Clay Tayler Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 (edited) I need to light 2 cabins (during two seperate shoots) and both these cabins are out in the middle of nowhere so I have no power, hence no lighting other then candle light. I've already found extra bright candles on an online website but I'd also like to know what materials you guys suggest that I can use to reflect the candle light. Do you know of special lanterns that can magnifiy or harden the light? Even just some links to other sites or names of material would be helpful. Also what's the best way to color balance a scene lit with candle light? I'll be shooting with a Sony DV camera (about a 5000$ camera) but the exact name escapes me. Should I do anything inparticular to color/white balance or what technics can I experiment with to alter the appeance of the color. And keep in mind I'm virtual on a zero dollar budget so any thing you can suggest that I can make at home, any kind of light magnifiers etc would be great. I've already begun building a dolly with tracks, a core that spins and a lift. and am working on a cooling system for a fog machine I'll be renting, so I'm not afriad of building things. I'll also be renting some lighting equipment but would rather not rent bounces and flags, so if you guys could suggest what materials I could buy to build my own, that'd be great. Edited January 26, 2005 by Clay Tayler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Sexton Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Take a generator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 26, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 26, 2005 Take a generator. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Or some lantern-style flashlights with extra batteries. Mirrors were used in the past to augment candlelight. You don't want to correct out all the warmth of a candle but you could find a way to white-balance on something that would take out half the warmth. Either white-balance onto a white card lit with a tungsten flashlight gelled Half Orange, or a half orange card, or with a light orange filter on the lens -- or white-balance to a candlelit card that is blue-ish, or put a blue-ish filter on the lens, just for the white-balance. If you're lighting scenes with just real candles, I'm not sure what grip equipment you really need other than maybe some blackwrap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Tayler Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Take a generator. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> LOL, well of course that crossed my mind, but if I take a generator I also have to rent lights... that means lights and a generator, plus grip equipment... that all adds up to MONEY... which I have little... besides I like the idea of lighting totally with candle light and just controlling it that way, with mirrors or magnifine glass... it just adds a cool more real effect... and if i light it correcly the first try it also means i don't need to move lighting around when i do reverse shots because the candles can be visible... it's just a matter of moving some mirrors etc... thanks Dave, those were some good suggestions... Anyone else have suggestions for magnifying candle light? What exactly do you mean by Lantern style lights.. wouldn't that produce an artificial look rather then a real candle flicker? do you have links to examples of what you mean Dave? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidSloan Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Will all these candles be in the shot? Savides likes to bunch up movie candles and bounce them off a show card, the result is a soft and extremely warm look. If you don't use any sort of fill, or set lights, and just let the candles light the scene you'll probably end up with a very dirty, grainy video image which won't be very pleasing. What you want to do can work on 35 mm, and maybe S16, but video...I don't think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chainsaw Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Sheets of mylar taped to a show card will provide excellent reflective qualities. It will be spottier than white show card or foam core but it will bounce/reflect much more into your scene. Depending on what you are shooting why do you want to pull the warmth out of your candles? Nowhere is there a written rule that light has to be white. On a recent music video (shot in a forest) instead of hauling a generator and lights out to the middle of nowhere I/we lit everything with natural fire and an immense series of road flares suspended off of grip arms. Of course the flares only last for about 15 minutes and are extremely red but it was the look we needed. Before anyone posts anything about set safety; we did have several fire extinguishers and buckets of sand that were put to use. Be creative and consider any and all portable light sources that are either chemical or battery powered to enhance or simulate your candlelight. If you use candles alone you will need a lot of them. Don't think this to be a stupid question but are you shooting at night? If there is any way for you to shoot an interior day-for-night and use the existing sunlight (via reflectors) to enhance your scene you may want to look into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Tayler Posted January 26, 2005 Author Share Posted January 26, 2005 Will all these candles be in the shot? Savides likes to bunch up movie candles and bounce them off a show card, the result is a soft and extremely warm look. If you don't use any sort of fill, or set lights, and just let the candles light the scene you'll probably end up with a very dirty, grainy video image which won't be very pleasing. What you want to do can work on 35 mm, and maybe S16, but video...I don't think so. