Lighting breakdown...

[Jonathan Spear]

Hey all,

 

 

I'm getting closer and closer everyday to my first short and the director and I have finally found the "look" we want.

 

The story takes place in the heart of an enchanted forest. After being chased into the forest by a large black dog with hellish eyes (my friend's dog Brutus) the main character, a poor servant/slave addicted to his master's magic potions, once again changes his body chemistry with the help of a hallucinogenic potion, thus altering his POV (also a literal change in lighting, filtration and camera work from here on - turning the once dark, ethereal forest into a place the main character ultimately refuses to leave.) and "opening" his mind to a hidden world of talking forest creatures, a seductive nymph with poisonous lips and ultimately a tragically pleasing alternative to his somewhat miserable life (after all, being a slave /servant HAS to suck).

 

While the story ends with a kiss between the nymph and the slave, it turns out to be a tragic 'kiss of death' because as the title explains ("Stolen Kiss") the act of theft, the tragedy of addiction and being bound to serve another human being all proceed the kiss itself and are more real than the hallucination caused by the magic potion itself. His hallucinations are real - but so are the consequences of his actions.

 

With this in mind we chose to begin the story from a tragic, desperate and lonely angle to enhance the feeling of being a slave yet having the option to escape reality. once the slave drinks the sparkling blue potion - everything changes from tragic and desperate to magical, innocent and seemingly eternal. In other words, we're going to gradually "build" our enchanted forest into the epitamy of all that's good in the main character's mind as the story progresses. When the story ends, we finally understand the mysterious young slave but it is already too late.

 

After searching the web for hours I finally stumbled across the PERFECT EXAMPLES of LIGHTING PATTERNS I'm trying to incorporate into our story, ironically from the film that inspired our short - Disney's Fantasia (1940).

 

Imagine the following images "real life" and not animated - the lighting, light levels, shadows and general ambience are all we're really interested in:

 

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1. http://www.inetres.com/gp/anime/fantasia/f05_00.jpg

 

- If this were a frame from a live action film and not an animated one how would a shot like this be lit? What filters and stocks, processing and post effects would be used to get the etheral bluish tint in such low lighting conditions.

 

-can this be acheived with day for night technique, using tungsten stock in daylight lighting? Would I need to underexpose, overexpose or push the stock for better results with such extreme ranges of light? What stock will give me the best results for a situation like this? Would a 1/8-1/4 promist + fog machine soften up the image too much? What are the alternatives?

 

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2. http://www.inetres.com/gp/anime/fantasia/f04_02.jpg

3. http://www.inetres.com/gp/anime/fantasia/f04_03.jpg

 

- Imagine the fairy were a glass bottle filled with a sparkling purple-blue liquid.

How would I light that to make the liquid's glow?

 

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There are a ton of questions in this thread, and I'll be honst, I'm still learning and don't really know if I'm asking the right questions, but any answers and information will be GREATLY appreciated as always...

 

THanks,

 

Jon.

[David Mullen ASC]

I don't think you'd be able to create those lighting effects in a day for night situation because the daylight would overpower the artificial lighting needed.

 

To get things to halate (glow) you need diffusion of some sort (smoke, filters) and small areas of intense overexposure. You could create that glow with even smoke indoors and a hidden light source, or if the source could be visible in the frame, with a fog filter or something similar (heavy ProMist for example.) The glowing bottle, if done in-camera, would require a light bulb hidden inside and a diffusion filter on the camera, again, maybe a fog filter for example.

 

Here's an example of a fog filter and a hidden light bulb creating halation:

 

 

Test.

[Jonathan Spear]

Hey David,

 

We're going to try some test shots using the techniques you mentioned and see what ultimately works best. I like the idea of hidden light sources mixed with smoke, and I'm also going to try some mattebox mounted blacklights and flourescent liquid for the glowing bottle trick.

 

The only thing that really worries me is not getting enough lights in our lighting kit to properly light up the forest EXT and the actors. But I see what you're saying about daylight overpowering the artificial lighting and I'll need to test some of the faster stocks.

 

The frame you attached to your post is an awesome example of what I'm going for in terms of light levels, range and contrast. Do you happen to have the specs (stock, ASA, T-stop) on that specific shot so I can get a better idea of the exposure factors I'll be working with if I end up shooting in similar lighting conditions?

 

Thanks,

 

-Jon

[David Mullen ASC]

This shot was from "Superman: The Movie" so it was shot in 35mm Panavision anamorphic on 5247 (125 ASA), perhaps pushed one stop (since he was balancing with big rear projection screens in this scene.) The filter is probably a #2 Fog, and the set was smoked as well. I have no idea what light fixture was used in the prop but I'm sure it was bright.

[Guest fstop]

I seem to recall in the making of it wasn't a bulb of any kind but just fibre optic stuff- they have a shot of it opened up with the wire going down around Brandos arm. The halation from the filters actually makes the light bleed together to give the illusion of a big bulbous light source in there.

 

While I'm here, for anyone interested, here's a bit on cheating:

 

The other thing to bare in mind is that although in this sequence they give the impression that there is one big light beam coming from beneath the three Kryptonians as seen here (a miniature and optical used as a long shot):

 

 

In actual fact, as evidenced in this shot:

 

 

the scene was actually mostly lit from above using a circular pipe rig of 5k or 10ks (or something similar) pointed inwards on dimmers- underneath the talent was a smoked plexiglass floor with a smaller yet similar rig beneath and Unsworth has the lighting choreographed like in a theatre, alternating from top and bottom for ultimate dramatic/photogenic potential- for example, here is Sarah Douglas as Ursa:

 

 

Yet Terry Stamp as Zod is somewhere else!!:

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen: THAT is "cheating" to the Nth degree!! :D

Edited February 20, 2005 by fstop