Tiago Pimentel

Hey guys, So we've finally found the perfect location for our short story: The scene takes place at night and I wanted the light to be motivated mostly by the practicals (those two lamps in the picture, some lamps that are stuck to the walls and a big lamp on one of the corners of the room). This should give a sort of closed ambience, almost as if that room was the only room that mattered, without any presence of the outside world. I wanted to ask you two things: 1 - my opening scene will have two actors sitting on the bed, facing the camera with those two lamps on their back. I was thinking on lighting each actor from the side/back with a very soft light and grids to stop the spill. I also wanted to avoid a light sandwich that ends up lighting both sides of their faces. What would you suggest? 2 - About keeping other parts of the room lit, so that I still have some detail and contrast in the shadows, what would you guys use? An Octodome with grids sounds nice but then again, that would be nice to light an actor at a distance, not so much a specific wall or piece of furniture. Interested in new ideas :) Most of the look on this short should come from very soft light and shallow DOF, with that softness typical of Fincher or Cronenberg. Thanks!

Hey Mike. The shooting is in mid November. Production is still negotiating on the location, so I haven't seen it yet. As soon as I see it, I'll start my diagrams and will post here hoping it starts a debate :)

David, well I wasn't thinking on warming it too much. Maybe balacing camera to 3200k and lights at 3000k. From your experience, how would balance color between lights and camera to make it look good and still retain a bit of intimicy (not necessarily warmth). Thanks!

Guys, need help with one more thing. This is the house (room) where we'll be filming: So blue will be the dominant color that will contrast beautifully with the red hair of our actress. Scene will be very moody and is supposed to take place at night. So I'm thinking on blocking windows and throwing a bit of blue light into the curtains from the inside (cant place lights on the outside). My question is, I think what will look best and serve the story will be to balance every light to be slightly yellow. Do you guys think it will work when it comes to overall white balance? I-m thinking it will because the overall tone of the room is blue but I was wondering about your opinion. Here's my setup: camera: Arri Alexa XT lenses: Cooke S4 lights: still unsure. Kinos with grids would probably be a life saver when it comes to space. Led Mats or Quasar tubes for augmenting practicals and lighting specific parts of the room.

Depends on the project. Next month I have a project coming up where I'll be using haze and I'll probably take kinos or tungsten...

Thanks guys. Just one more question. When you're using haze to create a mood interior scene, (not necessarily to create beams of light) do you also allow yourselves to use dimmers on your lights? I've read somewhere that using dimmers with haze, creates a green output on the light, but I've never tried it myself. Anyone? Thanks

Giacomo, you gave me an idea on that PS you wrote. I could probably send a scrimmed fresnel with full ctb against the ceiling. That would probably give me a good blueish moon light from the windows. What do you guys think? I wanted to end the short with the actor standing against one of the practicals and then turning it off, revealing the blue tone. Even better, if I do a close up, I could use a dedo for some shaping...

Hey Giacomo! I had a talk with the art director and, since we are painting and placing furniture from scratch, he suggested we'd fake the room in the living room, because it's bigger. I liked the idea and so we're doing that. More space for rigging stuff! :) So in the living room, pretty much everything is white. We'll be painting everything dark (not very dark) blue. My problem with white ceiling might be the excessive bouncing and spill. This is should be a very controlled lighting scene. I'm afraid I might loose the entire mood if I let light bounce off the ceiling. What do you think? Thanks!

Sorry guys, just one more question. For that kind of space, how much wattage would take per light? Assuming I'll be diffusing it to be really soft on the skin, at least for close ups. I was even thinking of bouncing and diffusing the bounced light. So a lot of power lost in that. Thanks

I never used led mats. Are they directional? To light this shot I basically need a backlight and a very soft key. Backlights are always the problem because to work, if they are in light stands they tend to appear in the frame. That's why I was mentioning rigging one of them on the ceiling to get nice backlight. Is a Led Mat able to do this and control spill? Thanks

Thanks JB. Yeah, I know with practicals it's crucial to have artificial light to be able to get good overall exposure. What would be the cheapest way to rig lights up high, without tripods? I think I won't be doing moonlight. I think this scene needs to stay in the bedroom, almost as if that bedroom was the entire universe of that film. So practicals will be the only "real" lighting.

I only mentioned tungsten softboxes because they are usually more budget friendly. But you have to love Kinos... I know I do. I'm still deciding on the type of lighting. All I know is that it needs to be low key. So maybe using Kinos as backlights and then a bounce to fill one side of the faces. If was using tungsten softboxes, I know I would have them all with eggcrates. When shooting the wide shot, with the practicals in the frame, would you add artificial light, at least on the actors? I know the answer, but I need ideas on how to rig them :) Just one more question, regarding the street light. I hadn't thought about this. Let's say I'll keep both windows closed, but I want some motivating light from the moon. I could use the window on the left for that. On a room with most of the light coming from the practicals, how would you use the street light to be noticeable but without lighting up too much and ruining the moody look? Thanks!

