What fixture is really light these scenes?

[Wenqi Wei]

Hi guys,

I've been lurking in this forum for quite a long time, and here's my first post. 

So I came across these scenes the other day while I was just randomly watching.

I know certain practicals can be really be bight(and creating a lot of spill in the meantime), or practicals can be dimmed down. But how much would you say those 2 practicals really do to the scene?

From the bed and also her forehead, it looks like there's a big soft light above, is it just a huge Softbox up there? What's the lighting ratio(approximately)? And for scenes like this(Night Interiors) how do you usually control the spills from practicals?

English is not my first language btw so please excuse any grammatical mistakes.

Would really appreciate any answer and response!

Best,

Wenqi

Them Series Teaser Scene.heic

[Wenqi Wei]

Continuing my thread, here's the second scene I want to find out(from the movie The Founder, 2016)

Again it seems like there's a top, soft light source above Michael. But is it just one big source, or multiple sources? 

Any ideas? Thanks guys!

[David Mullen ASC]

Seems to be one soft source judging by its reflection in the arm of the sofa chair.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

I wonder whether the top light source isn‘t exactly above the actor‘s head, but a little bit closer to the camera.

[Phil Rhodes]

It would be my instinct to have it be camera-side of the subject, but if it's really enormous - like an eight-foot-square bit of diffusion, or something, it could be substantially "above" the actor without backlighting him too much. That one doesn't look that big. These days it could even be something like a popup parabolic softbox or lantern, possibly with skirts, etc.

This seems to be a pretty popular way to do things at the moment, possibly because it's pretty procedural and easy and works in a wide variety of situations, facilitating quick setup of multiple angles which all look reasonably good. It's easy enough to trim for different setups without making it look wildly different in each, given you can just swing it back and forth to ensure people aren't being backlit too much. It does demand quite a bit of overhead space, more than exists in many domestic homes, and I wonder if there's a market for a product a bit like an Aladdin fabric light, but with an individual grid pocket around every emitter, so that it could create that sort of directional softlight in only a couple of inches of depth.

[David Mullen ASC]

9 hours ago, Joerg Polzfusz said:

I wonder whether the top light source isn‘t exactly above the actor‘s head, but a little bit closer to the camera.

It's pretty much dead overhead because he's almost leaning forward of it and then catching it when he tilts his head up. It's reflected in his forehead.

[Wenqi Wei]

Hi folks thanks for all of your comments!

Here's another scene from Them Series I want to discuss initially, but somehow I had trouble uploading it due to the size limit(I am a new poster here so)

Hope this time the link would work.

[Jay Young]

I agree with David and the rest, it seems like a large, soft, overhead source.