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Lighting a sports hall for a school reunion


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Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

 

I have a low budget shoot coming up soon and there is a scene Im unsure how to light.

 

The scene takes place at a school reunion in a sports hall. There will be a cheesy disco, with DJ and disco lights, and the motivation for the light will come mainly from that.

 

The action is two characters in the centre of the hall slow dancing after most people have left. If possible the director wants to steadicam around the actors 360 degrees.

 

I have access to 2kw and 800w tungsten lamps, set of dedos, kinos and LED panels. Could get hold of some 1.2 or 2.5kw HMI's too if needed. I also have some portable disco lights which I have used before and read very nicely on camera, at least on the foreground action. We're shooting on the 5D mk2.

 

Any suggestions on how this could be lit would be greatly appreciated :)

 

Simon

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Here are two frames from a movie I shot, "Assassination of a High School President":

 

assassination17.jpg

 

assassination18.jpg

 

I hit the mirror ball with an HMI Source-4 Leko and a tungsten version, and had some color-gelled 1K Parcans rigged overhead and pointed down (that's the hardest part, rigging a grid of lights up high in a gymnasium and running power to all of them). I used a paper lantern with a blue photoflood in it for some closer shots, otherwise I bounced one of the HMI Source-4 Lekos into the ceiling to bring up some blue-ish soft ambience in the room. And of course the room was smoked. Sometimes I swept the room with an HMI Source-4 Leko for a follow-spot effect.

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Here are two frames from a movie I shot, "Assassination of a High School President":

 

assassination17.jpg

 

assassination18.jpg

 

I hit the mirror ball with an HMI Source-4 Leko and a tungsten version, and had some color-gelled 1K Parcans rigged overhead and pointed down (that's the hardest part, rigging a grid of lights up high in a gymnasium and running power to all of them). I used a paper lantern with a blue photoflood in it for some closer shots, otherwise I bounced one of the HMI Source-4 Lekos into the ceiling to bring up some blue-ish soft ambience in the room. And of course the room was smoked. Sometimes I swept the room with an HMI Source-4 Leko for a follow-spot effect.

 

 

 

 

What would have been the most power that would have been drawn for that? The smoke detectors are hard wired in places like gyms. How did those get handled? Wondering how a lower budget production could do with those requirements.

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Thanks for the reply.

 

Those frames look beautiful David. Tried to add the movie to my LoveFilm list in the UK but it's saying it hasn't been released yet.... strange.

 

There are places I could rig lights above the action but i'm not sure how much weight could be supported and how I would get power to them, the place is huge and around 35 feet high so it doesn't make getting up there easy either :(

 

There are basketball hoops on each wall about 12 feet high which I could probably attach lights too and keep out of frame, which may work to some degree.

 

I think it's going to be a case of doing what I can within my limitations unfortunately.

 

Thanks again.

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If you can't afford the gear and the man-hours to rig above the set, then you're stuck with either putting the stuff in the shot, or at least trying to hide the stands. Can you maybe build some par-cans trees that will feel like they belong in that setting? These will motivate a ton of lighting. If the gym has grandstands, you can place your movie lights somewhat above the action and just drape duvateen around the bottom of the stands, or see if the set-dresser to put something in front of them. You can put the dedo's on the floor and use them to uplight a wall. Put them deep in the shot, dress the cable tight to the wall; who's going to know what they are? Or, mask them with some clean cut blackwrap.

 

David, do you have the still from the ice rink where you have the 6K in the shot?

Edited by Jon Rosenbloom
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If you can't afford the gear and the man-hours to rig above the set, then you're stuck with either putting the stuff in the shot, or at least trying to hide the stands. Can you maybe build some par-cans trees that will feel like they belong in that setting? These will motivate a ton of lighting. If the gym has grandstands, you can place your movie lights somewhat above the action and just drape duvateen around the bottom of the stands, or see if the set-dresser to put something in front of them. You can put the dedo's on the floor and use them to uplight a wall. Put them deep in the shot, dress the cable tight to the wall; who's going to know what they are? Or, mask them with some clean cut blackwrap.

 

David, do you have the still from the ice rink where you have the 6K in the shot?

 

 

Thanks Jon,

 

Yes, Iv'e had a chat with the art department girls and they're working on set dressing to hide stands :)

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Simon.

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