Damien Kazan

Hi everyone! :)

I'm back here once again seeking your help... I'm in the early stages of pre-production of a new short-film, which contains a night scene on an isolated road country side... I would say about 300ft of road, maybe less, not more.

And here I am trying to figure out how to light this scene... the cheapest way possible... I've searched on the forum and found another thread in which David Mullen posted a couple shots of a similar location that he's lit (Hello David, if you read this, these shots are absolutely stunning!), he was saying he used two 18k HMI's, I'm wondering what kind of generator I need to power these, (probably a truck generator, which hopefully is sound proof? we have dialogue that night...)

Also, I'm not sure I get how he was able to have the silhouette so outlined with just a little HMI joker on the side, and the big ones far behind...

David's shot :

That being said I'm looking for something a bit more bright, more along the line of the opening scene of the original Men in Black, or the final scene of Paul (2011) in the forest.. I was thinking about maybe using led panels for the closer shots. also because these come with batteries, so we'd be good sound wise, but that won't work for the wider shots...

Please, anyone has any ideas?

Thank you so much in advance!

wow.. looks great sir

Thanks a lot! I really appreciate! :)

Guys! Thank you so much for all the help! I'm so sorry I didn't reply before! David and Robin we used the angle option yes, but I ended up only using the end of the shot, (the rest of it was too long and didn't work as I wanted)...

Mark yes you are totally right haha I kept seeing my hand on the focus ring, so I had to put on black gloves haha.

Ryan thanks! I'll definitely keep that method in mind in case, I knew it was possible to do it in post, thanks for the explanation!

By the way here's the trailer for that short-film! (We don't see the reflection shot in it though)

Thanks again for the help guys! I really appreciate! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuELVFnDHaY

Hello everyone!

I'm one more time asking for your help on this forum! I'm shooting a short-film and I got this shot in which the camera dollies left filming photos that are framed up on the wall. It's kind of a close up and I don't want to see my reflection in the glass of the frames, then the camera stops as we see the reflection of the actress in one of the frames.

So I was thinking of maybe removing all the glass except on the frame in which we're supposed to see the reflection of the actress and then re-add the glass in post using after effect, but is that possible? And how much of a headache is that going to be? Has anyone ever done that in post?

If I use a filter on the lens to remove reflections I'm not gonna be able to see the reflection of the actress on the frame...

Any ideas anyone?

It's a scene taking place in daylight, in a pretty bright, white wood living room.

Thank you so much!

Thanks a lot for all your answers guys! They're really helpful! I really appeciate! I'll definitely use orange gel and as for the flickers I'll be going to the rental store wednesday to try out their stuff, so I'll ask if they got a flicker box, and I'll try waving stuff in front of the lights see the results, I might also try to play with led panels! I do have a bunch of props etc to build for that trailer so I rather avoid any extra build

It was way more simple that I thought haha!

Thanks again to all of you!

Hello everyone!

I'm back on this Forum with another question! Hopefully some of you will be able to help me out, it'll possibly seem like a very simple thing to do but I have no idea how to!

I'm about to shoot a trailer next month and I got shots that takes place at night, a character is standing a few feet away from a long fire line, and I'd like the entire scene to be lit by the fire light, the thing is, I doubt the actual fire will be enough to lit the character as much as I'd like to, he'll be a bit too far from the fire. Any idea of how I could simulate the light of flames?

Thanks a lot in advance guys! This would save my a** !

A very nice day to all of you day! :)

Hello everyone !

I just come back on the forum to share with you the first teaser of that movie I was asking your help for, I'd love to hear your thoughts ! Thanks again for all the help guys !

Miguel, I'm sorry to not have replied earlier, we started shooting, then reshoots then pick ups, then I started editing the movie ect ect, thanks for your answer ! I've seen Joe at the movies when it came out and yeah that's right it the lightning inside is similar to what I was looking for, pretty good movie by the way !

I concur, Celebs are fantastic lights, as well as china balls if you know how to use them properly.

 

Soften the filmic lights could be a good idea either by bouncing them and softening them or just by softening them with frames, that way you can lose the direction of the light and everything will look more natural.

 

Bear in mind that you will need a very good production designer for the project so you all can create the atmosphere that you are looking for even before putting lights. You might be surprised as to how much you can achieve with a fantastic production designing!

 

I highly recommend that you watch a movie called "Joe" by David Gordon Green, its interior nights are really interesting and very powerful and they look very much like the frames you posted (a bit darker though which is always good!)

 

You will also need to have all the practicals on dimmers so you can set up the intensity of the light.

 

Have a good day!

So here's the link to the teaser, I hope you'll enjoy it ! (and I have no idea why Youtube compression gives me so much ugly pixels on some shots, the rendered file has none of those)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDx89q38mIo

Thanks again !

:)

I've seen a lot of Celeb Flo used just for that. ;)

 

The celeb flo is awesome. Small, dimmable, dmx controllable, light, and with a wide choice of honeycombs. Great stuff.

Right! that's right, yet they seem well hidden if they used those ...

But you're right celeb flo would do the trick I believe

You're more than welcome! ;)

 

Have a lovely day.

Look at the armchair on the first screengrab. That light can't be produced by just the lamps. There's a bit of hard light going on, plus a bit of blue coming from the side of the wall we can't see.

 

Also, I think the walls would be darker if there was light only off the lamps. It looks too even and precise I think humbliestly.

Miguel Angel, have a lovely day too :)

John Miguel King, well I think you're right, actually in the link Miguel Angel posted, John R Leonetti says they used a lot of practical lights but they had a few tricks to intensify them, not extremely, but intensify them a little.

I'll probably make a mix of practical and hard lights on my shoot.

The walls are also what made me feel like there's more than just those lamps.

Hello,

 

As far as I remember, John R. Leonetti A.S.C used as many practical lights he could to light the interiors nights of "The Conjuring".

You could also use a couple of china balls or gem lights to achieve that feeling too with no problems.

 

You can listen to the very informative ASC Podcast about "The Conjuring" on the following link:

http://www.theasc.com/site/podcasts/conjuring-john-r-leonetti-asc/

 

Have a lovely day.

Thank you! I'll go listen to that right now! :)

Hello everyone!

I'm new to cinematography.com, to introduce myself quickly, I'm a French aspiring Filmmaker, located in south of France, if some of you would like to see what I do, you can, here : www.damienkazan.com (not here to promote anything it's just that I know usually we have to introduce ourselves on forums before posting...)

I have a question about some lightning from "The Conjuring", the living room, desk, lightning, I was wondering how they lit that living room, looks like it is 90% lit by those lamps we can see on screen, does anyone know how to achieve a similar lightning please ?

Thanks a lot!