 Welcome to Crimson Engine. My name is Rubidium. We are very lucky today to meet the gaffer Luke Siaveld is here And we're going to be talking all things lighting light products future of film as you see it. Yeah Been a fan of your channel for a long time. I think you're one of the handful of actual professional working filmmakers on YouTube who are working hard to create content for The YouTube filmmaking community you're a gaffer and you have a great channel called meet the gaffer which I'll link to in the In the comments of this video, please check it out and subscribe But first How do you start working in film? Why did you decide to make a YouTube channel? Sure? Yeah well, there's about a 30-year gap between those two things, but You know, I think I started making super eight movies with my friends in high school and We made something called In search of the holy fruit basket. We like learn to knit and and with metallic yarn and make our own fake mail Yeah, that was a Canon super eight camera and Then you know, I was part of a little group in college. They didn't have any kind of a film. I mean film studies was Was about theory, you know, it wasn't about what is it? What does this movie mean? What does he mean? It wasn't nothing to do with like how do you turn on a camera? Totally. Yeah, and I they had a lot of review theaters. So they would just show old movies but in like double headers or whatever and and When I was in later years of high school and early years of college whenever I was in Toronto I would just do that like nightly almost I take the subway downtown and and I just eat up the old, you know, Fussbinder and Fellini and and just yeah, just really enjoyed movies for a long time at the start of Hollywood I guess to this day like gaffing is one of those interesting things where For some people, it's a it's like a work a blue collar working-class job Right and for others. It's like a stepping stone into Symmetography I actually thought I was gonna produce and so I did some producing and And I just found I got too far away from the hands-on part of it and then I got a bigger truck and kind of Rejuvenated like rejuvenated me to to enjoy what I was doing. There's a creative side to gaffing but you're always in the service of Sort of your DP, you know, isn't there in service the director exactly who's in service to the story. Yeah, you know, but Or the agency but so in a way, we're a little more removed from it and and in starting The vlog it kind of that was another rejuvenation It's kind of like, you know, when you teach something you sort of have to learn it again yourself and for years I Didn't use a light meter, you know, just video. We used monitors and you'd have a waveform on it and away you go a Vector scope whatever it was but Lately it seems like I've been enjoying using a meter More and thinking about it sort of old-school wise. Why? I mean in my experience just starting Super 35 35 mil The light meter was so critical because the camera took so long to build Yeah, right the camera picture wouldn't be up until like nine even if you got there at seven so like if the if the Gaffer was waiting to get waveform, you know forget it Right, you gotta you gotta you gotta be there and like so that when you know The finally the cameras turned on the scenes already lit, right? Right industries changed a lot and we'll talk about that a little bit later but You know, I ask I'd like to ask this of people I talked to of you know What do you what have you learned in the you know the time since you started that you wish you'd known when you started out? I think the main thing And I see this in young people now I was just Tentative, you know, I like even though I felt like I was Jumping ahead pretty quickly in my career Compared to some of the people I see now, they're just like leaps and bounds It's like it's almost like you don't have to tell young people these days. I mean they just go for it and and Yeah, I guess I didn't have big enough balls That's an interesting regret that's interesting all like less than to to possum I know on the other hand now You have like for vlogging and stuff like that. You just have tools that are amazing That's right Really when you started out you were probably like they the camera and the lenses were worth $100,000 the lights were with $100,000 right like it was in a place And no one would let you on set if you had that look just throw it around That's true. Yeah, well just an anecdote. I remember a DP on a commercial, you know, he was just a really good film DP and We would always be joking and having a good time and and he'd be like, yeah, you know, you guys can have fun But if stuff doesn't work out here, I'll never work again. It's on me. So, you know, we got to get this right Yeah, and I impressed me. I would say my best experiences on a film set is when Everybody is is flown in the same direction and and So, you know, there's some people that like to be screamers. There's some people that that, you know want to squeeze you for every, you know dollar You know while they drive up up in there their fancy car, but so My feeling is the better people feel The better you should it's gonna go. Yeah, and yes, it's true Like there's a sort of corollary to that It's like when you see a low-budget film you think like, man, that was just awesome that that just hit every I really engage with that film and then you find out later that the crew Was beaten up. Yeah, you know, it's just abused and I actually look at that movie differently speaking of cinematographers What in your opinion separates a good DP from a great DP? Just on a sort of a really reduced level if you have a pre-light. Mm-hmm. It's huge And some people take pre-lights for granted. Well, I don't you know, because I don't get them that often and Even scouts, it's like I'm commercial. She usually have scouts on corporate. You hardly ever have scouts Yeah, sometimes you do any kind of pre-production any kind of time you have to actually Think through something is is huge. So I remember watching the ASC Roundtable that they did recently and that you know all of these DPs were like listen to your gaffer. Listen to your gaffer. Yeah, that was that that was a big takeaway from all that They all repeated it being mean like, you know a DP might light a scene like this You know once a month like a director might do it a couple times a year if we're lucky like a conversation scene Right, whereas sometimes gaffers are All day every day out doing it right and rather than come to set With your lighting plan as a DP or even a director for a lot of people It's probably a good idea to talk to leak like lean on the gaffer's experience lead on their Skills, right that are specialized in this lighting thing and let let that take care for a lot of directors I think that's hard because they feel especially on a commercial they feel that's that's their one creative Sure outlight is the lighting sure I think the main thing is to be collaborative and Sometimes you don't have time and so you just have to be a little more dictatorial, but and you the same goes for heads of department, you know, sometimes you're not given the guys gals that you wanted and so you have people that don't know your way of doing it and you just have to you know There at that setting 20 here. Yeah, yeah If you've worked with someone a lot then you have a language if you haven't worked with someone sometimes that rapport is like immediate and sometimes you sort of have to work towards it and and Sometimes you never get that. Yeah, to me the the important thing is to always Make the person in charge feel like it's their idea Same with active actors and directors. Yeah, it's like I think real real interesting things happen in film when you know the friction between ideas between personalities between Interpretations sets the sparks that that make things that happen amazingly. I mean when you trust people They'll rise to your expectations. You know people want to hear well What's the answer to working in this business or whatever? And it's like the answer is be flexible. Yeah, you know be be Don't be a dick Yeah, yeah, just be be a thoughtful person think ahead think of others and and Don't be afraid to learn and and try things and stuff like that. And then yeah, just know when to stop and that that just takes experience because some people want to tweak tweak tweak tweak and Okay Why don't they let cinematographer smoke on set and take it out to light it That's good Thank you so much Luke. Thanks for thanks for being part of the the channel today Please check out meet the gaffer in the in the links below and yeah, hopefully we'll get a chance to work together in the future That would be cool right on