Moonlight/Night effect for bedroom scene

[Matthew Moore]

I am in the middle of pre-production for a short that I will be shooting at the beginning of next month and I am getting caught up on how to approach the lighting for one scene in particular. The scene is set at night and involves two actors, laying in bed together. The shot will begin in a detail shot of one side of the room and will slowly pan around to pick up the bed and actors and will dolly-in, eventually settling on an overhead (the camera will be on a small jib) MCU on the actors. So a single take and no opportunity for me to alter lighting for close-ups...

 

There will be no visible motivation for the lighting--meaning that there will be no windows visible, though the look is supposed to be 'moonlight'. In fact, there are two windows, positioned perfectly, through which I could direct any number of lights, in combination with some interior lights, to achieve a nice moonlight effect--the problem is that, based on our actor's schedules, we can only do this scene during the day.

 

I have no experience with tenting windows, let alone for a room which is on the second floor of a house--and even if I were to tent the windows, wouldn't those lights be too close to the window to acheive the 'point-source' effect that one wants for moonlight? So I am looking at blacking out the windows and lighting the scene entirely from the inside

 

One approach that I thought of was to use an overhead light or two (a small coffin light, skirted china balls, or something along those lines) on a dimmer, so that I could establish a very dim, general light level over the bed--and over the starting point for the shot, which is at the wall opposite the foot of the bed--at which point I would then try to rake some splinters of "moonlight" across the actors faces, from the window side of the bed, maybe using a few 1/4 CTB, or other-blue-color-gelled, dedolights...

 

Of course, if I just rake "un-patterned" bluish light across the actors faces from the side, this basically means not having any effect that indicates moonlight through a window...no windowpane or tree branch patterns on the walls, etc. Even if I did want to acheive this effect, it seems to me that I wouldn't be able to get a cuke, branch or open frame with a 'window pane' pattern far enough from the light sources for it to be effective.

 

And, to make things worse, the house we are shooting in was built in the 19th century, so the ceilings are just over 7' tall. Ouch.

 

This is being shot on an XL1s, using the P+S Technick mini35 rig with Cooke primes.

 

Any suggestions or related experience that anyone could offer here would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers.

 

MM

[David Mullen ASC]

I once asked Allen Daviau about a location like that where I needed to light from the outside but couldn't and he said "try and find another location."

 

I mean, they write a scene where the light must be coming from the outside because the room lights are dark, and then they pick a location where this is impossible? Weren't you there for the location scout to say something? Maybe there's a room on the groundfloor that can be converted to look like a bedroom?

 

Are the windows off-camera? If so, you can black them from the inside. Sure, you can rig a blue-ish light to come from that direction (or any direction if no one knows where the windows are anyway). If you have Dedolights, you can get the projector attachment that allows you to throw gobo patterns on the subject.

[Matthew Moore]

David,

 

Thank you for your input. The funny (or not so funny) thing is that we selected this room precisely because it would be so easy to light from outside...unfortunately, however, we are having to schedule everything around the lead actor, who can't accomodate shooting the scene at night, because of some scheduling conflicts. Most of the first floor rooms are very large, so it might be difficult to try to convert them, but I can certainly look into that. Assuming that we are going to go with the second floor room, the windows will definitely be off-camera; the other side of the bed will be in the shot at a certain point, so the "moonlight" will have to come from the blacked-out window side.

 

MM

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I've done this, and it was a second-floor room with no way to tent windows. Thankfully we didn't actually have to see the windows, so I was able to put a polecat across with some 650W Arrilite fresnels well barndoored-down to provide the desired splinters.

 

Phil

[Matthew Moore]

And speaking of polecats, I was considering trying to use them in this scene, but the room is about 14' wide and the max. size polecat/matth pole is just over 14' in size. Even if I am hanging only one or two very lightweight instruments from it, am I asking for trouble? Would it be more sensible to opt for a pole spreader..?

[Bob Hayes]

Man there are so many ways to light a moon lit bedroom. My current favorite is to take a Baby, put ½ blue in the gel frame, open the doors and completely cover them doors with a nice new piece of black wrap. No light should spill. Then a take a screwdriver and punch small holes into the black wrap where I want the light to fall. On the face, the hands, etc.. This keeps the whole room dark except where you want the light to fall. And looks pretty natural. Like it is light through curtains or trees. One thing I am learning is fill is really important to keeping the scenes dark. If you light the scene at high contrast the faces will look lit and overexposed. And the rest of the room will look black. So a little soft fill will actually let you print it darker.

 

Bob

[Michael Nash]

Let me see if I understand this. The scene starts in a detail on one side of the room, and booms over to above the actor's faces, and you don't see the window? So why couldn't you dress another room, studio, or even the garage, with a bed, wall and dresser or other furniture?

