Any thoughts on this lighting set up?

[Guest Steven J]

Hello everyone :) ,

 

In a few weeks time I am going to be shooting a short film on Black and White (Super 8 Tri-X 7266). For one of the most, in my own opinion, complex set ups in the film I will have the actors in a room, which has had its window boarded up from the inside. Outside, there is daylight which floods in through the small cracks and spaces where the boards do not completely cover the window. Even though i will be contending with a bit of grain and so on, due to the film stock, I wanted to achieve the effect of shafts of light coming through these gaps in the wood.

 

I was planning on using a thin layer of smoke around the room to let the shafts of light show up better. Still, before I attempt this, I wondered if any of you Knoledgable people had any thoughts that could help me on the following two things:

 

1) Will the daylight from outside be strong enough to make sharp shafts of light or should i place a couple of red heads or a blonde outside and shine inwards (see my poor illistration below :unsure: )

 

 

 

 

2) Would this blue filter help bring out the light/smoke at all? Or would that do nothing?

 

 

Any advise on this would be great! I am quite new to a lot of this, and this is the first time I am putting so much effort into my cinematography (my heart lies with direction B) ).

 

Thanks!

 

Steven.

[Guest fstop]

Unless the sun is in front of the window and stays there in the same place for your 4-5 hours of shooting (or however long it goes on for) I'd definitely have the "big light outside". Traditionally black and white involving single source shafts and smoke has always veered towards Fresnel focused, hard light, so this becomes a key factor. Everyone loves Gregg Toland. This kind of scene and the powerful imagery associated with this kind of set-up lends itself very much to a theatrical hard backlight, one best controlled and angled to last through the hours of shooting. The bigger the lamp the more available sunlight becomes a moot point and you are then only dependent on the bulb. Also bare in mind that your boarded up window is in effect acting like a giant gobo blocking the light streaking through, so when you scout before shooting make sure you get to block out with the director the positions she/he wants the talent standing in and the type of lighting effect cast upon the talent in whichever spot. This will also input focus pulling limitations and focal lengths too, so while the audience is going to expect something inherently splashy looking and spontaneous, it's your job to make everything look easy.

 

Consistency is what you are after here, so make sure (as best you can) that your smoke levels are always the same for each shot and that NOBODY nudges your lamp- shooting black ad white too means consistency of contrast is going to be more noticable than ever, and with such an a hyper-noir/expressionistic approach every kind of light the talent falls under is going to communicate something on a connotative level to the audience.

 

I'm not too sure about the blue filter, one of the other more experienced guys here will help you fill that one in.

 

Good luck with this, sounds like it will be a lot of fun!

[Mike Williamson]

Tim's advice is right on the money, using a large light outside the window will allow you to get the consistency you need.

 

As far as a blue filter goes, I would not expect it to bring out the smoke anymore than shooting clean. The art of using colored filters in B&W is probably being slowly lost in the motion picture world because cinematographers have few opportunities to shoot B&W material, and it seems to me to be an area where you really have to rely on experience to guide you.

 

The principle involved is pretty simple, though. A colored filter will SUBTRACT light of its opposite color (which means each one will need a different degree of exposure compensation), and it will therefore make the light of its own color proportionally brighter. This is where a little knowledge of color theory will help you out in trying to figure out what a particular colored filter will effect. Blue filters are generally dense and are often suggested for trying to get a "silent era" look because the B&W film of that period was much more sensitive to blue light than the other parts of the spectrum. So in your case, because I wouldn't expect smoke to have a bluer cast than the rest of the scene, I don't think a blue filter will make it anymore pronounced.

[Guest Christopher Wedding]

I wonder what would happen, based on what Mike said, if you added a blue gel to your lights, or another color to your fill. Sounds like a contrast booster if nothing else.

[Paul Bruening]

Hello,

 

I've done the same thing in B&W DV. I found that the most important thing is the light-to-camera angle. Gells had no noticeable effect. Some of that has to do with the fogging solution you use. I used water based since I had to protect the DV drum and heads from oil residue. Oil fog may have a different relationship to color. Sorry, I can't answer for that.

[Ilmari Reitmaa]

I found that the most important thing is the light-to-camera angle. Gells had no noticeable effect. Some of that has to do with the fogging solution you use.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Light-to-camera angle is a significant factor in light shaft brightness and may play a role in take-to-take consistency as well. Fogging solution molecule size is the key factor; shoot a test with your solution(s). Should you need to move around in the set, I'd suggest placing your light source high enough, light shafts pointing steeply downwards, so that there is as little variance as possible in the light-to-camera angle.

 

Have a look at http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/blusky.html for an illustration of the phenomenon; smoke light shafts will be dominated by Mie scattering.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Ilmari Reitmaa

[Stuart Brereton]

I did a similar thing on a music video a couple of years ago. I had two windows, each with 6x1k par cans outside. I had thought about having one large lamp outside each window, but having multiple lamps gave me much more flexibility in deciding where the beams of light fell. As it was a promo, I didn't worry too much about realism.

 

Go easy on the smoke. you want just enough to pick out your beams; too much, and you'll lose your contrast.

 

Try to get your lamps as far away from the windows as you can. If they are close, you'll end up with a big exposure difference across the room.

 

Stuart.

Edited April 17, 2005 by Stuart Brereton

[Sam Wells]

Try to get your lamps as far away from the windows as you can. If they are close, you'll end up with a big exposure difference across the room.

 

Stuart.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Plus if far your shadows are sharper which is what I think you'd want.

 

Blue gel won't do anything for your contrast, just uselessly absorb light.

 

-Sam