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Lighting a country house, getting it dark at daytime


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Mornin' everyone. That's my first post here at the site, so I'll try to be pretty clear (sorry bout the english, from Brazil in here).

The thing is, we'll be shooting a college thesis film (a thriller themed short-film) this next semester. One of the locations is the living room/ kitchen of a country house.

I'll get two setup's at it, the first one will be basically natural light with a bit of reflected backlight (we'll shoot with a steadi going round, so I'm trying to avoid any possible physical interference).

 

My doubt would be what set or what kind of equipment I use for the second moment. The character will be entering an eerie aura, he's returning to the house after some weird stuff happens at the outside.

What I want to do is a set that get the interior much darker than the first time, but not too much, so it can be clear that he's at daytime. Wanna use a strong marking contrast, but not to defined lines, I'll post a reference image so you guys can understand my point.

 

 

Just for the knowing, the camera will be a Sony F-55, shooting at 2k, and we got plenty of lighting equipment to choose, so basically there is no strong limitation to what type of light we can use.

 

Well, guess thats it, if you guys could get me any help it would be great! Thanks!!

 

 

The reference, from 007 Spectre (bad quality, but great lighting) :

 

post-68057-0-79038800-1431986906_thumb.jpg

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its an HMI through the window thing. its just about controlling the light so its only hitting specific areas of the frame. or coming through small windows.

 

use what you have...bigger HMI's 4K-12K might be nice to have but you could get away with 1.2k's for sure.

 

I'd also consider some light haze in the space.

 

 

in your example frame there is one hmi through a window in the backround coming in very soft as "ambient daylight" and a 2nd light that making small spot on the wall as direct sun. one light giving a slight edge on the door frame. and what appears to be one light source coming through the window in the foreground coming through that curtain, but it could be more then that one source.

 

just use light carefully and make sure to not light up the whole frame. be selective and subtle.

Edited by Albion Hockney
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Thank you guys for the head up!

I'll was thinking bout shooting it at nighttime, these HMI set could be really useful, I will try with a 4K we have and mark the little spots with small fresnels (with CTB).

The haze could bring a really good atmosphere to the ambient, I'll talk to the production bout it..

You think the use of China lanterns could be good at this one?

 

Anyway, guess a finesse light set is the secret here, when I have something concrete I'll send you guys to get your opinion!

 

Thanks again!

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I think tungsten heads are a bad idea you will need very big heads to match the Hmi with tungsten. Ctb cuts about 2 stops of light ..... A 2k is like 500w.

 

A 4k Hmi is equivalent to Atleast a 10k tungsten light

 

You will want a few hmis

 

China balls I don't think will be very useful, maybe for a little bit of ambient fill in the space when shooting people. I often see people use soft top light over tables with sunlight coming in through windows but thy are using daylight balanced sources like the 200w jokers inside a china ball.

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