Lighting Ideas for a Quick Shoot

Seth Slavin · January 16, 2005

I will be conducting a quick 7 hour shoot with a 9 person crew nine days from now. This is for a class I am taking which has an emphasis on learning crew positions rather than the final outcome of the film. Because of this I want to experiment with the lighting. It is a short 2min30sec scene taken from a larger script I have written. It's a two character scene, basic outline is that a man's protege in a crime Syndicate has now come to see his extermination because the Mentor has let his REAL son get away with something treacherous to the Syndicate. The protege who was LIKE a son now has to carry out the Syndicate's orders to see his Mentor's end. Its quite cliched taken out of context but that's beside the point. It will be shot in a studio with a large window (with curtain's.) There will just be a table with some simple blocking around it (walking to the window, and around the table.) Ok well there is the setup. I am looking for some neat lighting ideas to fit the script. Here was my idea so far (please correct me if anything I say or assume is incorrect.)

Shoot Tungsten balanced film. Use a partial CTO (1/2?) camera filter to get a cool blue from the window which will be lighting the Master, whereas the Protege (who will be the murderer) will be lit a little warmer. The last shot is going to be the Protege strangling the Mentor(CU-just their faces) and I think the different color temperatures will look good. Also would it be easier to shoot Daylight balanced film and CTB filter the camera or does it not result in the same cool blue? The scene is quite dialogue heavy so it will be 20 second takes or so I would think.

We're required to shoot one 400' roll, no more, no less. Since I have the crew and the time I want to make this a good learning experience, and the bad thing about college education is that I can't just sit down with my professor and say "ok here's what I have planned, how would you do it? Do you think this would look good?" because we're of course...being graded (that and my professor knows more about booming than lighting.) I'd really appreciate any feedback; both to my ideas so far and also how any of you more experienced DP's would light this scene. If anyone would really like to help me out I have the script and shotlist which would of course make it easier to understand the scene.

Chris Keth · January 16, 2005

I wondered if I'd run into anyone from school here :D

Um, first the CTO (or 85B it's usually called if it's on the camera) wouldn't result in a cool blue at all. It would render daylight from the window (I take it the studio is Northlight?) white and the tungstens will be rendered orange.

If you wanted to shoot daylight balance film, you wouldn't CTB the camera (the camera filter equivalent for that is, I think, an 80B), you would CTB (or half perhaps) the tungsten lights. This would render everything normally on daylight film.

Personally, I think I'd take advantage of the window and light it as sunset or sunrise. Do something really cool, it's your opportunity to experiment.

When does the scene take place? Day interior?

Chris Keth · January 16, 2005

Actually, if you asked Cat REALLY nice, you may be able to get HMIs and wouldn't have to worry about CTBing tungstens if you leave the window open.

Seth Slavin · January 16, 2005

Yeah. Hah, whats up Chris? But yeah I wasn't going to use a full 85B. I said 1/2 CTO. And I don't really want to use HMI's because I was going to experiment with mixing color temperatures. I'm not interested in rendering either the tungsten or daylight light sources white, I want to have a mixture of light blue and orange. But utilizing the window and lighting for a sunset could be pretty cool.

Chris Keth · January 17, 2005

Yeah. Hah, whats up Chris? But yeah I wasn't going to use a full 85B. I said 1/2 CTO. And I don't really want to use HMI's because I was going to experiment with mixing color temperatures. I'm not interested in rendering either the tungsten or daylight light sources white, I want to have a mixture of light blue and orange. But utilizing the window and lighting for a sunset could be pretty cool.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mmk, I didn't know what you had in mind, I just thought you had CTO and CTB backwards the way you wrote it.

Perhaps you could use a slight warming filter like a straw or half straw on the camera. It would make the tungstens go warmer than white and it would leave the daylight blue, but not as much so as without the filter.

Edited January 17, 2005 by Mr. Bunnies

Michael Nash · January 17, 2005

You guys are mixing the names of lighting gels with camera filters. CTO, CTB, and 1/2 straw are gels. The corresponding camera filters would be 85 or 85B; 80A; and probably an 81 EF for 1/2 straw. An 812 filter gives about the warmth of 1/4 CTO gel. Something like an 82C might be about like 1/2 CTB.

Perhaps there is a filter called "straw," I don't know. But this becomes relavent when you need to order the camera package and ask for a "Half CTO filter." The school equipment room person may look at you funny!

Matt Pacini · January 17, 2005

I did something this weekend that was quick, easy, required no moving of lighting gear for different camera setups, and looked really cool!

I hung a big piece of Muslin overhead, put two 650 watt tungsten lights facing down, and had natural light coming in from the side windows, added just a bit of fog.

It gave a nice, warm soft toplight, and the sunlight coming in from the sides back & sidelit everything.

Really nice looking, and once I was done setting the lights, that was it.

If you did this setup, with most of your light coming from above, you'd get that cool "Godfather" look, which might be really suitable for your subject matter.

Matt Pacini