newbie lighting questions

[jason duncan]

As a newbie who is obsessed with Super 8, I've realized lighting is as important to film as a roof is to a house. I plan on shooting in an office with mediocre lighting with reversal film using a Canon 1014 xls. What size light source? What about a grifflon? and how big? Where do you buy that stuff nowadays. With our poor economy, all of my local camera shops have gone the way of the do-do bird.

[David Mullen ASC]

A griflon is just a white plastic-covered sheet used to bounce light off of. You could use a white bedsheet if you needed a large bounce surface like that.

 

In terms of lighting an office, it all depends on the look you want to achieve, if you have to match the color of existing light sources, whether it is a day or night scene, moody, etc. In a typical daylight office with lots of windows and flourescents, you have to figure out which color is more dominant and match to that, perhaps using flourescent lighting units. Or perhaps you can turn off the overheads and not deal with that color. Or close the windows and not deal with that color, etc. Depends on the location.

 

And if you are using a Super-8 camera without a crystal-sync motor, you may want to shoot a test to see if the overhead flourescents flicker on film. If they do, you may have no choice but to turn them off.

[jason duncan]

A griflon is just a white plastic-covered sheet used to bounce light off of. You could use a white bedsheet if you needed a large bounce surface like that.

 

In terms of lighting an office, it all depends on the look you want to achieve, if you have to match the color of existing light sources, whether it is a day or night scene, moody, etc. In a typical daylight office with lots of windows and flourescents, you have to figure out which color is more dominant and match to that, perhaps using flourescent lighting units. Or perhaps you can turn off the overheads and not deal with that color. Or close the windows and not deal with that color, etc. Depends on the location.

 

And if you are using a Super-8 camera without a crystal-sync motor, you may want to shoot a test to see if the overhead flourescents flicker on film. If they do, you may have no choice but to turn them off.

 

 

 

Wow, thanks David. I didn't even consider the flicker from the flourescents.

Edited October 21, 2007 by jason duncan