Camera/light setups

[jirpy100]

Okay, this should be an easy one. Why does a camera/light setup take so long (2-3 hours...?) for every cut? And how is the setup different for very long takes, where people walk around and even enter buildings without the camera cutting out.

[HungKuen]

This will be a very short and un-specific answer, but that's because it's 1 am here.

1. Because, it takes time to make lighting look perfect. Every single light need to placed at the exact right spot, and reflectors be put in the places where they are needed and so on and so forth. Also, checking the focus, the lenses and all that takes its time as well.

2. It's different because you have more ground to cover ie you have to light a larger area which obviously takes more time. It's also necessary to mark out the cameramove exactly for the focuspullers and all that.


-Going to bed now!

[Kikaida]

Some of the setting up time also has to do with limiting the risk of the shot not coming out correctly so you dont have to re-shoot it. That and some cinematographers just take longer than others. On the Blade 2 commentary track del Toro mentions that the D.P on that only took about 20-30 minutes to set up most of the shots, and how impressive that was considering the look of the film.