Architectural Movies?

[drew_town]

Greetings,

 

I'll be shooting an extensive documentary in a historic home. The focus will be on the many many historic artifacts in the home, kind of like a historical inventory. What are some movies I could review to get an idea for a lighting design? "The Others" comes to mind, although the rooms are much smaller and full. The house was built in the mid 1800s. It has many small rooms packed full of antiques. There are a lot of windows and mirrors in the house, but the far walls and middle of the rooms are rather dark. If you have any suggestions as to movies, TV shows, etc where I could get an idea of how to light it or recommendations yourselves please let me know. The lighting design needs to be minimal and versatile, and we?ll be working with standard tungsten kits.

 

Thanks.

[drew_town]

No one has any suggestions for this?

 

I'm thinking about using an Altman 1k Softlight Jr. and a 4'x4' artificial silk to create some ambience in the darker areas and use an Arri 650 fresnel and Lowel Pro light to add some edges.

 

Is there a fast and more efficient way to control contrast through windows than to ND them? The windows have to be open and we just don't have time, people, or money to ND all the windows (there's at least three tall windows on every exterior wall). What would make a cheap ND substitue?

[Tim J Durham]

No one has any suggestions for this?

 

I'm thinking about using an Altman 1k Softlight Jr. and a 4'x4' artificial silk to create some ambience in the darker areas and use an Arri 650 fresnel and Lowel Pro light to add some edges.

 

Is there a fast and more efficient way to control contrast through windows than to ND them? The windows have to be open and we just don't have time, people, or money to ND all the windows (there's at least three tall windows on every exterior wall). What would make a cheap ND substitue?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Drew,

Why don't you post some digital stills of the room. That always sparks suggestions because then people have more than just a vague notion of some dusty mauseleum packed with stacks of old newspapers.

 

That said, with all those windows, I'd be keen on using them as my main source and just flagging the sun from actually coming in through them with a silk in a frame outside. Then using small tungsten lights as accents for each set-up as opposed to trying to light the whole room at once.

I'd also use a pro-mist when the windows are in shot so the blow-outs look nicer. ND'ed windows look just as bad as blown out windows IMHO, and usually worse. Plus, you can't use them as a light source for when they're not in the shot, so I don't do it unless forced to (such as when there is something outside that you need to be able to identify in the shot).

 

Those sorts of houses are always packed with "Stuff" and you don't want to have to move around too much gear, breaking things not being an option. But I could tell you more if I saw some photos.

[drew_town]

Here's some stills. These are not all the rooms, but all are similarly arranged. It's a little hard to judge exposure because the flash was used.

 

 

 

 

 

[Tim J Durham]

Here's some stills. These are not all the rooms, but all are similarly arranged. It's a little hard to judge exposure because the flash was used.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh...well so much for using the windows as a main source of light. I'd still only flag (outside) the direct sun from getting in, not ND. Use a silk, so you still get some light. And I'd use the pro-mist. Then I guess I'd start with bouncing HMI's off the ceiling (make sure to barn it from hitting the sidewalls) and accenting with small tungsten lights to add warmth.

 

I'm guessing it's just you doing most of the work? If so, change "HMI's" to "HMI".