Eyes Wide Shut

bouncybabybucket · May 12, 2004

Forgive me again, I'm basically an amateur here.

There's the scene in Eyes Wide Shut, just before Nicole Kidman tells Tom Cruise about her fantasy with the sailor. They're in their bedroom, the bathroom is behind them illuminated blue. Their flesh tones are excellently well rendered. Their faces are nicely contoured, no blasts of light.

Can anyone tell me (with an educated guess) what way the lights would have been set up for that shot?

There seems to be lots of practical lights in the scene, what additional lights are likely to have been used and where would they be?

David Mullen ASC · May 12, 2004

The movie was shot on 5298 pushed two stops, rated at 1600 ASA -- so the light levels were quite low. Many interior scenes were lit just with the practicals -- I was just watching that scene again and it looked like there may have been some additional light bounced into the ceiling for a soft top-lit look but otherwise the practicals are putting out a lot of the light, except for the deep blue light coming through the windows in the background.

Of course, when I say that a scene is lit with the practicals, it doesn't mean that brighter light bulbs weren't put into the lamps if necessary.

bouncybabybucket · May 12, 2004

see, that's what it looked like to me as well!

So what speed of film did you say that was David? ASA?

Thank you so much for your advice dude.

Jarin Blaschke · May 12, 2004

5298 was 'box rated' at 500 ASA. It was a high speed EXR film that was discontinued last year - I was always dying to try it, but never could find the opportunity. The two stop push explains the very heavy grain in that film.

It seemed interesting that they went to great lenths to shoot the film under 'natural lighting' conditions and then apply such an artificial, intensely blue "moonlight."

bouncybabybucket · May 12, 2004

i wasn't lucky enough to catch Eyes Wide Shut in the cinema, but it never struck me as having a heavy grain in it's DVD transfer.

Jarin Blaschke · May 12, 2004

I've never seen it on a monitor, but in the theatre, it's quite grainy. Never seen grain like it in 35mm.

Mitch Gross · May 13, 2004

That film had grain like a snowstorm. In the theater it actually added something to the style; very dreamlike. I'm sure there was ample digital degraining and noise reduction in the video transfer.

Don't look at this to be a cheap way to make a movie. It brings up a lot more costs in other areas.

bouncybabybucket · May 13, 2004

So is isn't really possible to make a house interior at night with only practicals then?

David Mullen ASC · May 13, 2004

Sure it's possible. Depends on the house, the practicals, and how you want the actors to look. You can take some still photos and see how it looks.

John Pytlak RIP · May 14, 2004

Generally, Underexposure, Fast Films, Smaller Formats, and Push Processing are ways to get more graininess. The "look" you want depends on what you choose to do.

Fredrik Backar FSF · May 31, 2004

Shot night interior on vision 2 500T 5218 and hawk anamorphics.

F-stop was 4 and the only light for one scene was an oil lamp and a heavily flagged 300 fres bounced into depron at about 3m distance. Face was one under and backgrounds picked up nicely dark (wooden walls that didn´t even pick up on meter.) Just an example of what can be done with little lighting. No additional push was applied.

Loved the textures in Eyes wide shot. An entity of its own adding more grit and organic feel. Miles away from digital formats (I must add to cause a stirr :P )

Cheers!