Day Interior - Sound Stage

[Adam Cohen IMPOSTOR]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm scheduled to DP a short film that takes place in a living room and kitchen. I know I'm using a 2:1 ratio and a lot of soft light. I'll have a 10K, a 5K, and a couple of tweeies. I was thinking about using either 250 diffusion or tracing paper over the windows and blowing them out slightly. Curtains are not an option and no background scenery will be used. It will be shot on Kodak 5218 Vision 2. Do I cover the lights with CTB to simulate daylight or just shoot them naturally as Tungsten to get the "white" sunlight? Just looking for some creative ideas that will make it look nice without having to destroy a frame with a blown-out window and still giving off enough light to simulate a 10a.m. scene that is elegantly lit.

 

Any input is well-appriciated,

Adam Cohen

DP, Los Angeles

[David Mullen ASC]

You don't need to gel the light blue if this is tungsten-balanced film. Unless you want a blue-ish soft light.

 

Covering the windows with tracing paper will work, although if the window is to one side of the frame, you might be better with a window-sized frame of diffusion a few feet behind the window and then just a white card lit to white-out the view through the window. This way you can make the white card less hot than if you saw the tracing paper.

 

If the light is very soft, you would need very little fill if any because of the wraparound.

 

Anyway, a 2:1 ratio is pretty rare these days and would be considered rather flat lighting. You can figure that having the shadows be two-stops under would look fairly well filled-in and is more typical for your average scene shot on color negative, three-stops under for minimal, barely-there fill levels. Unless this is a black actor.

Edited November 25, 2005 by David Mullen

[Adam Cohen IMPOSTOR]

Thanks, very informative! I know that I want very little difference between the key and the fill but something that is noticeable nonetheless. The film is a dark comedy, so I was looking to use the key as a fill by bouncing it off of a white wall and also by making it very soft so it wraps around the actor. The main character is a white male around 75 years old. I want to expose his age through wrinkles and yet I don't want to hard light from the side. I think I have my plan of attack figured out, but I'm glad that I am able to get some advice before I jump into the project.

 

Thanks,

-Adam