Lighting small room questions..

Justin Marx · May 4, 2006

Ok here's the SCENE:

NIGHT INT. Hospital room

The room has one WINDOW (diagram attached) the otherwindows will be blocked by a wall we are building.

My charachters will play around the bed, the closet, and in the area to the right of the bed (looking from above)

The lights I have are 3 1200 HMI's 1-575 1-dedo light kit, and 2 4-bank 4' kinos..

I have 3 1200's for another scene and only planned on using one, to blast through the window as night moon light..

I wan't the room to look fairly dark.. It's a dream world hospital, and I want it to look cold..

With the lights I have, how would you light the actors playing around the bed, and in the area to the right.

I'd like to change the light as little as possible for each setup (I'm dreaming). The ceiling height is 8' and the ceiling is a DROP ceiling with removeable tiles..

I've never had so many lights at my disposal, and am afraid to OVERLIGHT.. any ideas?

set_no_lighting1.bmp

Edited May 4, 2006 by Justin Marx

Kevin Zanit · May 4, 2006

Sorry I dont have time right now to give you more detailed advice, but no one can really tell you how to light your scene, but maybe can give you some ideas:

I had a lot of small room situations in these production journals, so maybe they can give you some ideas. If not, I am sure someone here can give you a better reply.

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=11530

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...?showtopic=7700

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...?showtopic=7823

Kevin Zanit

Justin Marx · May 4, 2006

Sorry I dont have time right now to give you more detailed advice, but no one can really tell you how to light your scene, but maybe can give you some ideas:

I had a lot of small room situations in these production journals, so maybe they can give you some ideas. If not, I am sure someone here can give you a better reply.

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=11530

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...?showtopic=7700

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...?showtopic=7823

Kevin Zanit

Thanks Kevin.. I have a prettygood idea of what I would like to do, I would just like as much input as I can get so I can go into it knowing more than I need.. I'll pick and choose what I really want at the end, but the wealth of information and qualified people here is such a great resource..

Thank you for the pictures.. They were great.. How was Howie to work with?

- - Justin

Kevin Zanit · May 4, 2006

Thanks Kevin.. I have a prettygood idea of what I would like to do, I would just like as much input as I can get so I can go into it knowing more than I need.. I'll pick and choose what I really want at the end, but the wealth of information and qualified people here is such a great resource..

Thank you for the pictures.. They were great.. How was Howie to work with?

- - Justin

No problem. He was fun, always had good, funny ideas; while making fun of my crew, and myself, which I always like! ;)

Kevin Zanit

EricUlbrich · May 4, 2006

I have a small idea which may help you to acheive a dark "top-lit" scenario. Take the kino's and rig them into the ceiling pointing down. Then put some dif on them 216 or even something lighter like Opal. Make sure to allow the gel to hang down a bit, its called the Puffy Shirt technique. Then, take a long piece of Duvatine around 8-12 Inches thick and wrap it around the whole Kino covering the sides and the barn doors. This acts like a teaser and will kill a whole lot of the side spill. Then just go up or down on the lights until a desired effect is achieved. For a more cooler look on tungsten film swap two of the kino tubes for daylight so that there are two tungsten tubes and two daylight tubes, this is called a "Barber Pole." After that the HMI's can be used as a moonlight either green or even a slight lavender color would look cool as a backlight. As for the smaller heads, you can use them to accessorize the walls to create depth. Thats just a suggestion. Hope any of this helps!

Cheers,

Eric U.

Justin Marx · May 4, 2006

I have a small idea which may help you to acheive a dark "top-lit" scenario. Take the kino's and rig them into the ceiling pointing down. Then put some dif on them 216 or even something lighter like Opal. Make sure to allow the gel to hang down a bit, its called the Puffy Shirt technique. Then, take a long piece of Duvatine around 8-12 Inches thick and wrap it around the whole Kino covering the sides and the barn doors. This acts like a teaser and will kill a whole lot of the side spill. Then just go up or down on the lights until a desired effect is achieved. For a more cooler look on tungsten film swap two of the kino tubes for daylight so that there are two tungsten tubes and two daylight tubes, this is called a "Barber Pole." After that the HMI's can be used as a moonlight either green or even a slight lavender color would look cool as a backlight. As for the smaller heads, you can use them to accessorize the walls to create depth. Thats just a suggestion. Hope any of this helps!
Cheers,

Eric U.

Great! Thanks.. Any pictures would be GREAT!

ALSO, I am shooting DV 24P with the CANON XL2 with the Mini 35/Technik/Zeiss 2.1's

EricUlbrich · May 4, 2006

just be sure to go minimal with your lighting for shooting DV. DV reads into everything so if you want somehting moody make sure either light dark, or crush your blacks heavily in post. Hope it works out!

Justin Marx · May 4, 2006

just be sure to go minimal with your lighting for shooting DV. DV reads into everything so if you want somehting moody make sure either light dark, or crush your blacks heavily in post. Hope it works out!

Really?

EricUlbrich · May 5, 2006

yeah, its a consumer camera. Its designed to get a balanced exposure even in low light. If you have white walls its even harder becuase the sensor is designed to pick up whites first to gain its base exposure. Just go minimal, you should be fine.