How James Whitaker ASC used Astera to gentle sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

James Whitaker ASC reunited with visionary director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, Rango, A Cure for Wellness) to lens breakout sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. 

No stranger to bombastic, style-saturated initiatives with a degree to make, Whitaker (DTF St. Louis, Patriot, Hawkeye, Thank You for Smoking) turned to Astera Titan and Helios Tubes to “adroitly light the fast-paced adventure”.

When Whitaker obtained the script for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, his response was easy: “This is bonkers, I have to do this.” 

The absurdist story follows a time traveller (a bedraggled Sam Rockwell) who should recruit a band of strangers at a Los Angeles diner to save lots of the world. While taking part in with themes of society’s relationship to AI and different new runaway applied sciences, the movie “packages a timely critique in the hero’s journey of an unlikely ensemble”.

The formidable artistic needed to be realised with a small price range of simply north of $20 million. Production deliberate a 60-day shoot in Cape Town, South Africa. To make the aggressive schedule a actuality meant a dramatic shift in Verbinski’s method to lighting – and Astera was key to creating all of it work.

More info – supplied by Astera – is accessible beneath.

Into the LED period

Good Luck is Verbinski’s first dive again into options since 2016’s A Cure for Wellness, and within the intervening years, large-format digital cinematography had matured and LED lighting had grown from a novelty right into a manufacturing important. 

A director finest identified for mega-sized movies with intensive assets, the transition to a lean unbiased movie whereas retaining the important Verbinski high quality required some lateral pondering.

Early into prep, Verbinski was trying to find options: Could they shoot night time exteriors with minimal lighting? Could they gentle with out plugging issues in? “Gore hadn’t worked much with LED lights. He was asking me to think seriously outside of the box,” Whitaker recollects. “I said there are several items that we can use and Astera became part of the conversation very quickly.”

The director’s pleasure was palpable. “Gore was intrigued by the LED lighting possibilities right away and that was really good for us. He was over the moon that I could hang Astera Titan Tubes in the ceiling with no power to them,” Whitaker explains. 

“It would take less than a minute to get them in the ceiling, hung safely, and with full DMX and XY control from the board – a capability so seamless that we cinematographers have nearly forgotten it was ever remarkable. Gore hadn’t!” 

The velocity and financial system of battery-powered, wi-fi LED fixtures was liberating, permitting bolder, larger decisions, even with a decent price range and schedule. 

The Norm’s Diner Challenge

The movie opens with a difficult sequence – a 12-minute dynamic monologue by Sam Rockwell’s time-travelling protagonist as he works to recruit unwilling patrons in Norm’s Diner. 

Production designer David Brisbin meticulously recreated the Los Angeles landmark (exercising some artistic license) inside an enormous dome-shaped conference area in Cape Town, full with two and a half blocks of La Cienega Boulevard facades.

The manufacturing allotted solely eight days to seize the advanced 12-page sequence. “Gore said, ‘You’re going to need to be fast. We need to light this place very generally, and then you’re going to need to move around with something portable that can light his face very quickly,’” Whitaker recollects. It grew to become an train in peak environment friendly LED deployment. 

“The entire back area of the restaurant, the kitchen and the hallways were all lit with practical fixtures that looked like fluorescents, but they were Astera Titan and Hyperion Tubes,” Whitaker explains. 

“We put larger units through 8×8’ or 12×12’ diffusions but often would just use a Titan or two in a Lightsock, which might be further diffused with a 4’x4’ frame.” 

With 16 pixels that may be individually programmed from a lighting console or the Astera App, the baton-shaped LED Hyperion and Titan Tubes provided minutely tunable lighting all through the set. Blisteringly on show because of wide-angled photographs that observe the Man from the Future by the restaurant, the strategic tube placement feels fully pure.

This all-around lighting method allowed Verbinski and Whitaker to keep up protection from a number of angles, adjusting within the second moderately than shedding time to expensive re-lights. 

The diner is so authentically Norm’s, it’s straightforward to overlook the scene itself was shot on the opposite aspect of the globe. The normality of the opening sequence lays acquainted groundwork earlier than launching the viewer on an more and more surreal journey.

“It made a lot of sense for that part of the story because it was meant to be Norm’s Diner on La Cienega Boulevard,” says Whitaker. “Gore very much wanted it to feel real, like an insane guy off the street could walk in on a Wednesday night.”

The secret socks

“LED lighting played a big part of us being able to move quickly,” Whitaker emphasises. “We almost did not use any HMIs – very, very few. It was pure speed. We knew from the beginning there was not going to be time for us to light. The gaffer and I were not going to have the luxury of time to shape things. It was just going to be madness.”

Throughout the madcap journey, one configuration grew to become indispensable behind the scenes: Astera Tubes fitted with Lightsocks. “We used Helios (the smallest, half meter Astera Tube) all the time for eye lights. I like to pair them with Lightsocks for a softer effect.”

Many set items required intensive lighting infrastructure, with LED Moon packing containers lofted from cranes and arrays of LEDs constructed on Gradalls and Condors illuminating whole nighttime avenue blocks. Meanwhile Astera Tubes, naked, in Lightsocks, or in Kino Flo housings formed the sunshine straight on the actors.

The mixture supplied tender, flattering illumination that might be positioned and adjusted in seconds – important when capturing dozens of setups every day. The Lightsock’s diffusion additionally remodeled the Titan Tube’s output into a delicate supply excellent for close-up work, whereas the battery energy and wi-fi management meant no time wasted working cables or discovering retailers.

Beyond Norm’s Diner, Whitaker deployed Helios Tubes, Titan Tubes, Hyperion Tubes and NYX Bulbs throughout the movie’s diversified areas–from sooty alleyways lit with blended sodium and metallic halide tones to an enormous 150-foot-long chamber with a 40-foot-tall LED wall. “I always use Astera products,” the cinematographer states. “They’re essential kit. They’re always fast and they always save time.”

Have Fun!

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is equal elements a rallying cry and alarm bell. It advocates for even probably the most unlikely particular person’s means to step in and form the torrent of historical past. 

The film is full of progressive, pleasant lighting gags, from teenage zombies lit by their precise cellphone screens to a wild digital twister. 

Verbinski is thought for sensible results and in-camera magic relationship again to 1997’s Mouse Hunt. “He’s a master of special effects, which I love so much,” says Whitaker. “Gore is a true believer; he wants everything to happen for real on set.”

Lighting is an integral a part of this recipe of actual. That dedication to sensible filmmaking, mixed with the necessity for velocity and financial system, made LED expertise extra than simply handy however important. 

The movie’s themes of expertise as each menace and power, together with human adaptability within the face of change, performed out within the manufacturing itself. “We averaged between 50 and 70 shots a day. You couldn’t do that in the old days, literally. But Astera products really helped.”

“I think it’s a cutting-edge company,” Whitaker says of Astera. “It’s really exciting what they’re putting out there, and they’re always making stuff that makes my job easier. Keep doing what they’re doing, please.”