Sam Nicholson, ASC Uses 48 Evoke and 8 Dyno Lights in the Production of 'Shrapnel'

[Tim Tyler]

A few months ago, cinematographer Sam Nicholson approached Nanlux’s Mark Bender with a request. He had an interesting project, a live-action trailer for a video game involving live actors on a virtual set. Together with a former colleague, executive producer Mark Long, Nicholson shared that the transmedia project “was a great challenge. I love being involved in any production which has the potential to be innovative.” Director Jerry Flaherty built all the virtual environments himself, which allowed Nicholson to work on inventing new production techniques. “It was a very creative environment with everybody participating. Our record was 79 setups in a day with an average of 70 setups a day. Technology is moving very quickly and allowed us to move quickly.”

With a lengthy 12 weeks of pre-production, Nicholson explained that “Unreal assets had to be created beforehand, because you are only as good as your assets on set; although we decided to balance our ICVFX between our mobile LED volume and Ultimatte on greenscreen. I’m a real proponent of not allowing technology to define the creative, but letting the creative define the technology we use,” he said.
With Venice II cameras in the Rialto configuration, paired with Angenieux lenses and Nanlux lights, “we had the best hardware configured in a way that allowed us to create what seemed like an impossible project: a 10-day shoot to create 45 minutes of high-level composites on a very tight budget. Our goal was to create an intense live action pilot using live action actors and stunt performers set in a photo real, futuristic world built from the Shrapnel game assets. Our creative goals far exceeded our budget and shooting schedule. Could Shrapnel look better than current trans media projects? Could it be done less expensive, and shot much faster? If we could deliver on good, fast and on budget, we’d have the potential of a great production model for a live action series going forward.” 

For Shrapnel's unique volumetric lighting setup, Nicholson used 40 Nanlux Evoke 900Cs, as well as 8 Evoke1200Bs and 8 Dyno 1200C soft panels. “We tested other lights, but Nanlux lights gave us both hard and soft light, full color plus high output for daylight. These lights are ideal for image based, kinetic lighting. The bang for the buck is pretty much unbeatable.  They are full spectrum, high output, durable and economical; which is an essential combination if you are going to ask your producer for four times more lights.  But if you can save 10 minutes on each new lighting setup, there is a definite savings at the end of the day.”

Nicholson and his visual effects team mapped the lights through wireless DMX into their custom kinetic lighting control system. “In virtual production you have the live action, but then you have the background being fed by Unreal Engine which creates the 3D environment. We tied our virtual lights in UE5 to the on-set Nanlux lights, so when you adjust the Nanlux light, the UE5 virtual light follows what you are doing on set,” he explained.  “Our Nanlux lights and UE5 allowed us to truly connect our on-set lighting to our virtual sets.”
The team also designed a new tool, a hand-held DMX trigger, which could be assigned to any light on set or programmed into a crazy sequence. “When doing safe pyro with an air mortar, it can be kind of dry looking since there is no real fire. Just dust and debris. So we took two open lens 900Cs, which are very bright, and put them on either side of the air mortar, then triggered a sequence with a synchronized explosion of light to create the illusion of a fireball. I think it’s a fantastic step forward for any pyro effect.  It’s like a giant non-gun; safe, fast and very effective.  Nanlux lights responded well to our trigger and control system with results that were really stunning.”

Nicholson and his visual effects team mapped the lights through wireless DMX into their custom kinetic lighting control system. “In virtual production you have the live action, but then you have the background being fed by Unreal Engine which creates the 3D environment. We tied our virtual lights in UE5 to the on-set Nanlux lights, so when you adjust the Nanlux light, the UE5 virtual light follows what you are doing on set,” he explained.  “Our Nanlux lights and UE5 allowed us to truly connect our on-set lighting to our virtual sets.”