Mark Denney

Thank you all for your suggestions! I like the 3 hmi on stands idea. 1200's are good because we won't have a genie and I can use available AC power for these. I'm especially looking forward to using the Fog machine - never done that before. Any tips that I should know about using one of these effectively?

Also, you mentioned lights on stands. Any recommendations of what types of lights to use to cover this area and fake daylight. Again, I would love to have pockets of light with fall off in the shadow areas.

Let me back up a little. There is one wall with 3 5'x7' windows. I was hoping to avoid showing this wall because it is rather unattractive so that is why I said that there are no windows, and again we are shooting at night. I'm addressing this hoping that it might give you more ideas. Thanks!

No, to all of these questions. Thanks for replying!

I?m just learning the lighting craft and have been reading many of the posts on this forum and have learned a lot. I was hoping for some advice specific to my current shooting situation. Here?s the scenario: We?re taping in a school gym at night. The scene supposedly takes place during the day. There will be about a dozen kids in this gym, which is about a 30? x 30? area with ceilings about 15? high. I have very few lights at my disposal but there is a budget (although limited) for rentals. We have two hours to light and shoot a fight scene in this gym. I don?t envision much time to change the lighting setup going from the wide shots to the close-ups except maybe to fill in the faces where necessary. The master shot would show half a dozen small groups of people spread throughout this area. My goal is to have the people and action well lit with the walls falling off into shadow ? not total blackness, just darker than the people. I don?t know if we will have the time or funds to construct a support system for hanging overhead lights. There are six overhead recessed light fixtures. I?ve never used china lanterns but was wondering if I could somehow suspend lanterns from these fixtures ? getting my power from them. Another thought was to get a couple of 1,200 HMI pars on stands and point them at the ceiling to raise the ambient light level in the room with soft bounce light, though it doesn?t seem that I would have much control over the spill on the walls. These are a few thoughts that I have had but I know that there are many ways to accomplish this and I would appreciate any advice. Thanks!