Lighting from small balcony

[Roman Neugebauer]

Hi,

we are currently prepping a short film and want to go for the lighting of the attached mood. Sun barely coming through semi-transparent curtains, with only a few spots, where the sun directly enters the room.

Due to location restrictions, we can only light from a small balcony (see attached sketch). I am planning to bounce an open face HMI (M18 or similar) against a mirror, and send the light through the curtains. This way we could virtually extend the distance between subject and light source. Another option would be to not bounce against a mirror, but against a large surface (unbleached muslin e.g.), but I am afraid the light will lose its punch this way.

Furthermore, I want to add negative fill on the opposing wall of the windows to add contrast.

How would you go about this? Any other ideas to achieve this look given the location restrictions? 

Cheers and thanks a lot!

[Satsuki Murashige]

Do you want to evenly cover the whole window with the mirror reflection? I don’t think that’s going to be possible at that short distance.

It also seems like you have a pretty wide angle view. Are you concerned about possibly seeing the M18 or the mirror rig? 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Satsuki Murashige
Typo

[Roman Neugebauer]

Yes I would want to cover the whole window. So do you think two m18/mirror rigs would do the trick?

I am less concerned about seeing the rig, and more about a harsh fall off and not covering the whole window. 

[Satsuki Murashige]

48 minutes ago, Roman Neugebauer said:

Yes I would want to cover the whole window. So do you think two m18/mirror rigs would do the trick?

I am less concerned about seeing the rig, and more about a harsh fall off and not covering the whole window. 

I think the trick will be to get the mirror back far enough. I think at this point it’s about what you can rig safely. Ideally, maybe a row of mirrors hanging down from the balcony one floor above would do it.

But if that’s not possible to do safely, then maybe tying a large silver lamé rag from the roof to the balcony railing that spans the whole window can be used as the reflector instead. Then put 2x M18s on the balcony floor and up into the rag? It won’t have the same hard light quality as the mirror, but it might have a chance of covering the whole window. 

[Satsuki Murashige]

Of course, if it’s windy that might not work so well.

[Stephen Sanchez]

I like the array of mirrors. Mirrors along with the lights can be positioned for aiming the beams in. A lame can't, not in that space.

You'll want the individual adjustability of mirrors if you have few floor lights, so the beams can be redirected to one direction. CRLS might be a great option for this, but they're expensive. Otherwise, gluing nail-on plates to the backs of department store mirrors would be my go-to. I'd consider a goalpost to mount all of them to conserve floorspace.

As an addition to the plan, consider wrapping the balcony in an ultrbounce or other thick white cloth to collect the rest of the stray light.

And what if you covered the windows in a frost like opal? Frosts blur the light passing through, so they'll preserve the beam better than any diffusion with the added benefit of blurring what's outside the window as well. Or perhaps hampshire.

To compare, I use half-hampshire on some studio set windows where the backdrop is within a meter of the window to slightly blur it.

[Guy Holt]

On 1/27/2021 at 9:21 PM, Stephen Sanchez said:

I like the array of mirrors. Mirrors along with the lights can be positioned for aiming the beams in. A lame can't, not in that space.

American Grip makes a 4x4 frame on which you can mount 16 1x1 mirrors on their mirror holders.  This rig will allow you to  redirect the output of the M18 in 16 different directions, so that you can aim light to each opening in the curtains.  Another approach I have used in situations like this is to use a convex mirror like those used to see around corners. The convex of the surface spreads the light while maintaining its hard quality.

Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting rentals and sales in Boston

[Stephen Sanchez]

43 minutes ago, Guy Holt said:

Another approach I have used in situations like this is to use a convex mirror like those used to see around corners. The convex of the surface spreads the light while maintaining its hard quality.

A convex mirror! Now that's fun.

What a thought. That should spot or flood the light depending on the distance from the fixture correct? So there'd have to be a distance sweet-spot depending on the curvature of the mirror, right?

Edited January 30, 2021 by Stephen Sanchez
typo

[Stephen Sanchez]

Oh convex. Not concave. That would act as a flood. Nevermind, please disregard.