Strip Club w/ 7217...ambient concerns?

[Ian Coad]

in 10 days i will be shooting in a strip club. i'm concerned about letting the shadows and the low lit ambience go too dark. i need to raise the level with the key, which i know will cause the dark areas to go deeper. i'm wondering if anyone has suggestions about bringing up the ambient level without flattening things out, or making the ambience become obviously lit.

 

i'm used to using the 7219 stock from kodak but will be shooting 7217 this time and know that comparatively the latter allows the shadows to die much faster.

 

this is an example of the perfect relationship between light and dark that i would ideally be going for: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqqY07OZWps

 

i believe jeff cronenweth shot this and i just wonder if he had to deal with ambient concerns - though i don't know what stock he used.

 

any advice would really be appreciated.

[jeff woods]

I don't know if this goes against your "obviously lit" concern, but what about some small floor units streaking up walls behind patrons (assuming they are in the shot), giving you interest in the shadows without compromising depth?

 

-j

[Saul Rodgar]

7217 has a good deal of latitude. I have shot with it at night with no movie lights, under practicals at store fronts at T2, and the results have been good _the sodium vapors on the street providing a very nice burnt orange background, with cars driving by.

 

The example you posted uses a searchlight to "reveal" people and things. If you have a bright, focusable light like that available to you and you intend to use that technique, it doesn't really matter how dark it is as your searchlight will reveal the people or things in the frame.

 

But, t really depends on your budget, the amount of lights you have available and how fast your lenses are _but first and foremost, how do you intend on lighting it? That is what you really need to be asking yourself, as everything else will be dependent on that.

 

Also taking pictures of the actual strip club, taken under working strip club lighting conditions, would be helpful to post.

 

I personally think that if you bring some light fixtures to light the areas where the action you need to focus on, letting everything else be lit by the club's practicals, could be as simple and realistic as anything you would find at a strip club. Generally speaking they are dark and moody anyway . . .

Edited March 26, 2009 by Saul Rodgar