Lighting effect

[joshua gallegos]

Designing some shots for my upcoming short film and I came upon a wonderful film by Otto Preminger entitled 'Whirlpool'. About 50 seconds into the clip you will see a wonderful lighting effect that shows how Gene Tierney becomes completely spellbound by Richard Conte. I wanted to use this as the final shot for the short film. Of course it's not going to be done in b&w, and I'm using the 2.35 cinemascope frame. The sequence of shots in this clip are so alluring, it's great because you're not really paying attention to the words, but the faces. Of course Richard Conte and Gene Tierney, you can't find this kind of talent anymore.

 

I'm lighting most of the scenes with Joker bugs, I think for the eye effect I can use a super wide lens to beam on the eye light. I still feel it's super difficult to get it as good as the legendary Arthur C. Miller! But one can only try.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

That's Jose Ferrer, not Richard Conte...

 

It looks like he stands up, off-camera, in front of her key light, which is slightly softened, creating a fuzzy shadow as he blocks it. There is a strip of light projected onto her eyes that may or may not have come up as he blocks her key light (I think it's always there since that dot in her eyes is always there). And she does not go completely silhouette, just darker so either there is ambient fill or the eye light slash serves double duty as fill, meaning it's one light and net flags or diffusion material with a slit cut into it is creating the brighter slash.

[joshua gallegos]

My mistake, it is Jose Ferrer. The fill in her eyes was definitely there as the effect takes place. It's done so meticulously, the way the darkness creeps upon her face. It's the perfect shot.