lighting a white box

[Kara Stephens]

I have a shoot coming up where the entire script take place in a 4 x 7 x 4 white box. I'll be (hopefully) shooting on 5217. The walls and ceiling will all be able to fly away in order to fit camera and lights. My thought was to hang chicken coops or space lights from above, and then bring in an Image 80 or 4x4 Kino's for when I see the ceiling. There will also be 4 bare bulbs on the floor. It's been a while since I've shot film, so I'm a bit nervous. How many stops over skin tone should the white be? And how many stops over should the bulbs be so they look like they're working but not blown out? And if anyone has a better lighting idea, I would love to hear it.

[Kristy Tully]

4ft length X 4ft width X 7ft height?

[Peter Tripodi]

Wow, that sounds cool!

 

The first thing that came to my mind was translucent walls, then you could vary the amount of fill from behind your set, not so bright that it looks like they're in a soft box. I guess the wide shots will only be so wide.

 

I've never done any thing like that. I would love to try. Could there be a second set of walls with slots to accommodate lights? Is the interior going to be bright, or dim like an enclosed box?

 

Sorry I couldn?t help. I just had to comment that it sounds like a fun challenge.

 

Good luck.

[Kara Stephens]

It's actually 4' wide, 7' long and 4' high. I'm thinking now of hanging kino's through light grid and removing the ceiling, and then having a 2' 4 bank kino for some front light (or 3/4 light) and some negative fill. The set is meant to be bright, bright white, but I don't want things glowing.

[Kristy Tully]

Sounds good. Your challenge will be making your subject stand out from the white walls. Pretty tight quarters for white walls. Kinos aren't so easy to cut. But, the 2' 4bank should allow you to make sure the subject is lit and doesn't just get lost compared to the white walls. As long as you keep using your spot meter to keep the ratio between the white walls and your subject in range you should be in good shape. I like 7217.

 

It's actually 4' wide, 7' long and 4' high. I'm thinking now of hanging kino's through light grid and removing the ceiling, and then having a 2' 4 bank kino for some front light (or 3/4 light) and some negative fill. The set is meant to be bright, bright white, but I don't want things glowing.