Michael Reedy Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Greetings. just wondering if anyone has any previous experience for lighting under a forest canopy e.g. Tears Of The Sun, Predator, Castaway, etc. Are there any certain things to look out for or consider??? Thanks for your time, michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Michael Nash Posted September 30, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted September 30, 2004 Yeah, tree trunks cast shadows! :P Seriously, it can be hard to light from the sides without your actors walking through big shadows. It just takes a bit of careful blocking and placement of the lights (not to mention picking a somewhat clear area) to get the action to happen in the light. The natural light in the forest tends to be pretty toppy, so you often want to fill with soft light closer to eye level. Just watch out for the light starting to "burn up" on trees that are closer to the source. If there's hard broken sunlight coming down through the canopy, you've got your work cut out for you. On the one hand that dappled light can look beautiful, but on the other it can be a pain to balance the exposure. Rigging any kind of overheads becomes difficult with trunks and branches everywhere. I think big-budget movies like Predator would pick a clear spot to shoot, and then have a greens crew with portable trees and foliage able to move around to acommodate the photography. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Reedy Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 Thanks Michael, that pretty much sums it up for me. I guess i'm just going to have to get out there and test, test, test!!! I might end up climbing some trees with armed with a few lights and sunguns :P Maybe I should try my hand at some gardening and film in the backyard :huh: michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Laurent Andrieux Posted October 3, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted October 3, 2004 Also hard reflectors to bouce the sun light is very usefull. Mind that the greens always ar more dense than they look from your eyes (because of higher sensitivity of human eyes in greens than film or video) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Wells Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 I'm working with (cutting) material I shot in forrest/jungle in Vietnam. I had no lights, reflectors, or crew. It looks great. 7245. I let Kodak & nature do 75 %, or in this case - 100 % of the work :D (well maybe that's unfair to both my lab timer & colorist I'm working with, I did both film & video dailies for this) -Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Wells Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 " If there's hard broken sunlight coming down through the canopy, you've got your work cut out for you. On the one hand that dappled light can look beautiful, but on the other it can be a pain to balance the exposure. Rigging any kind of overheads becomes difficult with trunks and branches everywhere." OTOH this opens the possibility of doing your fill with broken up, ambiguous sources, a kind of "motivated" fill lighting. -Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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