Simon Jansson

For those of you interested in the final output, it can be seen here: password: film The film is directed, produced, shot and designed by me. We were a team of 4 people filming it. It´s made as a part of a film school application (assignment was to write, direct and shoot in 2 months) What do you think?

Thank you very much for your answers David. I am very thankful. I will do some more testings where I try to get the scene more lit from above. I will share my results.

I see. Maybe the best solution then would be to stretch a big white cloth between the four corners and then bounce off of that. But what is the advance of doing this instead of trying to get the bounces as high as possible in the air and then angle downwards? Is really the difference between a let's say 75° angle and a 90° crucial? Would you comment the light testing I did, as bad lightened?

Yes, the two on the backside are from overhead. Not from 90°, but maybe 75°. Which reflections are you referring to? I also have two HMI from the frontsides, in a try to separate the character (in this case me) from the storefront. How would you place the lighting if you had no chance to attach them to the ceiling?

Short answer is no. The studio I'm using is more os less only a big room. To solve this I used giant "sails", huge white half transparent fabric. You think this is a bad idea?

I made some testings, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. There are still too much reflections in the veneer (upper left corner), because of the angle of one of the lamps. This is already solved. Also the lighting inside the storefront are work in progress. I only used a redhead to spot some light on the cycle and the white backdrop. I think the window background should på lit up by one more light, to avoid reflections in the window glass. However, in my opinion it is a good beginning. What do you think?

I encountered problems when trying to mount the Kinos. I could not find nor build anything to attach the Kinos to. Instead I ended up using some 5m tripods in every corner of the stage, where I rigged HMI lamps. These lamps were missing soft boxes, which means I now have to build new. If I succeed with everything tonight, I can share some results. We will be recording on Saturday, so there are still time to do some improvements.

Amazing work David. I really like the soft light you created by using Kinos for soft overhead skylight. I will, like you say, shoot an exterior scene indoors on a stage. A good idea seems to be using a lot of overhead light softened with a giant half-silk. What kind of lighting did you use for the silver lining on the characters? It seem to have very warm colors. Thank you for the answers, explained a lot.

Hello, We have built a set construction of a storefront (see attached photo, WIP). We are now considering different types of lighting setups. We are going to rent the equipment needed, so there are no limitations in the number of light sources or types of light. We would like to achieve an image free of sharp shadows (see attached photo 2). The backdrop itself is built from stained veneer. The movie is set in 1920 and The Great Gatsby is in terms of cinematography and lighting a huge source of inspiration. Any lighting ideas?