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not all candles would be in the shot I'd use some candles as fill, like bouncing or reflecting them off whatever materials... like i mentioned above.... and yes, as redundant as this sounds, i'd use some sort of fill, hence my question what would be good to maginify the candle light or reflect it etc. I'd use that magnified light to fill a shot and then use an even harder source as the key... I was thinking of mirrors but show cards would work... would u suggest a gold show card or a silver...? Gold might make it TOO warm... so i think i'd go with silver... and if David Mullen explains what he meant by lamps to me, I may even use some kind of battery powered lamps... my goal is to make this look as clean and as nice as possible but if i use actual lights I'll end up drawning out the candles... and Film is not an option... i'm stuck with a DV camera and just got ot figure out how I can light it so it looks good... I guess I can also play with my shutter speed and slowly it down, since the scene involves intoxicated people it would add to the effect with a slower shutter speed... I guess I'll just have to experiment, but I think I can do this witha little planning and testing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riku Naskali Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 You could also buy some little light bulbs and wire them to a portable battery. They are particularly good to hide on torches, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidSloan Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Not all candles would be in the shot I'd use some candles as fill, like bouncing or reflecting them off whatever materials... like i mentioned above.... and yes, as redundant as this sounds, i'd use some sort of fill, hence my question what would be good to maginify the candle light or reflect it etc. I'd use that magnified light to fill a shot and then use an even harder source as the key... I was thinking of mirrors but show cards would work... would u suggest a gold show card or a silver...? Gold might make it TOO warm... so i think i'd go with silver... and if David Mullen explains what he meant by lamps to me, I may even use some kind of battery powered lamps... my goal is to make this look as clean and as nice as possible but if i use actual lights I'll end up drawning out the candles... and Film is not an option... i'm stuck with a DV camera and just got ot figure out how I can light it so it looks good... I guess I can also play with my shutter speed and slowly it down, since the scene involves intoxicated people it would add to the effect with a slower shutter speed... I guess I'll just have to experiment, but I think I can do this witha little planning and testing... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> If you're going in for really tight CUs, you can probably take a bunch of candles bounced off a white showcard and place them really close to the face...that should look nice. Actual movie lights will not drown out the candles at all. It's the easiest thing to simulate a candle lit shot, while using the candles in the frame. A Dedo kit or an Inkie with a dimmer works wonders, you can also use a Magic Gadgets Shadow Maker, and even chinese lanters on a boom, are great. Are there windows in the shot...do you need moon light, fill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 27, 2005 Premium Member Share Posted January 27, 2005 Most candlelight scenes in movies are lit with more than real candles, mainly for more exposure, so if you do it well, audiences well accept that the scene is candlelit. For example, "Amadeus" used double-wicked candles (for bigger flames) shot wide-open for maximum exposure, and augmented with oranged-painted lightbulbs inside Chinese Lanterns for a soft warm glow. The key is to use dim-enough artificial lights to not overpower the candles, plus gel the lights to match the candles' color. I mean, you could just light a LOT more candles off-camera for fill or key effects, but that's a lot of heat plus a fire hazard. You could create fill effects by bouncing some orange-gelled flashlights off of white cards, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sean McVeigh Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 and of course, never neglect the value of your car headlights! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Tyler Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 and of course, never neglect the value of your car headlights! Yeah - If you've got a vehicle nearby, you'd be a lot better off with a cheap $30 power inverter and a couple of hardware store clip lamps with 50w watt bulbs. Spring for some cheap inline dimmers and you'd be good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felipe Perez-Burchard Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 (edited) Savides likes to bunch up movie candles and bounce them off a show card, the result is a soft and extremely warm look. The man is a genious, here is a pic of this very situation... Don't think this to be a stupid question but are you shooting at night? If there is any way for you to shoot an interior day-for-night and use the existing sunlight (via reflectors) to enhance your scene you may want to look into it. Mr. Myles, welcome back, I haven't been exposed to your wisdom in a while... I am doing a project involving this as well... and I'm intrigued about this possibility. Do you mean have the reflectors outside the location, hitting the subjects for our warm candlelight key through the windows, the ambient daylight as fill, the candles more as props (but also for lighting), expose so it looks like night; this might work very well just as long as we don't see the windows, right? but what if we do want to see the windows (and not pretend the blue daylight is blue moonlight)? or do you mean the reflectors inside? Thanks. -felipe. Edited January 27, 2005 by felipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rik Andino Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 You can buy a spare jumper batteries at any hardware store for 30 bucks Hook it up with a 1Kw inverter(about 70 bucks) and you don't need a car Use the clip lamps like Tim suggested and few China Balls (chinese lanterns) And then do the whole candle thing and the slower shutter speed Experiment a bit and it might work... I reccomend "lighting only with candles" as an experiment Just don't "light only with candles" because you don't have the money Lighting is affordable if you think long enough how to get power You can even rent a jenny from Home Depot for about 50 bucks a weekend Anyways good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Tayler Posted January 27, 2005 Author Share Posted January 27, 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Tayler Posted January 27, 2005 Author Share Posted January 27, 2005 fire pit is right here inside the porch looking into the cabin inside the cabin looking towards the door reverse of above photo attempt at a day for night look facing the stove Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR Posted January 27, 2005 Share Posted January 27, 2005 I would most certainly take cars/batteries a couple of invertors, dimmers and several sizes of china balls and bulb types. Also some duvetyne and bounce boards. All this would be augmentation to the candle light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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