Lighting advice part 2

[Phil Thompson]

Hi all.

 

Once again im about to do a Scene for my feature film 'Essex Stargate'.

 

It's a scene in a bedroom that involves a dying old woman and her daughter.

 

 

I'm renting one Cooke s4 18mm and one 35mnm Cooke. Shooting Super 35mm 250D fuji Stock.

Any ideas will help.

 

I was thinking of covering everything not in shot, in Black commando blackout fabric. I have 3 red heads with blue gels. Ideas?

 

Here is the space:

 

Edited July 25, 2012 by phil thompson

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Day or night shot?

If it was day; I would just use the light coming in the window, to fall in and kill spill with a solid. And use whatever lights extra for fill if necessary.

 

If it's a night shot, I would let the practicals go warm, and color correct later on, again, lighting with a single soft source from behind the actors to back-light them, with some fill.

[Phil Thompson]

It's a day time shoot. I'm going to hold off until late afternoon too hopefully get that nice golden afternoon light.

One thing that concerns me with shooting into essentially a massive light box, is it will be too overpowering.

I was thinking of breaking up that huge box of light with pieces of card in the window or something.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I think you're thinking too hard. Just draw the curtains, and let it go over maybe 2 stops, to still hold some details. Fill as needed, and you can always adjust your shots to not see the window, you know?

With the curtains drawn, too, you can shoot so long as there is light out (but get your wides when the light is best, of course).

 

I dunno what types of angles you're thinking off hand; but you could do some really beautiful work with a character sitting in front of the window-- acting as a back-light on them-- talking to the charcter in the bed (front lit by window) and a 800 or 2 as fill on the window character and backlight on the bed character. Shoot your wide from slightly off angle so you're not directly into the window-- perhaps with a slow dolly push in moving into a mid on the window character-- depending and assuming their reactions and/or dialogue is the most important thing in the scene.

Cut aways to bed person's hands; reaching, grabbing, any medical paraphernalia entering or exiting them. A nice OTS onto the bed character. Good shots of expressive eyes ect.

And in the end you can pull back and shoot through the doorway if you want them to "stay," there talking after the scene is ended. Or finish on a good shot of the two of them coming together ect.

 

This is all just off of the top of my head without any idea what's actually going on.

You could also reverse and keep the window @ your back- but I don't think this is a good solution.

[Orlando Magalhaes]

Hello all.

Following what has been said, I miss knowing what happens in the scene.

The light should always follow the language of the scene.

For example: Hard light to dramatic scenes and soft light to softer scenes.

Edited August 13, 2012 by Orlando Magalhaes

[Artyom Zakharenko]

maybe a silhouette of the person sitting on the bed, not too dark, make sure the ambience is high enough to see detail

but again it depends on the story

[Mathew Rudenberg]

Every DP will could have a different approach to the scene. I would use a lot of neg fill and let the soft light coming through the window act as key. Then use a little redhead boounce for eyelight/fill as necessary.

 

My other advice would be not to throw the word 'retard' around. It's unpleasant, insensitive, and should not be part of a reasonable discussion between peers.

[Phil Thompson]

Sorry Mr Rudenberg. It won't happen again.