What do I do with this?

[Phil Rhodes]

Desired look: sci fi, Blade Runner, dark, wet, smoke, glowing lights, "future is old" 1930s art deco, etc.

Conference room:

 

 

It's a conversation, so mainly plays in this sort of thing:

 

 

 

Thoughts: Well, could be worse - no white walls. The only interesting features are the lights, which are too high to see except in an establisher, the doors, and the curtained windows. Helpfully, on camera right these actually open onto another internal corridor, so I can do anything I want outside. The glass is pebbled, though, so I can't punch beams through it. Don't have enough extras to populate the whole thing, so we'll probably reconfigure that table to seat maybe 8 in a square.

 

Street exterior:

 

 

Doorway where character waits for a clandestine contact:

 

 

Thoughts: The doorway is just to the rt of the street shot, at a 45-degree angle to the wall - it isn't a great reference shot. Obviously, this would be shot to frame out everything except the 30s architecture. Needs lots of physical effects - steam, wet down, haze, etc, but that's hard to do outdoors, and I suspect we can't afford to smother every available surface in neon signs, blade-runner style, or build anything like enough set pieces to add glowing parking meters (or whatever they were supposed to be). Also this'll likely not happen until the summer, when we'll get fourteen minutes of actual night, and the steam won't do much because it won't get that cold. I also probably don't have the money to put an 18K on a cherry picker at the far end and backlight everything, which would be my default position on this. Bah.

 

Any ideas?

 

P

[Ronald Gerald Smith]

I dunno Phil - there are a million different ways to light that room but I guess this is where the saying becomes realized "cinematography does not exist without a story". Can you let us know the scene inside the conference entails storywise, what time of day, what kind of things you will add art dept-wise?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Phil;

have you found jesus yes? if not, nows a good time to look.

 

Here's what I'd do. Id put some trace over the windows and have them all "glow," the neon colors, as though it's LED somethings behind the pebbled glass. Wire some tubes so you can switch 'em on and off during the shoot/shot to give some life. I'd have a strong "main light," down, in the middle of room, some kind of strong beam, then let everything else fall into darkness, richness and try to light people's faces from skipping light off of the floor. I'd go some some "atmosphere," in there, but it's not really over-do it, it'll kill your blacks and I think a rich black would help a bit.

 

Outside; ok, where to start? Beams for "street lights," I like Storaro Yellow on my "night lights," these days, as I just like the damned color. Wet things down, as best you can. Uplight the building? We do something like this in Philadelphia:

 

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/3126454416_c349073f4e.jpg

 

They all change colors in unison up and down the street all different colors.

 

I'd not light the doorway; Instead had whomever is waiting hit by "passing car," lights, but do 'em a Steel blue, something futuristic. Rake the building with the "street lights."

 

Ok ramble over, back to my wine.

[robert duke]

Phil.

lead dont follow, in that I feel you need to get right with the script. let it tell you how to light it. Blade runner had so many different looks to it. lots of negative fill etc, big soft lights etc. its been done. do something new.

[Stuart Brereton]

Phil,

 

Taking the interview scene from the beginning of Blade Runner as a reference for the room, I'd close all the curtains on the left side of the room, then light through the windows on the right side, maybe a 1.2kw HMI through each. Get your art director to add some interesting practicals to the table so you can motivate some other tungsten sources.Balance to 4300k, let the HMI's go slightly blue and tungsten be warm. Add some haze. Do your wide establisher from a ladderpod to get a nice high angle that include the lamps hanging from the ceiling, or if they are not low enough to get in frame, shoot a low angle.

 

For the street, as you have to exclude any modern architecture, a 2.5kw HMI raking the building as 3/4 backlight would have enough throw to cover. Maybe fake some car headlamps as moving sources. Steam probably won't work too well for atmosphere, but a party fogger can work wonders, even outside. I used to use a homebrewed 50' polythene tube with holes in it, and a table fan attached to one end to spread smoke over a large area.

[Phil Rhodes]

Just noticed Mr Brereton's response to this - hmm, thanks, interesting. Sort of what I had in mind anyway, perhaps I'm not a complete idiot.

 

That walkway is about 50 meters long. I don't think a single 2.5 HMI would be enough of a backlight, if I want to stay at or below ISO400 on a 5D, which I do. Maybe two would do it. The upside of 2.5 HMIs is that you can run them off domestic mains sockets, and generators are very much not in the budget.

 

And you think I have an art director!? Ha!

 

P

[Will Montgomery]

Great canvas to have fun with.

 

You're lucky with the ceiling light fixtures; they kind of match the style you're talking about. Perhaps some different color in there as well?

 

I think shadows and noir when I think of Blade Runner so maybe go to the source; the films that inspired Blade Runner's style and look at some of those 30's private detective movies.

[Garry Torrance]

Hey Phil, I noticed you want to be no higher than ISO400 on a Canon 5D for this: are you aware that Canon 5D/7D/1D native ISO speeds are 160, 320, 640, 1250 and 1600? This means that shooting at ISO400 may actually be more noisy than shooting at ISO640. You probably know this but I thought I should point it out: another two-thirds of a stop might be handy for your night exterior.

 

_________________________________________

Garry Torrance

DP • Lighting Cameraman

+44 (0) 7900 953590

www.garrytorrance.co.uk