Lighting for shoot at Border's Espresso Cafe

[Greg Gross]

Shooting scene for romantic comedy at a Border's store in the Espresso Cafe. The cafe

has a large window to the outside on the right side as faced from the coffee counter. A

large window to the outside is also at the rear of the cafe as faced from the coffee counter. To the left side of the cafe as faced from the counter is the infinity of the store

which is lit with numerous florescent lights from above (banks). The cafe poper is lit with

spots from above on the ceiling and from natural daylight from the windows. The coffee

counter is lit by numerous small HMI lights hanging from the ceiling on decorator cords.

The rear area of the coffee counter is lit from the ceiling with spots. I'll will be shooting

with a PD-170 in DVCAM mode. Son'y's finest professional tape will be used. I would

much rather shoot in 35mm. I'm the camera operator,DP, Gaffer. I have a sound man

and a production assistant. By the way I am also the grip. Now you know well that it

would not be any fun without major time constraints placed on me from Border's. My

female star will walk from the infinity of the store into the cafe and up to the coffee

counter. There at the coffee conter she will meet my male star and they will both walk

to a table and be seated. They meet accidentally when she drops a five dollar bill on

the floor at the coffee counter. My male star of course picks it up and hands it to her.

Most of the scene will be shot at the table and will be affected by spots in the ceiling and

natural light from the windows. Due that I'm shooting mini-dv I do not want to light too

intensely. Its quite possible that I'll be affected by florescent light spilling over. Does

anybody have any advice for keeping lighting simple due to time restraints? I'll begin

shooting late august or early september. Probalbly mostly close shots (mini-dv).

[Carlos M. Icaza]

Greg,

 

Could you post some digital pictures from the coffe place on a website somewhere and specifically at the time that you plan to shoot that way we can see how the place looks and what you are faced with ?

 

What kind of lighting equipment will you have available for the shoot?

 

C.-

[Mitch Gross]

I'd suggest bringing some daylight-balanced kinoflos and just running them around wherever you need. r maybe mix the color temp. of the bulbs in the kinos to emulate the mixed lighting that you have in the location. Try to stay away from looking directly out the windows too much so that they do not blow out and become distracting.

 

BTw, the little designer lights hanging from the ceiling are almost certainly tungsten MR-16 units, not HMIs. They should be close to 3400 K.

[Spider]

I would bring some floppys and a couple big cutters to work with the incoming daylight. Then i would propably bring two 4 kW and perhaps a pocket par 125 for some close.