Brett Cliff Harrison

Hello, my apologies for taking years to reply to this... in the heat of pre-production I forgot all about this particular thread. We didn't end up using the 225s in question, but rented some tungsten Fresnel lights, to go with our tungstem film stock. It worked out well... the cameraman knew just what to place them, and yes, it gave it a somewhat jagged, Expressionist look, as desired.

Believe me, I'm not hung up on the glossy products people pull out to impress you...far from it. But it's above a certain threshold, no? I mean, 16mm is perfectly fine to shoot on, I find, but 8mm just looks like home movies. Sadly, I don't have any more info right now, but I'll hunt some out.

Thanks for warning me off foolishness, and I hope you have someone around to do the same. As we all need it.

Brett

Hi all,

So for our upcoming movie, our assistant owns a couple of 225w incandescent lights. I'm wondering if they're good for anything, and if so, what? Basically just checking that they're not some amateur look that we just wouldn't want. Thanks once again.

Brett

well a point source will throw a hard shadow - so the smaller the point the sharper the shadow.

 

As for shadow size on a background wall, you can figure out where/what angle - it's trigonometry. For simplicity sake, let's pretend the light source is completely flush with the floor. There are literally infinite places to stick a light to get a "comically huge" shadow - so let's hold some values constant for the example.

 

Let's say you want to throw a noir shadow of an actor on a wall. Your actor is 6' tall. And you want the shadow to be 12' high (6' above head-level). Let's pretend you can cut into your floor and put a point-source light at floor level exactly. So to figure out where to place the light, trace from the top of the shadow where you want it to be (we said 12' high) to the top of the actor to the floor. That point will be 12' away from the wall. You've made a 45-45-90 triangle - the legs of the triangle are equal. Bringing the light closer (still on the floor) makes the shadow bigger. Raising the light from the floor will make the shadow lower (but not technically smaller).

 

So for a shortcut - start with the light 2x as far from the wall as the object is. That'll give you a shadow 2x as tall as the object - though the light must be even with the base of the object to see it "head to toe" and double height.

That was gold and a half! Thank you, thank you!

Thanks, everybody---most helpful! But I'm wondering about the actual casting of this shadow---I mean, say you want an unrealistically huge one of an object, on the wall by the character. Is there a certain distance prescribed from the light, so that it will cast this?

True, but you ask someone...whether or not they're named Jeeves. People come here seeking advice.

Ah, thanks kindly, Mr Holland.

Nobody? Really?

Hey, so for our next movie (a Southern Gothic), we want to have some shots that are extreme, the way Fritz Lang or Murnau did them. I.e. a shadow that's disproportionately huge (the hell with realism here). Specifically, the shadow of a one-winged angel figurine thrown huge on a door that a man comes through. I'm assuming you just put the figurine in front of the key light, close, and aim accordingly. However, I'm wondering if any of you have insights. Much appreciated.

Brett

"Make Your Own Damn Movie" by Lloyd Kaufman, the Troma visionary. That, and Herzog on Herzog.

Dreaming about it, there's a chance it might not happen. Not dreaming about it, it definitely won't. Seems pretty clear.

From my own experience, no one will give you a dime until you've actually made something----for your first films, come up with it somehow; sell off your possessions, whatever. I mean, maybe they'll fund you if you wait for years and perform enough professional fellatio, but who has time for that? I made that mistake, then got sick of it and did it myself. Made a film with a cast of three, a cameraman and assistant. Dubbed the sound later. Packages are abominable, and storyboards I'd never touch. The thing about filmmaking is, that 80 percent of the stuff the professionals say that you need, you don't. All you NEED is to stage action in front of a camera, and have it guided by a look and instinct. It sickens me to see these productions with fifteen giant trucks doing nothing---we drove to the location every morning with the cast and crew and all our gear in one five-seater car. Let me guess...the film you have in mind is bigger scope than that? That can come. At first, just make something. Anything.

Save some dough, get your hands on a camera and someone who knows how to wield it, and shoot. If you can articulate what you want and you have a good cast/crew, you're laughin'.