 

Anyway, even if you do end up using a room that doesn't accommodate real window lighting, nothing says the light source has to be hard moonlight. In fact, most of the time the real "ambient" light you see in a room at night is soft, diffused, dim blue-looking light. You could use Kinos, bounce boards, or any other soft source right up against the wall as the key. The trick is to then cut the spill off of the wall and floor as much as possible to keep things looking dark and controll the ambient fill in the room.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Actually, this is the perfect opportunity to do something different. Why not a moonlight from the top, just hitting half the bed? Could be a skylight, a ceiling window - as long as you don't show it, they don't know, right?

[Matthew Moore]

Michael: Your understanding of the shot is correct and I know...what is the point of shooting on location if we can't make use of the location's natural attributes? I wasn't given specific direction that it needs to be moonlight; I considered simply creating a certain level of ambient 'nighttime' light, either from above, since the actors will be laying in bed, or from elsewhere in the room, but the way the script is structured (a series of flashbacks), we keep returning to this shot/scene (which is present day) throughout the short and I wanted to make sure that I strike the right balance between a believable nighttime effect and being able to see the actors well enough...so that is why I thought of a moonlight effect, to sort of 'motivate' their faces and portions of the bed, or even adjacent wall, being lit a bit more. But, as Bob mentioned, if I do go for that effect, I want to be careful about it looking too contrasty.

 

MM

[Matthew Moore]

Actually, this is the perfect opportunity to do something different. Why not a moonlight from the top, just hitting half the bed? Could be a skylight, a ceiling window - as long as you don't show it, they don't know, right?

Thank you for the suggestion, Adam. I was indeed thinking of offsetting the top light (if I go that route), because I think that it would read as 'light through a window' (wherever that window might be) much more than having the whole bed uniformly/evenly lit by some dim 'mystery' light, while the rest of the room is relatively dark...

[Leon Rodriguez]

If you take careful notes you can establish a proper large window source direction on the "fourth wall" by shooting the reversal in a second location which includes the window. Lighting direction and continuity have got to be spot on though. Use a digital still camera and document the details needed to recreate it. This will give you a chance to reschedule the actors for the reversal.

 

If you can't get it quite right, use a longer lens and establish it as a background for a CU and throw the background window out of focus. That's a good look; skin tone in the foreground and moonlight blue soft background. Anyway, It doesn't have to be a long duration but it should establish the existance of the window and justify the lighting source. Good luck with it.

[Michael Nash]

It's not that uncommon to have nightlight be somewhat "unmotivated." As long as there's some type of light coming in through the window to reveal detail, you sort of accept it as somewhere between ambient nightlight (streetlights and such) and moonlight. I used to worry a lot more about light always looking motivated; now I'm more concerned with the image just looking "right." I think the only light that has to be motivated is the one that calls attention to itself. Otherwise, soft light at low exposure tends to blend in and you can add it wherever it helps the image.

 

If you want to try a soft nightlight effect, you can always just shoot day for night, using the ambient daylight coming in through the window. Just white balance through some 1/2 or Full CTO to turn things bluish, and underxpose a little. Of course available light doesn't always serve up exactly what you're looking for, but sometimes in a pinch it's an easy solution. And since you don't see the window, you don't have to worry about things being overxposed outside.

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

Keep in mind you can use the set dressing to your favor too. Like having the covers a dark color so they drop off in exposure or having the character furthest from the light wearing a dark colored shirt. If the bed has a headboard maybe you could drape it with fabric so that it will contrast with the covers and the characters. That way you could divide the frame into three bands of tone: The headboard at the top of the frame a mid tone, the characters laying on light toned pillows in the middle and then very dark toned covers at the bottom of the frame.

[Matthew Moore]

Thank you all for your very generous advice. No matter what approach I ultimately go with, it is tremendously helpful to to see how different DP's approach the same challenge and it has given me much to think about. Cheers. MM

[Greg Gross]

I'm just learning cinematography(professional photographer). From

studying recently in lighting manuals,the first thing I thought of was

1K through the window with a blue gel of some type(not sure about

type of blue gel)do not want to start a fire. Assuming you want cool,

blue look of moonlight. I wondered to myself what I would do if some-

one said "Hey kid...I want some moonlight on this set in 30 minutes"!

[John Atala]

With the proper blue and white bal. preset on the pd 170, (under custom preset, i think) throw a arri 1k with a double CTB outside and flood it in order to, from the outside, stamp the light all over the wall & window, thus making a sort of diffused yet moonish light. ive seen some guys use a kino and kill themselves on the preset. i wouldn't consider that. if you want, you can also use a 300w also from the outside and bounce it on the window straight up. so, the 1k will be printing the light on the bed and on the actors, and the 300 will lighten the room from the light at the seeling, and further lighten the window.

 

sorry for lousy english-

 

good luck