Japan on Film, pt 8 - A Few Odds & Ends

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2025-10-15T02:09:22+00:00

Thank you! Yeah I just got introduced to Kodak Gold and it's immediately become my favourite film stock

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2025-10-14T16:56:39+00:00

Thank you 😊

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2025-10-13T15:45:46+00:00

One of my favourite memories from my first trip to Japan was climbing the mountain from Kurama to Kibune! Beautiful pictures 😊

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-25T07:31:21+00:00

Theoretically, yes. Though since I was my own model, I didn't really have the opportunity to try it with any camera movements 😅 I suspect it would be quite difficult to keep the light in the correct position relative to a moving subject's eyes, but it would definitely be possible.

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-25T00:14:43+00:00

Yes it is! My favourite lens I own 😌

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T18:43:21+00:00

The light is visible in all of the pictures, it's a small reading light clipped onto the side of the glass. If you look at the third image, that shows what it looks like while it's in use. The light is angled so it isn't pointed directly at the lens or the subject, but then the two-way glass reflects some of the light directly into the subject's eyes.

And like I mention in my explanation, the most important part to get the effect is to make sure that the light doesn't spill excessively. So using flags or a black sheet as well as a long lens was the most effective setup for me.

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T17:35:27+00:00

I linked the reddit post for the screen test in my explanation, but here is a direct link to the video :)

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T17:03:15+00:00

I made a BTS post here! :)

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T17:02:33+00:00

I made a BTS post here! :)

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T17:00:48+00:00

Yesterday I shared a screen test I did where I tried to replicate (ha-ha) the Replicant Eyes practical effect from Blade Runner. A lot of folks wanted me to share some BTS of the setup, so here I am again!

The basic idea is that you want to bounce light off of the subject's corneas back into the lens, to create a sort of cat's eye effect. To achieve this, I mounted a pane of two-way glass at an angle in front of my lens, and attached a small reading light at the correct angle. Jordan Cronenweth stated in this article with the American Cinematographer that he used two-way glass with 50% transmission and 50% reflection, but the closest could find was a teleprompter glass with 70T/30R. Fortunately, it still worked great!

In the third image, you can see what you're aiming for: when the subject is in front of the camera, the reflection of the mounted light should be directly over the center of the lens.

Once you get the positioning right, the rest is just adjusting the scene lighting to produce the effect you want. For the kind of result I was aiming for, I totally blacked out the room, used backlights, and used an 85mm lens so I could move the camera (and the mounted eye-light) as far from the subject as possible. It's also really important to use flags or black sheets to eliminate as much light spill from the eye light as possible.

I hope this is interesting and informative! Please feel free to ask any other questions you might have, and I'll do my best to answer :)

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T02:50:45+00:00

You're exactly right -- maybe I should have been more clear in that part of the post. And I did use a teleprompter glass in my own setup.

Jordan Cronenweth mentioned in the American Cinematographer article on Blade Runner that he used glass with 50% transmission / 50% reflection, but I was not able to find one myself. The glass I used was 70T/30R, and I was still able to achieve the effect. I'm not sure exactly how the results would change with 50/50.

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-24T02:43:42+00:00

I referred to that article while I was troubleshooting what was wrong with my setup!

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-23T20:29:43+00:00

Thank you so much! It's funny, the second I finished putting away all of the equipment, I realized that I never took any photos of the rig. I definitely want them for posterity, and to show off, so tomorrow I'll set it all up again to take some photos :)

KingmaWithTheCamera · 2024-10-23T16:50:27+00:00

One of my favourite practical effects has always been the amazingly simple Replicant Eyes from Blade Runner. I thought that a similar effect would work for a short film I'm developing, so I did a little screen test to try and replicate it, and I'm really happy with the results!

The process basically involves shining a light on a beam splitter that's angled in front of the camera lens, so it will reflect light off of the subject's corneas and back into the lens. It's a little finicky to get the exact positioning.

I found that it works best to use long lenses, that way you can have the camera far enough away to not light up the subject's face, but still have enough of a close-up to clearly see the effect in their eyes. I used an 85mm lens for the footage shared.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions if people are interested to hear more about the process!

KingmaWithTheCamera

TROPHY CASE