@Giacomo I believe you're right. Blue would probably work better with her red hair. Great tip! What about the furniture? Would you use light or dark brown? This is supposed to be an intense scene, with two characters not comfortable with each other. Very moody. @JB Earl The only lights in my scene will be the two practicals, but I'm very tempted to simulate cool moonlight. The problem is, I would have to shoot during the night. Breaking the light scheme, what lights (watts and fixture) would you take with you for this shoot? I like the idea of using kinos. They are really soft. But maybe I could do the same with tungsten fresnels and softboxes with eggcrates? Thanks!!

Hi guys, I was hoping to get a bit of help. I'll be shooting a short film next month, that takes place entirely inside a room. In short, the lighting, the mood, the colors that we are trying to achieve are very similar to the room scene of Leaving Las Vegas. Here is the video for those who didn't see / remember: https://youtu.be/mjAJBaW7T4g We have a room with one or two practicals (haven't decided on that yet), and that will be the main motivation for the lighting (big practicals with a big shade). I was wondering what kind of lights and grips would you take to achieve that kind of lighting and mood. Our short film will also star one actor and one actress. I was thinking on painting our room with the same color (dark red) as the one in the clip above and getting some light brown furniture. Not just because we want to follow that look, but mainly because that look makes all the sense for our film. Our actress has red hair, so not sure if that will be a problem with dark red walls... You can see a photo of the room (completely raw) here: So the walls will be painted the same way as in the clip of Leaving Las Vegas and we will place some curtains to isolate the windows completely. Furniture will be replaced with something lighter in color. This will be a night scene. Let me know what your lighting setup, grips and general approach would be. Hoping to get some refreshing ideas. I think controlling light spill will be the order of the day, so I'm counting on a lot of egg crates. Thanks !

Hi, This is a well known tv show called Better Call Saul, which is a spin-off of the best tv series ever :)

I agree with most of what was said. I think there has to be a front light (probably two) because i can see the back of the book being well lit. And that is probably a very soft light that's being flagged. But the contour on the sheets tells me there's probably a light rigged from above? Or is it just the light from the lamps? It looks too sharp to be from the lamps, i think.

Hey, This show has become more and more stylized, but I like the look. Sometimes it's so pronounced that it touches the realm of the unreal, but it fascinates me. I was watching this episode the other day and I got curious how the hell they lit this scene. How do you think it was? Thanks

... another example (this one looks more contrasty, but still very flat. I don't notice anything other than the wide aperture and good exposure on camera):

Thanks guys. I also noticed the outdoor footage looks very natural and with little contrast (mainly overcast days). Take this frame, for example: As far as cinematography goes, I notice the wide aperture (T2 as David Mullen said) to create the very soft look. It also feels like a log image. Color wise, do you feel anything major was done in post to get this look or was this just white balancing in the camera? It feels cold and blueish.

David, the purpose of rating the Alexa at higher ISO (this was shot on Alexa, if I recall correctly) is to add digital noise? About the lighting, could there be any negative fill there? Ratio on her face looks very high contrast. On the other hand, I hardly detect any shadows, but that could be the extreme soft lighting.

Yes, my thoughts too. If it was a low budget production, do you think several tungsten fresnels against a huge diffusion frame behind that glass would achieve the same effect?

I love the cinematography of the movie Arrival. It's one of my favorites. I've been wondering about what kind of lighting (other than soft light, obviously) was used to accomplish the look. Take the still below, for example. How do you think it was lit? http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/~bgzimmer/arrival-office-trailer2.jpg Thanks

Hey guys I love to shoot with haze. It helps me create depth and mystical images. And let's face it. It makes every window more interesting. Not to say it should be used everytime of course, but I use it quite often. I do have two questions though. Sometimes all i need is haze in the background but we all know haze spreads and eventually fills the room and leaves through the doors (even when closed). So i have haze in front of the camera and the image starts to look blurry and hard to focus. Is this when you know you're using too much haze or am I doing something wrong? Everytime I use haze, I also have to use the sharpness slider in post, otherwise it looks like vhs crap. And second question, how do you shoot with haze in a room, knowing the shot needs the door to be opened? The haze will be constantly moving out of the room and distracting the viewer. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing guys. I love exploring new filters as I'm always trying to find new ways to bring some texture to the image in every way I can. Lighting is number one of course, but sometimes digital can look too clean. I never tried tiffens low cons and smoke filters. Do you guys think they're good filters to texturize / dirty up the image? Thanks

hey! I was wondering, what are the filters that you guys use the most, when shooting digital (narrative stuff). I'm not talking about NDs or IR, or UV, but more like "creative" filters, such as low cons, diffusion, etc. Really interested in your experience. Cheers