Earthfall

[Stuart Brereton]

Managed to get some screen grabs from a recent project, Earthfall.

 

http://www.stuartbrereton.com/earthfall/

[Bill DiPietra]

Very nice, Stuart! What are you shooting on?

[Stuart Brereton]

Red Epic, with Zeiss Standard Speeds.

[Bill DiPietra]

Nice. Still want to get my hands dirty with the Red.

[David Mullen ASC]

Nice work! Is that round modern glass lobby that telemarketing building down in Orange County (Irvine?) that everyone uses?

[Stuart Brereton]

It was in Irvine. Great building to shoot in. When we scouted it had great shafts of sunlight throughout the lobby. Of course, when we shot there, it was overcast...

[David Mullen ASC]

I used that building for a day of pick-up shots in "Astronaut Farmer", which was originally shot around Santa Fe, NM. We used that lobby for an FAA press conference, a board room for another FAA scene (both with J.K. Simmons) and then the telemarketer phone room for a NASA control room with Bruce Willis. I see car commercials all the time that use that lobby to stage cars inside as a showroom. I was there once before for some low-budget movie, which one I can't remember now... It's a great shooting space.

[Stuart Brereton]

While we were shooting, Mathew Libatique was scouting the lobby for a car commercial. Their entire production team walked through our set, while we were rolling...

[Bill DiPietra]

While we were shooting Mathew Libatique was scouting the lobby for a car commercial. Their entire production team walked through our set, while we were rolling...

 

How did that happen?!...

[Justin Hayward]

Looks great!

[Albion Hockney]

Looks great, would you mind breaking down your lighting setup for the wide cabin interior ...or just your apporach to that stuff in general.

[Stuart Brereton]

Looks great, would you mind breaking down your lighting setup for the wide cabin interior ...or just your apporach to that stuff in general.

 

If I remember right, there was a 4kw HMI fresnel pushing through 4x4 frame of either LEE 250 or 251 outside the center window, and slightly off to the right as we look at it. The was an M18 through a frame outside a window which was behind the girls, frame right. There was another M18 & frame on another window which didn't play in this shot. Also a 4x4 Kinoflo was off frame left, outside the small window. It was intended as a subtle edge, but I turned it off just before we rolled The light from the roof behind the character on the left was natural daylight.

 

When we came in for coverage, I added a couple of 4x2" Kinos. The first was a key for the two girls from roughly where the center window is, and fairly high.

 

When we did coverage on the guy with the pistol, I swung the girls's key around a little so that it became a 3/4 kicker on the camera right side of his face, and added another 4x2" Kino just behind the girls as he also had a kneeling position where he wasn't covered by the M18 from outside. I used the 4x4" kino in this angle to give him a subtle edge from camera left

 

There were a lot of other windows in this cabin, so much of the work was in blocking the windows and using negative fill to shape what was naturally there.

 

I'd originally intended to light this scene with hot shafts of sunlight and very little fill, but the day we shot at this location was very cold and misty, and as we had a number of exterior scenes which cut directly with this I decided to embrace the cold gloomy look.

 

These shots haven't been color-timed yet. Aside from a few minor tweaks by me, they are straight out of the camera. I don't know if I'll be at the grading sessions, so I'm hoping the producers resist the urge to brighten everything up.

[Albion Hockney]

so in that first wide there is nothing added on their fill side that is just what was present in the room? I think that first wide is the strongest shot looks really dark, but without a heavy hand at all. Yea hopefully they won't bring it up in the grade, doesn't need it at all.

[Stuart Brereton]

I never fill from the camera side. If fill is needed, I try to make the key light wrap more, rather than add another lamp.

[Albion Hockney]

do you really never fill from camera side ever? ....that seems like it would be tough to hold to in some situations?

 

for example in that wide shot if there didnt happen to be any light coming from the camera side they would just be basically silouhettes but there happend to be some natural ambiance ....just curious how you would handle that ?

