Akie Yano

Ok, noted. I think I will try to just use the lights for medium wide to close ups. Thank you!

Thank you for the advice! I didn't mention it in my post but I did include a 20x20 black backing in our equipment list so I can use that to control the green spill. Thank you for the tip!

Thank you for the tip! For the 4x4 mirror board, are you suggesting it to be bounced from the Forza 500 or from the sun?

Hi! I’m shooting a short film with mostly exterior day forest scenes (3 days). My initial plan was just to use 12x12 silk for overhead diffusion, black floppies for negative fill, 4x4 styrofoam to light faces from the sun to minimise the budget but it turns out for the two days we’re shooting I have a choice to use lights as I have to use them for a night for day interior scene so I thought I might as well use these lights too for the day exterior scenes. Here’s the complete list of gear that I can use for those two days: Nanlite Forza 500 (2) w/ parabolic, lantern, fresnel lens Nanlite Forza 300 (1) w/ parabolic, lantern, fresnel lens Nanlite Forza 60 (2) w/ parabolic 20x20 butterfly 12x12 butterfly 4x4 floppy (2) 4x4 styrofoam (2) Survival kit The location looks like this and it will be decorated with around 8 earth-colored tents (for location 1): There will be a maximum of 8 people to light in some scenes and 4-5 people in most scenes. I’m definitely going to use the 12x12 or 202x20 butterfly silk as overhead diffusion if the sunlight is too harsh. For the lights, I’m thinking of using the Forza 500 as backlight then using the styrofoam (bounced back from the backlight or another Forza 500 or another Forza 500 coming from another direction) as key light for the actors. Or if I need to use a light for the key, I can use a Forza 300 with a lighting modifier or 4x4 butterfly silk as diffusion and use the same Forza 500 as backlight. Actually, I'm not too sure if the 500 can cut it as usually strong HMIs are used for day exteriors so I was wondering if 2 Forza 500 combined can make it work. What do you think? And what else should I be looking out for this type of location? Btw, the camera I’m going to use are Ursa Mini 12k pro for the A cam and a BMPCC 6k G2 for the B cam. Lenses are Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 art, Samyang 50mm and 85mm, and a Canon 70-200mm. (I have to use 2 cam setup because it's preferred by the director but personally I prefer a 1 cam setup). We have Schneider filters and I will most likely use 800 iso. The main reference we have for the look of the film are day exterior shots from Cub (2014). Here are some screenshots, sorry if the quality isn’t that great since I just took this from a youtube upload: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KCIwB0yr4AJgfWxg6QIhspDGjx1yjvZG?usp=sharing Would love to get your thoughts and suggestions on this. Thank you!

I checked other photos of the studio and it seems I underestimated how much light will be bounced from the white backdrop to the whole studio: So should I dim the lights from the white void and just light the opposite side (where the crew are) separately, right?

Hi! We’re shooting a studio shoot scene in a studio with a white void backdrop. The white void backdrop will be high-key and very soft like this (the 2nd photo is the actual location of the shoot): We will also shoot the reverse shot of the white backdrop which will have actors acting as crew, there will be around 8 actors. 2 main actors (director and assistant) in the front and the rest are acting as crew members at the back. While the white void backdrop is high key the director and crew area will be low key and high contrast. The director wants it to look like this: Basically he only wants the front part of this area to be well lit while the back is just dark. I’m thinking that the motivation of the light will be the “bounced” light from the white void backdrop so I’m thinking of putting a 300 watt or 200 watt led light with lantern diffuser situated from the side lighting the actors. (Other than a lantern diffuser, we have an Octabox, 12x12 butterfly diffuser, and a diffusion cloth for our options for our lighting modifier.) I might also put a backlight for the two main actors in the front for their hair light (situated close to them so it looks like it’s coming from the side, not from the very back which is supposed to be dark). I’m worried that if I put a light from the side at the actor’s level, the fall out of the light will still be strong that the back of the studio will still be well-lit or can I solve that by using flags to shape the light? Or I should just make sure the light from the 200 watt or 300 watt led light won’t be too strong so the fallout of the light reaching the back will naturally come out dark? I also have an option of rigging the light from the ceiling, angled towards the actors so the back won’t be lit as much although I’m worried that it will be obvious that it’s a top light, not light “bouncing” from the strongly lit white void area. Or instead of directly lighting the opposite side of the white void area, I'm thinking that I can also just bounce a naked strong light (will a 300watt suffice? apart from the lights that are already rigged in the white void area) onto the wall of the white void area to light the crew area. What do you think?

Ok, thank you! Yup, I think in a white void scene, it's generally understood that the lighting is even.

Ok, understood. Thank you!

