Zane Plaster

I had a blast gaffing this ad for some skin care products. Matt (DP) and Ben (Director) had the incredible idea to marry lowkey footage of dancers with our product shots. They incorporated all sorts of water and strobing effects on both shoot days. The close-up slo-mo shots of the dancers was keyed overhead by a LiteMat 4 which I swung around on a menace arm. We let the dancers flow in and out of the light and waved various filters and objects in front of the lens to give it a dreamy feel. We also had two soft strobes to camera right and left that we let fire randomly. The effect is a deeply emotional, cinematic, low-key scene that invokes an elegant flow. In terms of execution I opted for a menace arm because I needed something very long and very finely balanced so I could both boom and pan the light as we rolled. For the product shots we wanted a similarly moving light but swinging one on an arm just looked off to me. So I did something new: I put it on a dana dolly. I must say, I might do this more often. The true linear movement of the light looks far superior to the rotary movement you get when you arm it out and pan it. Altogether I loved how it turned out and is one of the most creative commercial shoots I've had the pleasure of being part of. @sidus.link @aputure.lighting @litegear Talent: @jenlycrespo @marikasuya Director: @benfcornelius DP: @tokyolouie PD: @marisadzintars HMUA: @shambleslovesunicorns Wardrobe: Asia Lyneise @getvideofresh #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #setlighting #siduslink #amaran #aputure #litegear #film #filmmaking #cinematography #directorofphotography #aputurelighting #amaranlighting #lightingforfilm #lightingplans

I had a blast gaffing this shot-on-film Lone Star beer commercial with some of my favorite folks. The cowboy/desert aesthetic is such a great one to achieve, but always presents the same set of challenges. As iconic as the cowboy hat is, it always produces deep shadows on the face that even the light bouncing off the sand can't bring up to comfortable levels. Combined with the uninhibited desert sun blazing down from above and you have some luminance range often wider than your camera can capture. Plus that natural ratio doesn't look great aesthetically. Luckily we were shooting on film and had a couple options! While Ryan (KG) and Josh (DP) set about bringing up the levels using bounces I picked the 1200d to battle the sun and was really impressed with how well it worked! We ended up using a combination of the ultrabounce and 1200d to bring up the faces while using the mirror boards to provide some edge light. I think the combinations worked beautifully and only got better as the sun went down. Director/Producer: @zachtavel DP: @josh.kuzo KG: @ryan.r.bender Swing Grip: Stephen Hain 1st AC: @maxharsantphotography 2nd AC: @natalieleft Stylist: @thegoldenfox @actorlaporte @derrickarledgevidrine @bennettcangetit @sidus.link @aputure.lighting #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #setlighting #siduslink #amaran #aputure #litegear #film #filmmaking #cinematography #directorofphotography #aputurelighting #amaranlighting #lightingforfilm #lightingplans

I had the pleasure of gaffing a couple scenes in an award-winning short film called "Supermodel". This film has a high-key and saturated look which is a tone I enjoy achieving but surprisingly I don't get to do much in narrative. In addition to the space's massive floor-to-ceiling windows it was pretty small and cramped. I used some wheeled set walls in addition to bounces and duvetyne to control the light spilling in from the sun and hid lights wherever I could. The walls themselves lended nicely to the lighting. Not just the ones in the frame but any surface bouncing light onto our talent. Whenever I scout a location I consider every wall and surface to be a bounce. Then I question whether or not it's a hue/tone I actually want playing on the scene. If not I use what gear I have to cover it with a preferable hue/tone. Sometimes this involves covering entire walls with 12x12' solid or muslin rags. The impact of diffuse reflections caused by your location’s natural surfaces can't be overstated. I keep in mind which surfaces my lights are spilling onto as well (even out of frame). You can avoid a lot of unintended fill this way. Matt also brought this brilliant reflective board he built to splash some frosted rays onto the background which is best seen in photo 2. Altogether I had a blast and made something pretty, and that’s exactly why I do this 😎 @consciouscinema Director: @nicolewensel DP: @tokyolouie Makeup: @mandofxmakeup Hairstylist: @angellhair #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #setlighting #siduslink #amaran #aputure #litegear #film #filmmaking #cinematography #directorofphotography #aputurelighting #amaranlighting #lightingforfilm #lightingplans

