Lighting for night scene

[Toshi]

Hi everyone,

i'm wondering how do you light for a a night scene in a theater?

[Andrew Koch]

Do you mean like a theater with plays or a movie theater? Either way, why does it matter if it is day or night if you are inside a dark theater? The time of day would not affect the lighting. Or do you mean a scene on stage that takes place at night? Please clarify because I think this could be an interesting discussion.

 

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[Bob Hayes]

There are two schools of thought with regards to lighting a theater. One is the more realistic approach. The light from the screen should be the primary light on the faces and it should fluctuate in exposure and have a slight flicker. The other theory with I tend to like it that theater is a dark experience for the audience. The stage is lit but the audience feels as if they are in the dark. So I tend to backlight the audience usually from the projector in the back of the theater and use a minimal amount of fill. A little atmosphere will enhance the project beam.

[Toshi]

yep i mean i need to light a scene on stage which takes place at night. i'm looking at dogville for reference.

the problem is my stage has a very low ceiling, it's about 2.5m from top to bottom.

[Andrew Koch]

How you light this scene depends on what type of scene you are trying to create on stage? Are you doing an interior or an exterior. Night is often light more contrasty than day, so I would recommend keeping your fill light lower or even non existent depending on the look you are going for. Chinese lanterns can work with low cealings if you are having trouble keeping lights out of the shot because you can use them as practicals if the story calls for them. I would try to give you more specifics, but I'm not quite sure what your scene entails. Please be as specific as you can. Is this something you are filming, is this a live show? Does your theater have a catwalk or some sort of overhead railing?

 

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