Gradient Walls

[Spencer Hutchins]

In my thesis film coming up, a scene requires the lighting of "isolated gray cell". I want the cell the have one source of light but achieve the look of a black to gray gradient falling down the wall.

 

My plan at this point is to rig a space light from above with a skirt. This would fall straight towards the bottom of the walls (exposing the gray) and slowly lose light toward the top to fade to the black. How would this effect the talent's skin tones, and would the direction of the light play with the talent's facial features?

 

Any other suggestions, problems, or better ways to do this are very much welcomed!

 

Thanks for reading!

[Chris Keth]

It depends on what you do with the space light. You could put a silk disc on the bottom and it would give you a base of soft toplight for your talent. You can double up on the silk if you want the light on the walls hotter than the stuff coming straight down. If you don't want that base of toplight, you can put a solid on the bottom of the space light. Spacelights are tungsten fixtures and won't affect skintones any differently than any other tungsten fixture.

[Spencer Hutchins]

Thanks for the info Chris!

 

I guess when I was worrying about the face of the talent I was more concerned about the shadows on his face, (light would be above and behind talent) if that were the only source in the scene.