Casting patterned shadows?

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

I'm sure we're all familiar with the famous shot from "In Cold Blood" of the rain droplets on Robert Blake's face. I was wondering if anyone's had the opportunity to recreate this scene in any way. Here's a poor image of the scene, it doesn't show the effect, but just to jog your memories:

 

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/sho....cold.blood.jpg

 

Also, for a shot I have planned in a couple weeks I had the idea of casting the shadow of some white see-through patterned curtains onto an opposing wall. Any hints as to how I should go about accomplishing this? A hard open faced light? A spotted or flooded fresnel? I've yet to test out how to do it, so I was just wondering if anyone else had any tips before I did.

 

thanks!

 

Jon

 

ps- tonight I'll put up a captured frame from Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" to give you an idea of what I'm trying to do.

Edited November 8, 2006 by Jonathan Bowerbank

[Stuart Brereton]

An open faced lamp should give you some nice shadows from net curtains. Just remember to keep the distance between the lamp and curtains greater than the distance between the curtains and the wall.

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Thanks Stuart, I figured as such. Did a couple lighting setups today in prep for the shoot and found that out. I'm still not sure how big my set's going to be, so hopefully I'll have enough space to do it.

 

cheers!

 

Jon

[Tomas Koolhaas]

Mole fresnels on flood with the lens swung away also look very good for patterns.

[Hal Smith]

A Source Four Ellipsoidal with a 50 degree lens barrel in it will project a pretty good sized gobo pattern in close quarters. I have a GAM 631 "Curtains" steel gobo that looks like living room curtains pulled back I've used a couple times for the look you described. http://www.gamonline.com/index.php

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Thanks all for your invaluable suggestions :)

 

Here's an example of the type of setup I'm doing, from Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt"

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/rem...girlbedwDad.jpg

 

The curtains' shadow to the right is what I had in mind

[David Mullen ASC]

Thanks all for your invaluable suggestions :)

 

Here's an example of the type of setup I'm doing, from Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt"

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/rem...girlbedwDad.jpg

 

The curtains' shadow to the right is what I had in mind

 

On a stage, I'd probably use a 10K with the fresnel removed to create that sharp pattern, although you won't get a lot of exposure from it once you back it off enough (the farther the light, the sharper the pattern.) Back then, they would have used a carbon arc lamp for that effect.

[Stuart McCammon]

Google the word "cukuloris" - most often just a sheet of metal you put in front of the light, can make your own with tin snips and other common tools -

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

Google the word "cukuloris" - most often just a sheet of metal you put in front of the light, can make your own with tin snips and other common tools -

 

a cookie's not the effect I'm goin' for. The curtain in the shot is going to be blown around a bit by a fan so there's a nice moving shadow of it on that wall.