Pasolini / Salo - lighting interiors

[Jay Young]

I recently watched Salo for the first time and I must say I fell in love with the look of the interiors.

 

I know Pasolini used Arri, and maybe a mitchell cameras, and the only shot of the ceiling that I have seen looked like he used several giant chimeras - long cylindrical shaped suspended.

It was circa 1975. But I would be interested in discussing how to achieve the same style of lighting. I have judiciously included some screenshots, that would be suitable given the nature of the film.

 

 

 

And that's about all I can share as far as screenshots are concerned. It has a quiet, subdued look. Muted color palette. I wonder if there were other film stocks available in Italy that are no longer that might add to the specific color look. I am awating my Blue-ray version so that I can watch the 176min documentary footage which will hopefully shed some light on this... light. HA!

 

 

 

 

 

[David Mullen ASC]

It probably was shot on regular Kodak, in 1974 that would have been either 5254 or 5247, 100 ASA tungsten, 5254 was a little bit more muted and lower in contrast but honestly, you can't judge something subtle like that on a video transfer, that look could also be dialed into the color-correction.

 

The slowness of the stock would probably require something like overhead Coop Lights for a rectangular soft box effect, but you can also see some hard spots from the ceiling highlighting objects and people around the room.

 

If this were a location, another option could be bouncing light off of the ceiling for this top-lit look, but I think the shot is too wide to hide lights on stands on the sides of frame, and the hard spots from above suggest a ceiling rig, either on location or in a soundstage. Could even be some spaceflights instead of Coops but I suspect Coops.

 

Closer shots like the second could have involved bouncing the light.

[Jay Young]

After watching David's AbleCine presentation on lighting, AND after watching a bit of behind the scenes of this film, there are sets, (particularly some of the exterior sets) that were lit with many Spacelights. I never could figure out what they were called, but they looked exactly like the ones rigged in a few of the photographs during the presentation.

 

I don't know much more, as by Blue-ray edition with the 174 minutes of extra has not arrived yet. It could be that he lit the whole interior as a built studio set with those spacelights. That would certainly give it that flat look.