"Shifter" is a narrative feature film I had the opportunity to gaff a few scenes for! In almost any vehicle it's unlikely moonlight will be low enough to be hitting faces directly. That hard and low light looks too studio for my liking. I find a 4x4' or larger source generally looks more natural in addition to a harder source hitting the background outside. I aim to simulate the bounce of moonlight off the environment. And while real life moonlight is a surprisingly warm 4000k I'll always push it much cooler to take advantage of the 80 years of cinematic color theory that audiences have been trained on. Director/Writer/Producer: @mattmarderfilms DP: @ryan.r.bender KG: @patdino 1st AC: @noormanxw 2nd AC: Santiago Medina PD: @isme_vanna HMUA: @makeupbytatjana Wardrobe: Sara Bass #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #setlighting #siduslink #amaran #aputure #litegear #film #filmmaking #cinematography #directorofphotography #aputurelighting #amaranlighting #lightingforfilm #lightingplans

Last year I had the opportunity to gaff an ad for a game called Everwing and I'm really happy with how it turned out! We shot this on the 14th floor of a building in DTLA. The sun was spilling in and we couldn't put anything outside the window to shape it. We had to work with it. Luckily we had enough duvatyne to shape it and enough firepower from our units to keep it exposed properly. Couldn't have done it without this incredible team: Director: @almost.ryan DP: @jonbassfilm KG: @jakereardon14 1st AC: @elias_ginsberg PD: @marisadzintars HMUA: @kyrstamua #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #setlighting #siduslink #film #filmmaking #cinematography #directorofphotography #aputure #aputurelighting #lightingforfilm

Easily one of my favorite projects I've ever gaffed! This is a music video for the song Aluminum by Daisy the Great. Highly stylized and "vibey", the lighting we were looking for emulated vintage film and paintings using hard shadows and purposeful shaping. The most difficult challenge for me was the width of the lens. We could see the whole room in some shots! Thus the lights needed to be few and far from talent. Introducing, the Jo-Leko. One of the best units for such a purpose. We had tons of fun painting the walls and getting powerful backlighting out of it. The practicals in every lamp helped break up the dark backgrounds with little splashes of light. Altogether I'm really happy with the final product, even if keeping the lights out of frame was a real struggle. Director: @zachtavel DP: @josh.kuzo Key Grip: @ryan.r.bender Grip: @patdino @sidus.link @aputure.lighting @falconeyesltd #gaffer #aputure #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #siduslink #film #filmmaking #cinematography

"Say It To My Face" is a music video I gaffed in September produced by Meet Me @ The Altar. There are two scenes here in particular that required a lot of contrast to achieve a moody look. The basement was especially fun to rig and experiment with. We settled on an icky green hue and thanks to the output of the Nova P300c's the entire room was properly exposed even at full saturation. The Quasar Q-lions were also handy for simulating computer monitors and provided moodier shadows than an actual monitor would. Director: @jackcampise DP: @taylordonelltomlinson Key Grip: @lofibry Cam Op: @joseph_hartzler 1st AC: @alec.salerno 2nd AC: @itsvizzini @sidus.link @quasarscience #meetmeatthealtar #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #siduslink #film #filmmaking #cinematography

"Happy Birthday" is a narrative short I gaffed in May. It was challenging to expose properly for film with minimal lighting units. When you soften light you're spreading it over a larger area, thus losing exposure you would have had if it was spotted directly on the subject and unimpeded by modifiers. But the pleasant natural look is so worth it. I found that wrapping our 3 GVMs in bleached muslin or creating a cove light with a tungsten + reflector were the most exposure-efficient builds for a soft, natural key or fill. Then I used the remaining hard-source unit as a back or background light. I love what we ended up with! Director: @madeleinemarie16 DP: @natalieperezdp @sidus.link @gvmled #happybirthdayashortfilm #gaffer #lightingbreakdown #lighting #lightingdesign #setlighting #siduslink #film #filmmaking #cinematography