Lighthin for Short film short with Smartphone

[Afolayan Dammy]

I have been shooting videos with smartphones which appear with unbelivble qualities when I shoot outdoor in daylight. I sometimes use Iphone4, sometimes Samsung galaxy tab and sometimes Samasung S4. My outdoor shooting are usually excellent but when it comes to indoor, sometimes my shots gets grainy and sometimes dark. I want to shoot a short funny video inside a restaurant and I need help and advice. I have watched a couple of good looking indoor videos shot with smartphones. How can I light my restaurant scene to get a good image (Don't advice me to get a good video camera, I know they are better, but I am experimenting with my creaticivity.) I want to show people it is not the camera that makes up a good short film but the way you tell the story. I have shot some outdoor shot films that amazed people I show it to. How to I go about indoor shooting with smartphone especially when I don't have expensive film lights

[David Mullen ASC]

It's very simple -- the smart phone has a tiny sensor that needs a lot of light, hence why it looks good outside and bad inside. If you want a cleaner, sharper image, you need a lot more light.

[Afolayan Dammy]

David, yea I know. But I'v seen indoor short films shot with smartphones with good results. Asking for how I can light my scene efficiently... In this case, I want to shoot a restaurant

[David Mullen ASC]

You're looking for some magic bullet and there isn't any -- you need to actually light the restaurant to a higher light level. Practically maybe at best you can hang some Chinese Lanterns and put some higher wattage bulbs in some practicals (also many restaurants dim down their lighting so you would start by seeing what their max brightness level could be.) It would be like going into the location knowing that you only had 200 ASA film stock or a slow lens and building up the light level for that. Any amount you can raise the level will help reduce noise.

 

The other thing to keep in mind that in the coverage, you may only need to light the foreground and the background and let the mid-ground go darker. That trick may even work for the wider shots.

[John Holland]

Oh dear find this very sad , questions about how to light or not ! with Smart Phones .

[David Mullen ASC]

The question seems more about how to not have to light, as if there was some way to increase light levels without lights. You don't need conventional movie lights to light a set, you can use higher wattage bulbs in practicals, you can use paper lanterns, you can bounce work lights, you can add table lamps, you can use fluorescent units, you can dress fluorescent tubes into a set as decoration, etc. The main thing is that you have a picture in your head as to how the faces should look in their environment in terms of the light falling on them, and the mood of the scene, and then proceed to augment existing light or add light to achieve that concept. And if realism is your goal, how to add or augment the light in ways that don't look theatrical or artificial (though a restaurant at night is a pretty artificial environment, even theatrical). Maybe it just means sticking some small table lamps on some tables. Maybe it just means hanging a paper lantern over the table, maybe it means bouncing some light off of the ceiling, it just depends on the space, the scene, and the desired look.

[John Holland]

As i said Not . I am just finding the way things are going with digital cams of all types that the creative side of lighting is just being lost people dont go to art galleries and look at the old masters or watch movies from the past or even at night walk down a road at night and see where their shadows are falling or in a room and do the same . Sound like a old fart but thats how i learned .

[Afolayan Dammy]

David, thanks I have noted everything you said. Will follow them. John, I think you are getting things mixed up here.I shoot my videos with a standard camera and standard light, just trying to show people you don't have to have $100,000 dollars with you for gadget to tell a good story. Don't mix things up. Somtimes we break rules to explore our creative side. You never can tell what will come out of it so saying light creativity is goin down is like misinterpreting the whole idea and concept

[Afolayan Dammy]

Check this short series. Shot with an iphone4 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hsKxeUfIh6A&hl=en-GB&gl=NG&guid=&client=mv-google

[Afolayan Dammy]

You can aswell check this out. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cfBZD0fjuG8&client=mv-google&gl=NG&guid=&hl=en-GB So the idea of saying the "creative side of lighting is just been lost" is a total misconception. Think out of the box

[Afolayan Dammy]

I don't expect a phone to shoot like normal camera, just experimenting with things

[David Mullen ASC]

That's fine, there are a lot of creative people working with smart phones. But once you have to start lighting scenes to a level high enough to get a clean image and try to make it behave more like a pro video camera... it starts to defeat the purpose of using a smart phone to do this, which is to take it anywhere and play with it freely without the trappings of production equipment. But as an experiment, go ahead and give it a shot.