Lighting a fireplace

Daniel Tan · February 28, 2005

Hi everyone,

I will be doing a scene with the actor standing in front of the fireplace at night. Shooting with 500T in 16mm. Assuming that the fire is the key light for the actor and I have to fake the fire light hitting on his face. It is a dramatic scene.

What is the best way to fake that fire light? I am thinking about using ChinaBall with full CTO. However, I am also thinking of using a harder source. It creates more of a dramatic effects with those hard shadows. Also what is the usual combination of gels for the color of fire?

How about flickering effects? I do not have access to a flicker box as of now.

Any advise or tips appreciated.

Thanks.

Regards,

Daniel

Laurent Andrieux · February 28, 2005

a soft source can be a choice, if you consider a fireplace as a soft source. I actually don't. I like better using an open face or a fresnel or even 2 or 3 small fresnels (300 or 500) in a row. Full cto may be a bit strong. 3/4 looks fine to me but you also can have a look at other gels like red flame, ambers etc. You can actually make a set of diffrent gel bits (including straw and others of your choice) and pass them in the front of a source. As to the flickering effect, you can dim your lights and have you or a gaffer "playing" with the dimmer. It works fine.

just a 2 cents...

DavidSloan · February 28, 2005

If you really want it to look good you should rent a flicker box-Magic Gadgets Shadowmaker-is my favorite. I recently did a camp fire effect by aiming 1k zips at the actors and a few 1k zips on the background...all on the shadowmaker. Came out great.

David Mullen ASC · March 1, 2005

One of the best firelight gags I've ever done involved waving my fingers and hands in front of an orange-gelled 2K Zip Light and I've done a number of jobs where I've waved my hands randomly between some lights and a diffusion frame to create flicker. Takes some skill in understanding how a fire shifts in intensity.

Now I usually use three orange-gelled lights (like Tweenies), two on flicker boxes, one straight, all three going through one frame of light diffusion to blend them, like Opal or 250.

You could also put some lights on separate dimmers and bounce them all into one card, or even a gold-foiled card. You could shoot the fireplace at an angle and line the inside with gold foil and have a couple of randomly dimming lights bounced into them

Jeremy · March 1, 2005

One of the best firelight gags I've ever done involved waving my fingers and hands in front of an orange-gelled 2K Zip Light and I've done a number of jobs where I've waved my hands randomly between some lights and a diffusion frame to create flicker. Takes some skill in understanding how a fire shifts in intensity.

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I was actually about to recommend that. We just did that last weekend with a tweenie on a dimmer aimed at the actress, totally blackwrapped with holes punched in it so I could control exactly where I wanted the light (which was a trick I stole from one of Bob Hayes incredibly helpful posts). We then had a guy who just stood in front of the light and wiggled his fingers. We also had close-ups in a later scene motivated by candle-light, and we were able to get a nice camera flicker by having a grip shine several maglights with the beam spread (instead of concentrated) through some diffusion, aimed at her face, and just waving them back and forth. It actually looked really, really good!

Daniel Tan · March 1, 2005

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think I will go for the hand gag in front of the light. Personally, I do not see fire as a soft light especially if it is coming from a fireplace with the actor standing in front of it. Also for this scene, a harder light for the actor is probably more suited in terms of drama.

Regards,

Daniel

Laurent Andrieux · March 1, 2005

Yes that's what you mentionned at the first place and I agree with that. Though I forgot to mention a bit of diffusion anyways, but that doen'st makes the source as soft as a china ball would do.