Prison Visiting Room - Drama

[Phil Connolly]

Hi

 

I'm shooting a scene set in a prison meeting room - its open plan, with people sitting round tables and in the real world would have traditional office syle Fluorescent lighting. For the set I'm using a 30'x40' room in an office building with windows down one side of the room. The scene will have 15 actors in it and all will be featured so I need to light a farly large area.

 

I'm shooting on a DSR-390 DVCAM.

 

I had thought about lighting from above with kino's but I'm nervous about it looking too flat. I don't have much experince with kinos but I'm keen to try them out and gain experience using them or would I get a better result with easier to control tungstan lighting?

 

I'm after a fairly contrasty look, with quite a strong key and not too much fill.

 

How controllable would the light from kinos be in this situation?

 

Any thoughts, tips, ideas would be a big help

 

Phil

[Michael Nash]

I had thought about lighting from above with kino's but I'm nervous about it looking too flat.

So let me get this straight -- you thought about the lighting setup first and then worried about how it was going to look? I hope you don't try that approach with cooking... ;)

 

Seriously, that's kind of backwards. Decide how you want it to look first and then figure out a lighting setup that will you give you that look. If you don't want a flat quality of light from the ceiling, then simply don't light it that way!

 

I think your bigger concern would be what the windows do to the room -- ambient daylight alone is likely to overpower the overhead lighting, depending on time of day, location, etc. Your challenge is to figure out how you want to balance the windowlight with your fill light.

 

You can use the kinos or even the practicals overhead for fill if you like; just keep the level down in comparison to your window keylight. Or, if the window isn't giving you much light, then maybe you can light from overhead with more strategic pools of toplight, like one over each table.

 

Kino's are just higher powered and color balanced fluorescents. They give out a soft quality of light that falls off quickly. You can control the spill with the egg crates and the "barn doors" of the fixtures, or else set flags as normal. If you want more punch or a harder quality of light, then use the appropriate tungsten units.

[Mitch Gross]

If you want a contrasty look then you'll have some difficulty with kinos. They are a very soft light. Are you going to see the ceiling in the shots? Since you were planning on rigginf kinos anyway I assume that you can hang lights. I would suggest small tungsten units rigged over each table with a bit of diffusion and some blackwrap or duvatyne to control spill. When you come in close on someone you can add some frontal fill so the light won't be too toppy.

[Phil Connolly]

Thanks for the replys - I think I'll go with tungstans.

 

I think it was a case of me wanting to try a different light for the sake of it.

 

Yep I am able to rig lights from above, the room has an open celing with steel beams, so I should be able to clamp lights to those.

 

Phil