Creating Magic Hour Lighting on a Stage

[Matt Workman]

 

Creating Magic Hour on a Stage

http://www.cinematographydb.com/2015/10/lighting-techniques-creating-magic-hour-on-a-stage/

 

Check out my latest tutorial on creating magic hour lighting from scratch on a sound stage. I learned all of these combine techniques from multiple DPs, gaffers, and key grips. I hope you find it helpful.

 

The illustrations were created in Maya with a Plug-In that I'm developing for cinematographers to be able to shoot and light in 3D for preproduction.

 

I'd love any feedback you have or suggestions for future topics.

 

Cheers,

Matt

 

 

[Phil Rhodes]

Which software are you using for this? Some of them have surprisingly accurate lighting simulation now.

 

P

[Matt Workman]

Which software are you using for this? Some of them have surprisingly accurate lighting simulation now.

 

P

 

Hey, I'm using Maya+Arnold. That is the same combo that The Mill, MPC, and several other big shops use for their renders. My lighting sims are getting more accurate as I develop the plug-in. I only recently figured out how to simulate real world diffusion.

 

Gravity, Antman, Gaurdians of the Galaxy etc.

https://www.solidangle.com/gallery/

[Bill DiPietra]

 

Creating Magic Hour on a Stage

http://www.cinematographydb.com/2015/10/lighting-techniques-creating-magic-hour-on-a-stage/

 

Check out my latest tutorial on creating magic hour lighting from scratch on a sound stage. I learned all of these combine techniques from multiple DPs, gaffers, and key grips. I hope you find it helpful.

 

The illustrations were created in Maya with a Plug-In that I'm developing for cinematographers to be able to shoot and light in 3D for preproduction.

 

I'd love any feedback you have or suggestions for future topics.

 

Cheers,

Matt

 

 

 

That's really impressive. Should be very helpful for a lot of people. Nice going!

[Phil Rhodes]

I can only echo Bill's comments.

 

Let's play devil's advocate, though. My concern is always what happens when the actor turns and talks to someone else. At that point, if they're both standing behind the counter, one of them is being blasted in the face, and one unattractively backlit. Typically one ends up cheating these things, so that the blastee is more sidelit by softer light than is strictly accurate, and so that the backlit character is getting more bounce and sidelight than she really would.

 

But this becomes even more difficult when the scene involves, say, a group of heavily-armed ninja dropping through the skylight, at which point our heroine vaults the counter and engages in melee combat with people who aren't really even covered by the original setup. What then?

 

The more movement there is in a scene, and the larger an area over which it occurs, the more difficult things become. One ends up duplicating the setup on, effectively, a larger and larger scale, and thanks to the inverse square law (and even more so for soft sources) the required amount of equipment and people increases, literally, exponentially.

 

I suppose this is why movies of the week are basically talking heads.

 

P

[Duca Simon Luchini]

 

Hey, I'm using Maya+Arnold. That is the same combo that The Mill, MPC, and several other big shops use for their renders. My lighting sims are getting more accurate as I develop the plug-in. I only recently figured out how to simulate real world diffusion.

 

Gravity, Antman, Gaurdians of the Galaxy etc.

https://www.solidangle.com/gallery/

Hi Matt,

I also use Maya - Arnold but I didn't find any simulation set up fora realistic Movie set lighting. So, how can I try your plugin or find resource to build a realistic movie set ligting (lights, Cameras, Crane, Dolly, and so on...)?

Many thanks for a reply!

[Satsuki Murashige]

... a group of heavily-armed ninja dropping through the skylight, at which point our heroine vaults the counter and engages in melee combat with people who aren't really even covered by the original setup. What then?

 

I suppose this is why movies of the week are basically talking heads.

 

I'm trying to imagine a MOW with ninjas and hand-to-hand martial arts combat and failing big time. Maybe the lesson here is, when you're dealing with ninjas don't try to light this scene for magic hour?

[Duca Simon Luchini]

I'm trying to imagine a MOW with ninjas and hand-to-hand martial arts combat and failing big time. Maybe the lesson here is, when you're dealing with ninjas don't try to light this scene for magic hour?

:rolleyes: