Student in need of advice for lighting scheme.

[Ismail Jamaludin]

Hello all,

 

I have a quick question. I'm trying to shoot a short film, based in a car at night, using the HVX200 HD Camera, but I'm trying to get the kind of style that is present in Underworld, specifically the car scene (since my flick is in a car).

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=X4NhDxNCL1o

 

This link shows what I'm talking about. I've done one test shot with two kinoflos sitting near the windows of both the passenger seat and driver seat, and with a large HMI as backlights. The test footage came out pretty bad, but we achieved to get the color correction close to the movie, through post. But the point is, it looks nothing like the film. I'm feeling a bit confused on how to replicate the lighting scheme.

 

Any ideas on how they did it?

 

Cheers,

Ismail.

[Frank Barrera]

That scene is lit in a fairly straight forward manner. As you surmised already, there is a soft (probably controlled bounced) in front of the car and something also controlled off the alley walls coming from behind. It is impossible to know what you did "wrong" without seeing exactly what your test looks like. You need to post a still image.

 

f

[Jamie Metzger]

Im possible to know, but definitely a dark wardrobe helped (esp leather ;) ) Using a soft source gives a slightly wrappy feel, but falls off very quickly into the shadows. They definitely pulled contrast in post, making any detail in the shadows disappear pretty quick.

 

I would suggest testing this, with different exposures with different amounts of fill in each situation. This is a look that is pretty easy to achieve, but not very easy to come back from if you go too far. Make you and the director happy, and test.

[Ismail Jamaludin]

Ok, here are the screen shots from the tests. I'm sorry I can't get better, but the other footage was just horrible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If possible, could you guys suggest on what specific lights to use? I know it seems like the easy way out ^_^ but I'm a newbie at this and I would really like to learn.

Edited April 17, 2008 by Ismail Jamaludin

[robert duke]

you dont look too far off, but I think it is more your placement of lights. there is a back light not present in your tests and too much fill as compared to the underworld scene.

 

the back light you have seems to come from in front of the passenger side when it should have come from the rear passenger side/driver side, making it more of a rim edge than a true backlight. everything seems to come from the front of the car in your shot. look at the frame where you can seem the stripe down the actors face in underworld ( tc1:03).

 

also your actors makeup was to glossy. the underworld makeup was flat.

[Ismail Jamaludin]

you dont look too far off, but I think it is more your placement of lights. there is a back light not present in your tests and too much fill as compared to the underworld scene.

 

the back light you have seems to come from in front of the passenger side when it should have come from the rear passenger side/driver side, making it more of a rim edge than a true backlight. everything seems to come from the front of the car in your shot. look at the frame where you can seem the stripe down the actors face in underworld ( tc1:03).

 

also your actors makeup was to glossy. the underworld makeup was flat.

 

Thanks a bunch, Robert. Those helped a lot. Actually, I didn't use make up, which I probably should have. ^^ I'll take all that you've said and use it in the next round of test shooting. This time we are trying HMIs with diffusion paper as well as daylight filters. We might use a few kinoflos to light the faces a bit more.

 

I have another question, though. Seeing the film again, and taking into consideration that the color was done in post, is it important to have all the lights the same temperature? In other words, is it needed to have all of the lighting in the same color?

 

Cheers,

Ismail.