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Lighting circles of people


Matt Rozier

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Hey everyone,

 

I'm going to be shooting some stuff that may involve large circles of ten or so people (think AA anonymous meetings) and I'm just wondering whether anyone has any interesting approaches as to how I could tackle it. Obviously it depends on a whole host of unknowns as I've not recce'd the location we're using yet, but just wondering whether anyone may have lit a similar scene recently and found any tips that could be useful or pitfalls I should be aware of.

 

We're going for a very natural look - so soft and optimistic rather than hard light and moody - which is what concerns me slightly about top down lights.

 

The tricky thing will be that we may need to move quickly too. I've spent a lot of time lighting single directions and two shots closeups - but not spent a lot of time lighting 'in the round'. My first thought was to try and maybe rig some china lanterns etc from the ceiling, but that could prove tricky, so then I was thinking about either a few kino flos which will be easy to cheat and move around or getting a large sheets to shine through to give me a nice super soft source- if so any recommendations on light and material? How do we all stand on shining kinos through large 4x4s etc? Would I feel much benefit as the kinos are already soft?

 

I know it's a tricky one as so many unknowns, but just thought I'd learn from some collective wisdom before jumping in :-) CU's will be much easier, but those wides are trickier.

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I'd just start with a space light hung over the center of the circle-- and then let it fall off into darkness around them. This will work for the wides,and for closes you can bring in some fill for under the eyes if needed.

 

Depends how high the ceiling is of course.

 

I'd rather go big china balls (or jemballs?) -v- kinos which while soft are still pretty directional

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Thanks guys ! Adrian do you think that'll give me a shot that's too moody? I love the look of the fall off into darkness, but I think for this one they want it to be quite light as it's a comedy. Natural is a word that's being kicked around a lot. It's a great shout on the space light, I'd just be concerned that the top down look might feel a bit too moody, what do you think?

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I made something similar in a student shoot I was gaffering last weekend:

two 2k fresnels shined through a 12' x 12' 2/3 diffusion cloth.

Very beautiful top light, but quite slow to rig and requires high ceiling…. something similar to this but skirted could do the trick if you have time for it and suitable ceiling for rigging

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e59x8ol04jtyxfa/top_light2.jpg

(all the fixtures, etc. are double safety wired and absolutely safe, they just look shitty because I had to hang them a little lower than the ceiling is :lol: )

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