How does a "natural light only" dop like Joshua James Richards et al use lights like litemats?

[Edith blazek]

What the title says. I was reading interviews on the behind the scenes of nomadland and the cinematographer, Joshua James Richards said he used natural light most of the time but brought in lights like litemats when needed, which in the context of an expansive freeflowing style such as Richards, how do you make that work? Where would the light come in? How do you make it work with natural light? I know some cinematographers like Fraser or lubezki feel you can't as they've expressed in interviews and that's why within their work they prefer to shape the natural light whenever they can. But another I wonder with using litemats to supplement natural light is because of how bright the sun is, wouldn't you need powerful lights to match that? Litemats are efficient but I wouldn't say they're particularly powerful, how do you make that work?

[David Mullen ASC]

Generally those Litemats would be used in smaller interiors and not attempting to recreate hard sunlight or achieve high levels of daylight. They might get brought out as the real daylight fades.

You could get a large soft window light effect with Litemats but you’d need the big ones like the Litemat 8 (about a 4’x4’ soft light) and more than one, maybe through a bigger diffusion frame.

But if you need more stop for a larger space, you’d have to go to diffused / bounced HMIs. Or a bunch of big ARRI Skypanel S360s LEDs…

[Adrian Sierkowski]

One of the ways I often use a Litemat is to wrap the natural light a bit-- generally with a litemat 4 right off of frame as close as I can get it, and as dim as I can get it (to still be doing anything on talent.) I often do this when going from a wide "naturally" lit shot to the close, where we generally want to read a little bit more in the face.

[David Mullen ASC]

In the second season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel", I had a complex 360 degree Steadicam move in a room with mirrors on three walls that basically had to be shot with available light -- but in a few angles, Abe's eyes went too dark when he was facing away from every window. But because of the mirror reflections, where the camera managed to barely avoid seeing itself, I was unable to have an electrician walk a fill light (nor a white card) around the room and not be seen. The ceiling was historic and couldn't be touched. My only solution was to place a Litemat 1 on the floor of the room pointed in one direction when the contrast was the worst, and then hope the camera or the actors did not step on it.

 

[Tyler Fukuda]

David,

Litemats are soft and don't typically come across as 'sourcey', but a litemat 1 is a much smaller source than a 2 or 4. So my question would be that judging by the stills posted here, was your electrician somewhat close to the talent to prevent a noticeable source throughout the scene?

[David Mullen ASC]

Because of the mirrors there was no electrician in the room, there was just enough room for a Litemat 1 on the floor, tilted up slightly towards one corner. The soft lighting is natural window light. I zoomed into the frame to show the reflection of the Litemat 1 in the eyes.

[Tyler Fukuda]

On 8/6/2023 at 10:41 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

Because of the mirrors there was no electrician in the room, there was just enough room for a Litemat 1 on the floor, tilted up slightly towards one corner. The soft lighting is natural window light. I zoomed into the frame to show the reflection of the Litemat 1 in the eyes.

Ah, after re-reading I didn't catch the lack-of an electrician for a 'hollywood'. I'll have to give this scene a watch to see how this played out further. Thanks as always David!