Jump to content

Lighting An Abandoned Grocery Store


Recommended Posts

I am tasked with lighting a large space which has virtually no practical light, with motivated light. There is one set of glass double doors, at one end of the grocery store. That area receives daylight spill inside. I know I will need to create, off-camera, another virtual daylight window source. This will motivate light onto the metal edge of empty rows of shelves, and maybe a little light onto a wall in deep background. I have very limited $ for instruments. I will have 3x 2k blondes or slimlines. I will have 3x 650s and a couple 300's. I will need to half-blue the tungsten, as the actor will be holding a flashlight, and I will balance for the flashlight or 32k.

 

Should I use some kind of diffusion on the instruments hitting the shelves? Perhaps aim two slimlines through a 4x4 of diffusion or grid? Direct the other for a broad casting on the back wall? I do not want this light to appear coming from a bulb, but rather dim, diffused daylight from a small window which is not really there. Obviously I know I need to use the power of suggestion, as I will not have powerful HMIs to create the daylight source. I'm thinking of edging the actor's back and side of face fairly hard (again suggesting a daylight source not really present), and maybe bouncing low wattage off the floor to the side nearby for a little dramatic soft fill. Again, all with a blue daylight cast. A bit of Alien perhaps?

 

I've not had to light something like this before. Am I on the right track? Suggestions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would suggest that instead of balancIng your lights to the flashlight, you balance the flashlight to your lights. With most flashlights you can unscrew the lens and you can drop a gel in behind it. This way the only light you'll lose some oompf from is the flashlight, which I'm guessing is just a gag light anyway.

 

As for how to light the space, it really depends on the story. There's any number of ways you could light it. But if you're just trying to simulate daylight, bouncing your 2ks into something should work just fine. Use your peppers to give some detail to the background and your 650s for fill or backlight. If you want to simulate direct sunlight, a spotted 2k through some light diffusion should do the trick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would suggest that instead of balancIng your lights to the flashlight, you balance the flashlight to your lights. With most flashlights you can unscrew the lens and you can drop a gel in behind it. This way the only light you'll lose some oompf from is the flashlight, which I'm guessing is just a gag light anyway.

 

As for how to light the space, it really depends on the story. There's any number of ways you could light it. But if you're just trying to simulate daylight, bouncing your 2ks into something should work just fine. Use your peppers to give some detail to the background and your 650s for fill or backlight. If you want to simulate direct sunlight, a spotted 2k through some light diffusion should do the trick.

 

Thanks Mark! Yeah, I've been concerned about the light loss with the gels. So I'm going to get another 2k. My thinking in doing the gels is that any reverses that see the opposite side of the store will be getting the real daylight, so that may require I gel. Either way, the flashlight will also be providing a "practical" spot for the actor as he reveals what's in his pov. So I'm thinking that light will need to be 32K relative the artificial outdoor light. But that said, your suggestion could still work by simply gelling the flashlight CTO and keeping the "daylight" un-gelled. Then I balance to the very warm flashlight. The daylight I'm providing would be just enough for a very low fill, and enough to glean a little from the metal shelves.

Edited by Brant Hadfield
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Mark! Yeah, I've been concerned about the light loss with the gels. So I'm going to get another 2k. My thinking in doing the gels is that any reverses that see the opposite side of the store will be getting the real daylight, so that may require I gel. Either way, the flashlight will also be providing a "practical" spot for the actor as he reveals what's in his pov. So I'm thinking that light will need to be 32K relative the artificial outdoor light. But that said, your suggestion could still work by simply gelling the flashlight CTO and keeping the "daylight" un-gelled. Then I balance to the very warm flashlight. The daylight I'm providing would be just enough for a very low fill, and enough to glean a little from the metal shelves.

 

You could maybe half CTO the flashlight?

 

Maybe you want a high power flashlight then? There are those super blast halogen things but they are big and heavy but maybe you can find a really powerful LED flashlight with high intensity super bright leds? The LED's would also be a lot bluer tho and maybe also a bit nasty looking, dunno! Guess you could CTO them?

 

I'm just wondering if the average actual flashlight will be too feeble to get the kind of effect you want, you could of course modify the flashlight to be more super powered too.

 

Another idea, and this could be a really bad one, but could you gel the real daylight? I know you said it was coming thru doors which might be a huge pain to gel but...

 

...Otherwise it seems to me that you have no choice but to CTB your lights which sounds to me like it's going to be the easiest option if you are going to have uncontrolled daylight streaming in!

 

love

 

Freya

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

If you need a really punchy flashlight for not a lot of money check out the LED Defender by Surefire. I just used it on a music video and was able to light actors faces by bouncing it off a wall from 20 fy away. http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=flashlight+led+defender&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=14854675456034053085&sa=X&ei=tZL-TsCMEorNrQfejc3tDw&ved=0CEkQ8wIwAg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...