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ELEVATOR LIGHTING


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Anyone have any experience or advice for lighting an elevator with high cielings (15ft)? Digital short, Pan DVX. Its going to be tight, four actors, 2 man crew. Any riggin suggestions much appriciated.

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As long as you don't see the ceilings I'd suggest you use some polecats (expandable locking aluminum tubes with rubber pads on the ends) or wall spreaders. Elevator power can be tricky. If there are lights in the ceiling then you may be able to power off of these, otherwise battery-powered units can be rigged up there. Depending on the look I might be going for, if I was forced to use battery power I'd likely go with a combination of Kino light and 12v MR-16 units, all of which are very small and lightweight.

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I shot in an elevator on film, '79. My initial thought was kino's but once I put them in the elevator and turned them on there really wasn't enough room, the elevator had silvery walls, and the kino was really too much light. The wall's acted as bounce in the small space, so I just went with a small bounce card and the available light. The actors were of various skin tones so some were a little underexposed, but that was easily remidied by flattening out the contrast in telecine.

 

A couple of years later I had another elevator shot this time on DVCAM, DSR-500. The elevator was in a fancy office building in Manhattan on Houston St. It had dark wood walls. So this time the bounce wasn't going to work the same way. We locked the elevator door open and I had a grip hold a small kino with a gobo arm into the elevator just over the actors heads. It was still a slightly hard light because of the small space so I places some diffusion over it.

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Ok...great suggestions...using polecats was my first intuition, then I thought, "how am I going to get power up there. Your idea about proping the door open is right on...I can probably run power in from the hallway. One side of the elevator, door side, is ALL mirror...we'll see how that goes.

 

I'll keep you posted...we're shooting tonight.

 

Thanks.

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The DVX is fast enough that you may get an exposure from the practical lights overhead. If that's not enough, you can hang kinos or even fluorescent shop lights from the ceiling. Is it really 15'? That seems pretty high -- is it a freight elevator or something? In any case, Kinos or shop lights are light weight enough that you can hang them with rope or chain from the ceiling if you want the light closer. Tie them off to multiple points to keep them from swinging. There should be some kind of purchase point on the ceiling for a Cardelini or Mafer clamp.

 

Usually you'll want some fill from down lower, so it's common to put a Kino tube vertically in the corners close to camera. Dim them with diffusion or ND gel. You can tape single tubes right onto the wall. Maybe put one right over the door to fill in the eyes a little (for a camera angle from the door where the people are facing the camera). Sometimes you can put a single Kino tube behind the handrail for an accent and some additional ambience.

 

Of course for scenes that require shooting all angles (not just from the door), it's always easier to build a set with wild walls.

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how am I going to get power up there. Your idea about proping the door open is right on...I can probably run power in from the hallway.

 

yep, and also check for a power outlet on the elevator roof. Usually ther is one AC-plug for maintenance-tools. should provide enough power for some kinoflo or smaller 'hot' lights. I did this once when the elevator had to be moving also to get the projection of the little window in the doors on the actor's face. But when you're using an elevator with sliding-doors of course....

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Yes...the DVX is pretty fast, although wide open it was still really flat. I needed something to break it up. I wasn't aware until about half way through the shoot that there was a panel beside the buttons that had two AC outlets. We are shooting there again for some other scenes...the lighting can be different so I'm going to run the power up the corner and hang it.

 

I ended up getting four 12" fluorescent battery powered fixtures at Home Depot and replaced the bulbs with a soft white to get rid of the green. They actually did pretty well, considering it was a 10$ light. I really wanted some sort of rim light and taping them to each wall about 8 ft up provide that and a little fill.

 

We're shooting again next Monday, so I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks for the input.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Use the overhead practical sockets as power sources and screw in a converter to a std female wall plug, tape foamcore to the cieling everywhere that's out of shot and bounce & flag for key & fill where needed from that one source.

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