Any ideas how they did this?

Michael Townley · May 19, 2016

Anyone happen to know or an educated guess as to how they lit this? Seems to be a revolving light but the rotations and the spotlight doesn't seem to match the shadows.

http://www.amc.com/shows/the-walking-dead/video-extras/trailer-shadows-the-walking-dead-season-6-premiere

I can see there is a lot of post work done to it with the transitions.Look at the way the light is hitting the talent. Its at an angle on some sort of motor device. But if you watch close, the light illuminates the right side of the subject first, then washes over them from left to right. if this was done by just rotating a light on a wheel, it would illuminate left to right. Am I wrong?

JD Hartman · May 19, 2016

Fixed light, rotating gobo?

David Mullen ASC · May 19, 2016

The light is clearly rotating in a circle above them, it doesn't switch direction but comes from behind and then around in front because the actor is standing in the center of the ring and the light is angled inward.

Michael Townley · May 19, 2016

The light is clearly rotating in a circle above them, it doesn't switch direction but comes from behind and then around in front because the actor is standing in the center of the ring and the light is angled inward.

Thanks David. I realize its on a rotating motor above of some sort, at an angle. I guess I was just curious, when the light is behind them, they must dim it fully as to not silhouette the talent, and then bring it back up when it gets to like a 45Deg behind talent. Im curious as to how they were able to match the dolly in and the light rotations for every actor. Because they would need to match the frames with each talent at the right moment the light and frame is correct.

Stuart Allman · May 19, 2016

Michael,

They could just shoot it in 6k and crop to match head size in the edit. There's no reason it has to look exactly like the final product during the shoot.

The trick was maintaining the push-in speed, which might have been a Technocrane or a really good dolly grip - or they just modified the speed in post to match between shots.

Stuart

David Mullen ASC · May 19, 2016

I'm sure they practiced so that the length of the move and the speed was correct for the light to make the number of full rotations, one for each actor... I didn't count them but let's say there were six actors so six 360 degree rotations had to happen by the end of the dolly move. At that point they could have done a motion control rig or simply marked the track to know where the dolly had to be passing for, let's say, every right, center front, left, and center back position of the light. And yes, I would have probably shot it oversized so some reframing could be done in post. For a 1080P finish, even shooting in 2.8K Arriraw might have been enough to work with though I suspect 5K or 6K on a Red was more likely. Or maybe a 4K camera.