Litepanels Invaluable for Indie Film, "G.I.Jesus"
"In my recent film, "G.I. Jesus," we tackle the ghosts that hover over the soldier returning from war," says Frederic Goodich, ASC. A veteran of over 900 commercials, numerous indie features, and a cinematography instructor at AFI, Goodich chooses his projects and tools carefully. The chance to tackle a story about war, and a Mexican-American's role in Iraq, was important to him.
"We had a conservative budget and a specific look in mind," says Goodich. "We chose a documentary, expressionistic style, to show the main character's paranoia. We shot in HDV with the desire to mix scripted scenes in and around Los Angeles with newsreel footage of the Iraqi war.
"Several of the main character's nightmares appear under the harsh green hallucinatory light of night vision," he explains. "We used two Litepanels IR units, which I found invaluable when eventstook place in total darkness, as when our hero's platoon raids the home of an Iraqi family. The sole illumination is night vision. The apparent lack of any light sources aided the actors' performances and the camera's expression of events. "Litepanels IR's even spread and coverage enabled me to shoot wider shots, placing the lights as much as 20' apart. Litepanels IRs don't produce that narrow, sourcy, hot-spotty look of other manufacturers' units. Sometimes, I combined Litepanels IRs with low-intensity incandescent units to model the key, shadow and fill and to give depth to the image, while still retaining the look.
"I've used the Ringlite in commercials and now am a big fan not merely of the Litepanels IRs, but also the entire Mini and 1x1 system. Even my students are thrilled by the versatility, low power requirements and brightness levels in these systems. Lightpanels' LED technology is clearly the wave of the future."
