Light up a church

jason joseffer · March 22, 2008

Hey all. Greetings from France. I am a San Francisco shooter currently living and working out here. I've got a short film coming up where I have to light up a rather large church. We will be filtering the camera to take on a desaturated blue-toned look. We are shooting HD 1080i on an HVX200 with 35mm adaptor kit. Here's what we have to work with-

4 X HMI 1.2

4 X HMI 800W

10 X Tungston 2K

and kinos and smaller stuff.

My idea for the large shots is to have the three 1.2K HMIs on Hi-Hi stands hidden behing the pillars projecting onto the ones just behind with gel filters to simulate beams of light from stain-glass windows. I then want to use the Tungston 2Ks to project beams of light up the columns beside all of the seats. I will probably gel the tungstons a greenish yellow. For ambiance we want to use the other 1.2K HMI into a giant white reflector facing the chairs from behind camera. We will also be using a hazer to highlight the beams of light. Long single bulb kinos will be placed behind the benches to gently illuminate the people in the front rows.

Any ideas you all may have would be greatly appreciated. I'm mostly concerned about our wide shots. We don't have access to any HMI's bigger than 1.2K. Thanks in advance.

Serge Teulon · March 22, 2008

By your selections I presume that its a daytime shot.

My advice is try and not use filtering on lens as you are already losing stops using an adaptor. You won't want to lose any more of your aperture.

Also, you can roll through colour temp to get the blue look you are after.

I would look to put the HMI's outside coming through the stainglass, using the colouring from the stained glass.

Is there any way that you can put up your giant white reflector horizontally above the scene?

Cheers

S

jason joseffer · March 22, 2008

Heya again. Yes it is daytime. And you are right. I will not be actually using filters, but will be manipulating the scene files to get the look we are after. My idea for the white reflector boards is to hang them up at a 45 degree angle and blast the HMI(s) into them giving it some direction into all of the peoples faces who will be seated on the benches. Any other ideas? thanks.

Kiarash Sadigh · March 22, 2008

Heya again. Yes it is daytime. And you are right. I will not be actually using filters, but will be manipulating the scene files to get the look we are after. My idea for the white reflector boards is to hang them up at a 45 degree angle and blast the HMI(s) into them giving it some direction into all of the peoples faces who will be seated on the benches. Any other ideas? thanks.

It's tricky, I would use hard back lights instead and not go with the reflector idea...I would also try to get a rather hot spot somewhere on a back wall or illuminating just a small group of people sitting in a corner...your hard back light helps you with the seperation and will also creat some ambience...perhaps just enough for you to tweak to your liking when you move to your close-ups

jason joseffer · March 23, 2008

Thanks. I like that idea of throwing some hard backlights into the seated people. But I think I still need to throw a greater level of ambiance by bouncing a couple HMI's as I am using a 35mm adaptor, which looses a great deal of light. And yes will be using 3 or 4 1.2k HMI's to create pools of light on the columns, then for a scene later in the day on the crowd/floor. Any more ideas all? Thanks.

Danny Haritan · March 20, 2009

I didn't want to start a new thread and thought my situation fit perfect in this existing thread.

This weekend, I'm shooting my Intermediate Cinematography project at a church. I'll be using the HVX200 with 1 Arri 575 HMI Fresnel w/Ballast, KW2 LSL 255 Location light kit and the Arri D4 Softbank Lighting kit. I was curious to what filters to use and lens' to use, if I need to use them at all and how much light to use. I'm shooting this during the early morning/afternoon and the whole church is filled with stain glass windows, so this allows a good bit of light. Also, I can use the overhead lights and chandeliers. My one main shot I need help to light with is the Balcony shot overlooking all the seats and the priest giving his sermon. Here are a few pictures I took of the church. Thanks for reading.

Ralph Keyser · March 20, 2009

Jason,

The church looks pretty dark in your shots. Do you have any significant windows to work with?

A bounced 1.2k won't carry all that far.

Please post some stills if you can of whatever you decide to do.

carl spring · March 22, 2009

for you jason, i would say blast through those beautiful windows just like Serge say's and cut the 35mm adaptor out of the equation and just keep you DOF low by using NDs and keeping the aperture open. the effect can be delicious

I would not bounce above but maybe side light(both right and left as is a natural thought for windows and light to some from all around in a church) the entire interior of the church using most of the 2k tungstons diffused(I know it seems like the easy way out to diffuse, but the effect would be nicer i think on this occasion) and stick them on Flood (maybe with some nice Amber gels? for some nice warmth and comfortable tones?, or without gels for the cold tones you are talking about).

use the pillars as some nice flagging and a good way to hide stands etc,

stick 4x HMI 1.2 blasting behind the stained glass windows (at front)

use 800w as filling for frontal shots.

That at a glance i Would start with that setup. and no doubt probably edit from there, switch every other side light off and check the feel of the setup. if all that fails, turn the sidelights all around to face the wall(without diffusion). turn one of the exterior HMIs off and bing badder boom soft light and beautiful effect, possibly worth a go to start as an easier option lol.

What do people think, have i gone crazy or does it sound like it could work?

sorry if confusion comes from this post, writing isn't my forte and my mind wanders alot :P

Hope this helps in some crazy way

Carl