[Stuart Brereton]

There is no camera side fill in that wide shot, artificial or natural. There were 3 windows behind camera, but they were all covered with duvetyne. Of the windows in shot, the center one has a lamp shining through it, which is what is lighting the guy on the left. The right window has nothing but daylight coming through it. There was another window just out of frame right, which had a lamp through it, and that's what's lighting the guy with the pistol. Both the lamps were diffused, so they spread well into the room, and brought the ambience up.

 

If I have to use fill, I'll try to bring it in from the side rather than from behind camera. If I can't do that, I'll use a soft top light. Every time I've tried using Fill from behind camera, I've been unhappy with the results.

[Albion Hockney]

created or not there is some level of fill on the camera side because I can see that side of the talent's body you know even if you didn't create it there is a natural level of ambiance there.... which is still some sorta fill light. if there was no fill there would be no detail on them camera side.

 

I here what your saying I bring this up because I to have had bad results filling from camera side ....im finding that fill light needs to be interesting too ....like it needs to be yea a top light or have some kinda of interesting presence.

[Stuart Brereton]

Well, of course there is ambience. Any time you switch a lamp on you are adding ambience as well as direct light, because light bounces around, unless you are shooting in a totally black room. The difference between ambience and fill is that ambience is directionless.

[David Mullen ASC]

There's no single way to use fill light. Personally I'd love to always fill / wrap from the key side and let a face still fall-off by one-quarter to black the way that Roger Deakins or Jordan Cronenweth lights... but sometimes I work with actors who don't want any shadows on their face, not even a quarter shadow, not even if it is super-soft. As soon as a light is coming from any angle but nearly head-on, it creates a shadow, and that means a wrinkle in the skin or a bag under the eyes will create a drop shadow next to it. I don't mind that actually, it can add personality to a face (and keep some mood and drama)... but if the goal is to eliminate facial flaws and get rid of any skin texture, you often have to light from closer to the lens.

 

Some faces benefit from the key or fill being higher than eye level, or at eye level, or below eye level, it just depends on the structure of their face and what particular flaws you are trying to hide or positive features you are trying to accentuate, which is why you can't be dogmatic about which direction you key or fill from.

 

I don't think there is a hard line between ambience and fill, to me, any light that isn't the key or backlight is some sort of fill, even if it is just ambience coming off of the floors, furniture and walls.

[Stuart Brereton]

I don't think there is a hard line between ambience and fill, to me, any light that isn't the key or backlight is some sort of fill, even if it is just ambience coming off of the floors, furniture and walls.

 

Perhaps I should have said that the difference between the two is that fill is deliberately placed, whereas ambience just happens. I often bounce a lamp off some part of the set to give a little lift to an actor's face, but I always try to justify its direction.

 

Speaking of Jordan Cronenweth, if you watch the Holden interview scene in Blade Runner, you can see his use of frontal fill quite clearly, but he's very, very good at it. On the rare occasions I've tried it, I've never been happy. It's not a right or wrong thing, just a personal taste thing.

[David Mullen ASC]

The higher the contrast of the process, let's say a skip bleach process, the more that fill tends to disappear and sometimes what seems too obvious with normal processing, like an obie light on top of the lens for fill, looks more subtle when the image has been pushed to higher contrast with super-deep blacks. I recall Roger Deakins saying that he doesn't use conventional fill lights and eye lights, yet when I saw "1984" the other day on a hi-def channel, I could see an eyelight reflected in the eyes in some scenes that were top-lit. Since he did a skip-bleach process for the prints on that film, he probably felt he needed to watch out for the eyes dropping too far into shadow, but that was also one of his earlier films, he may have drifted away from eye lights after that.

 

"Blade Runner" has some good examples of a second, dimmer key or fill coming around a face that is half-lit, the second light coming from the same direction. Rachel inside Decker's apartment is a good example, when she first confronts him.

 

Often I'll set up some fill near camera but knock down so far that it's practically not doing anything but putting some detail into the blacks just in case I have to lift them in post for some reason. And even knocked way down, it often still creates a tiny reflection in the eyes.