JB Earl

You don't actually need a REAL window or light to motivate from. Just pretend there is one out of frame, and be roughly consistent with it. You need the director's cooperation so you can work your coverage around where you motivate your light from (of course you can cheat it some) So how did your project go?

you'd often want the 12x on exteriors, and there's no way the Scrim Jim frame will hold up to wind.

I'm looking for recommendations on a good circuit finder. Mainly for finding separate wall circuits, not breakers.

1. that sounds like a good plan. I think you're referring to what would be called "back or upstage 'cross keys'" then add foreground fill to taste. 2. depends on what you want to light. you may find you only need some little kicks behind furniture or corners to bring some edge separations.

depends on which lights. tripods, do you mean light stands? I think the only thing you should hang would be led mats unless you have a gaffer and key grip.

Kino will spill just as much as a soft box, you need grids on either, or toppers and siders. But tungsten works great, just that the boxes take up so much volume in a small space. Sometimes simple is better, but if you go with the moonlight or street light, keep it subtle. You need your lights for all of the shots, if you expose for the lamps, then you underexpose the scene. If you expose for the scene then the lamps will be overexposed. Thats why in your sample scene there was a film light rigged above the lamp with the liquor bottles

tungsten softboxes are great, but they'll eat up space in a small room like that. 4' kino, or big led mats, or Quasar tubes, will be your friend. you won't need many footcandles if there's no dayight to fight. you don't have to shoot at night, just black out the windows. if you have good Karma, the windows face north-ish and you might get away with just hanging some Duve outside ; )

well, clearly there's something mounted up high motivated by the lamp at the liquor bottles. so a polecat or wall spreader (unless you can tape led mats up). Then you could use a 4x4/softbox/kino/ to move around for fill on each shot. the bathroom doorway light is the 3rd player, but is something like that in your scene? you could play streetlight or moonlight through one of those windows....

Im looking for everyones favorite ways to use mats or panels in the 9 x 18 size. I have a bunch that are 1x2, and I use them like Kinoflos (2 and 4). But the 9 x 18s are an odd size. Do you put them in soft boxes? Or a couple through a 4 x 4?

so for high key, most of your tones should be above middle grey. looks like all of the background is dark wood.

If you want high key, those areas look to be difficult. What's the windowed area look like for blocking? What kind of coverage are you looking for, in terms of where can you key from to avoid the light setup?

small rooms painted white are the worst.... use one large key light, get a honeycomb on it. If you have to, get your camera outside the doorway to give you room to separate the subject from the background

I usually expect that there was a another light to wrap the windowlight. What do you think about the reflections on the pencil holder (on the desk) and the white cup on the window sill? Also the pictureframe on the bookshelf?

depends on the weight and orientation of the lights, conditions(wind?), and which aluminum stands you mean. how many sandbags do you have available? how high is the crossbar going to be? your Key Grip should be able to handle this for you.

just get some used Lowel, redheads(Ianiro), colortran, or the like. You can easily put a softbox on a lowel DP. You will need to spend just as much on stands, grip gear, and modifiers as you will on lights.