Hi! We’re shooting a white void type scene in a studio. An example of a “white void” scene is this. It won’t be completely a “white void” as the scene will reveal that it’s shot in a studio with a white backdrop. The studio looks like this. What is a nice way to light this kind of scene? I’m thinking of lighting the studio backdrop with lights with soft boxes or lanterns from the ceiling directed below and at the back of and sides of the backdrop then 1 light each with a huge soft box situated outside the “white void” on opposite ends (for the actors). For the lights outside the white void, will a strong light with soft box be enough or a strong light with a huge diffusion cloth be better? To achieve a soft almost no contrast lighting in the scene, I know I have to fill as much as shadows as possible but will there be a risk of it looking too flat? Or should I just meter one side of the face of an actor just to make sure that one side of the face is a bit darker than the other? Honestly, I think it wouldn't be that very hard to light this given that the backdrop is already white so all of the shadows are easily filled in. But still, it's my first time to shoot and light this kind of scene and I would just like to know if there are any precautions and tips you can give me. Thank you!

Hi! I just have a question about reflections in a night exterior scene. We will be shooting an action scene in this location and 3 of actors will be wearing this gas mask. The original lighting plan we had in mind before was to put Aputure 600D and Forza 500D on the left side of the street for moonlight lights. The farthest light would be illuminating the street at the back and the bushes on the other side while the closest light near a tree would be backlighting the actors. On the right side would be 2 fake street lights with Aputure bulb B7c attached to them, Forza 300 would be the stand in for the street lights for the tighter shots. I might have to change or adjust the lighting plan as the 3 actors in the scene would be wearing gas masks that might reflect the lights around them. The framing and angle for the widest should would be like this: My friend suggested that I should make one of the moonlight light closest to the actors/scene of action as an overhead light so it will be placed on a maxi stand with balloon + skirt to spread the light instead of Hi-Hi Roller stand on the side. Then I can direct the backlight at the far end of the street to the grass so it can bounce on the actors. As for the street lights which are much closer to the actors and a bit harder to hide, I’m still not sure how to adjust them. I’m thinking if I should just use the Aputure bulbs even for the tighter shots but the light from it might not be enough and I can’t really direct its light more to the actors. There will be an interior car scene in the same location too where the 3 actors with gas masks will also be in, I’m just thinking of primarily using the lights from outside to light them as I don’t think I can use smaller lights inside to supplement the lights from outside. What do you guys think? What other ways can I avoid possible reflections of lights on the gas masks? I will be using BMPCC6k by the way ? desolate road layout-2 copy-smaller.psd desolate road layout-2 copy-smaller.psd

Thank you! I'm also considering using an RGB tube light but I'm a bit worried that it might not pass off as a practical light for this particular scene (depends on where I will put it I guess) so I'm going for the fluorescent lights first ?

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I think I will go for using a fluorescent light with plus green gel wrapped with it (as long as it isn't too obvious).

Hi, I just have a question about the flourescent-type lights used in the underground bunker scene in Parasite. They give off this greenish cast or tint in the shot and I’m wondering if that’s the color of the lamp itself or was it given a greenish cast by adjusting the color temperature in camera or was it given that color through color grading? I plan to incorporate these type of lighting as accents for a small hideout room scene for a short film. The room is going to be lit through a window (a window with a black screen, not glass) and exhaust fan. I plan to haze it with a haze machine to make it look dusty and dingy and to make the light rays from the light outside pop. That’s why I’m hoping I could get the green effect from the light itself so the color temp of the practical light is distinct from the light rays of the “sunset light” outside which is supposed to look warm. Maybe I could get the similar greenish tint effect with a specific tube-type light or a flourescent light that gives off this color. Basically, the shot is supposed to be a combination of the shot above from Parasite with this two shots from Cure:

Thanks for the response! I'm also thinking of asking the production designer to put longer curtains instead but that decision might still be up to the director to approve. As for the shooting time, we will be shooting two different day scenes on one day, the other scene is actually more high key and has a more cheery dream-like feel to it. So I plan to shoot that in the morning or earlier in the day but I still want to avoid the overblown windows in that scene too. (The photo above was shot around 10am in the morning). I plan to shoot the second day scene (the one referring the reference photo above) after lunch time. As for shooting night for day, unfortunately, I don't have that option since we won't be bringing a generator that day so all of my lights (preferably LED) will be using the power from the location so I can't plug that many lights. So I guess it's either longer curtains or ND gels, right? Thank you so much for the suggestions and tips!

I will be shooting some scenes in a living room with frosted windows. When I checked how the living room looks like with my camera, the frosted windows result in overblown highlights. The director wants the scene to look like this: I plan to light the room from lights outside through the windows and to lessen the brightness of the frosted windows I'm thinking of putting ND gels over them but I'm not sure if that will help because I will still be lighting through them. Is there a better solution for this? Should I just lessen the overall exposure of the scene with the camera and compensate with another light inside the room (which I will still be adding anyway). I hope my questions make sense. Thank you in advance ?