
 

Recent Posts

See All
Bad Man

I didn't write or direct it: my flatmate Ethan did while my brother produced. Ethan was initially hesitant to put his name on it, hence the presumption that we wrote it. I put it in order as a 20-min

 
 
 
'let us put your new song in our script!'

No. I'm very clear on this point: my IP isn't the property of Steve Barr or Toa Fraser. As I have repeatedly said, dig yourselves out by hiring another songwriter. Take the basic concept of gay people

 
 
 
Transgender Quarter

I might be missing something, as I'm not in San Francisco, but isn't this essentially saying that the trannie ghetto is the ghetto, then and now? In Wellington, Newtown is the current ghetto, but in

 
 
 

2 Comments

Amanda Riddell
Amanda Riddell
2 hours ago

With LED panels, the lighting is flat, but dramatic shows invent lighting in post. I saw one from a Lost writer that was obviously done that way.

Like
Amanda Riddell
Amanda Riddell
2 hours ago
Replying to

Sir Peter, Dame Fran and James Cameron have all hoped to bring lots of new films to New Zealand and create a pipeline, but it's been intermittent. With Imagine Multimedia, we're claiming that NZ is the best place to make big films that rely on VFX, because most of our energy is generated by renewables. That applies to the sets as well, but transport is still climate-intensive. Whether a pipeline like the US studio system is a good thing remains to be seen. Tom Holland, for example, has a treatment of Anathem that he's shopping to us.

Edited
Like
bottom of page