Lighting in a Church. Please help!

[Sean Conaty]

I'm shooting a very technically complicated shot in a church on 16mm.

 

The shot is a dolly back frontal medium close up on a man as he walks down the aisle all the way to the altar.

 

-No side balconies to light from above

-Also, the further the camera pulls back, the more of the church is revealed (therefore, nothing on the sides or on the ceiling can be seen)

-No cutaways

 

How on earth do I light this?

 

-Sean

[Sean Conaty]

If I shoot Wide Open during the middle of the day so that the light from the windows streams in, will this work adequately? (I'm going for a pretty low key, high contrast lighting style anyway)

[Stephen Williams]

If I shoot Wide Open during the middle of the day so that the light from the windows streams in, will this work adequately? (I'm going for a pretty low key, high contrast lighting style anyway)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Sean,

 

Take your light meter see! If you have a 35mm stills camera you can try some shots and see if you like the look!

 

Stephen

[Jonathan Spear]

If you want extra strong, fuel-based "lights", you could hire a non-white crew to build a church set in Mississippi, Texas, Kansas or Northern California. Have them stick around while you're filming.

Bring a bullhorn and blast happy liberal music from the 70's - perhaps some Babs or Kenny G as well.

 

That'll get their attention.

 

Before you know it, a bunch of genetically-challenged pillow-case wearing freaks of nature will swarm all over your set and "light" everything up nicely.

[Patrick Neary]

oooooooooooookaaaayyyyyy...... :blink:

 

If there's enough good ambient light for the church interior, maybe just use a small handheld unit or china ball to clean up the close-up. Taking a digital still camera in and setting it for your film's asa/shutter/fstop will give you a rough approximation of how things will look as-is, and maybe suggest where you need or don't need supplemental lighting.

[Wendell_Greene]

If you want extra strong, fuel-based "lights", you could hire a non-white crew to build a church set in Mississippi, Texas, Kansas or Northern California. Have them stick around while you're filming.

Bring a bullhorn and blast happy liberal music from the 70's - perhaps some Babs or Kenny G as well.

 

That'll get their attention.

 

Before you know it, a bunch of genetically-challenged pillow-case wearing freaks of nature will swarm all over your set and "light" everything up nicely.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Your sad, weak attempt at humor is out of place in a forum and quite frankly I find what you posted to be offensive, and insensitive to the people whose lives may have been affected by having lost their places of worship and loved ones to arson and other acts of intolerance and violence. What's next? Suggesting someone follow the ancient custom employed by conquering Roman armies who used the bodies of the vanquished as torches when someone asks how to light a long winding country road at night?

 

If you don't have anything worthwhile to contribute, then don't post anything. People come here for professional answers to their questions, and its disconcerting to have to shift through asisnine posts like yours.

[Wendell_Greene]

How on earth do I light this?

 

-Sean

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Patrick's suggestion was a good one, especially if the church has lots of windows, it may be more about the correct time of day you shoot. This might be out of your budget, but I'd suggest you look at a lighting balloon, which would give you a good ambient base for the scene. Another suggestion is to see if you can place any of your lights behind or in the pews or in nooks or columns in the building's architecture.

[Jonathan Benny]

You can use a china lantern to key your walking subject. Light the walls and the ceiling of the church from below: place units on the floor (hidden behind pews or along the wall) pointing upwards to create a sense of ambient light coming from below. The light can also illuminate walls this way.

 

Just one way of doing it,

 

Jonathan

 

I'm shooting a very technically complicated shot in a church on 16mm.

 

The shot is a dolly back frontal medium close up on a man as he walks down the aisle all the way to the altar.

 

-No side balconies to light from above

-Also, the further the camera pulls back, the more of the church is revealed (therefore, nothing on the sides or on the ceiling can be seen)

-No cutaways

 

How on earth do I light this?

 

-Sean

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Guest fstop]

Could you share a bit more about the context of the shot within the film please? How much do we need to see? What information is crucial within the shot? What's the tone of the piece? What is the story about? Who is this character walking down the aisle? What is the art direction like, what does the director want it to look like? The Graduate or Four Weddings and a Funeral?

[drew_town]

I like Johnathon Benny's idea. Have someone with a china ball or any softlight walk with the dolly to light your subject and use ambient light for the rest of the scene. There's some different approaches, but that's what I'd do.

[Rik Andino]

I like Johnathon Benny's idea. Have someone with a china ball or any softlight walk with the dolly to light your subject and use ambient light for the rest of the scene. There's some different approaches, but that's what I'd do.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Why don't you just place the china-ball on the Dolly right next to the camera

That way the fill will be constant anywhere you go.

 

I recommend getting some polecats and spreading them out on the ceiling

And then hanging you're light units from there

You'll get a top light effect but that's might be just what you're looking for...

 

Most protestant churches are usually high key they like having alotta of light

Unlike Cathedrals which are usually dark and filled with candles

 

So you might consider haning chinese-lanterns off pole cats giving it a soft-lit look

 

Anyways you have to decide how you want it lit

And where you want to place the lights & what angle you want the beam...etc..

Then think about how you can get this all done.

I know this is hard but no-one ever said being a DP is easy.

 

Good Luck

[Jonathan Spear]

Sorry.

My bad, Wendell.

[Sean Conaty]

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/prs/stign/

 

This was the only picture I could find of the interior of the Church.

 

You can see that there aren't any balconies on the sides to hang fixtures from.

 

Also, the China-ball idea is decent, but it would be visible the more I pull back.

 

Please also keep in mind that this is relatively low budget and that I also don't have free reign to do whatever I want in/to the church itself.

 

The film is lit very low-key so it might work to my advantage that it is a very lowlight setting. Someone suggested that it might just be the time of the day that decides how I shoot it.

 

A few ideas I was thinking off:

 

-Low angle on the actor as he walks down the aisle and put the lights at his feet. This gets rid of the problem of seeing the lights as I pull back and it creates a low key effect by its very nature. The only problem with this is that the lighting is very unnatural (ie. light in a church does not come from the ground).

 

-Cutaways. Light the dolly shot for about 10 feet, cut, then light the next 10 feet. This might free me up.

 

Thanks,

 

-Sean

[Kevin Zanit]

If you track the china ball back with the dolly you would not see it.

 

This does not seem to me to be all that difficult of a location to light, based on the photo at least.

 

Look at where the light naturally comes in. Windows will be your friends in this case. If there are only a few windows, cheat multiple units through one window at different angles to help extend the "sunlight".

 

You can hide smaller units behind the columns. Try bringing up those practicals on the walls. You may consider up lighting each column, or the Roman arches from the ground to help create depth and separation.

 

Kevin Zanit

[Guest fstop]

I'd hang a giant bleached cloth above the doorway, angled towards the camera and just bounce a 2.5k HMI into it (or something similar)- or why not just have the key frontal/slightly to the side and hard, no fill (to fit the lowkey thing) angled high to cast a giant hard shadow for some obvious contrast? Maybe get some gels and a gobo and fake a stained glass window with something like a 2K? Maybe a fake stained glass kicker?

 

There are TONS of ways to go with this one- WHAT a canvas! Be instinctive!

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Giant 20K Xenons outside all the windows, raking through as sunlight, and a bit of haze.

 

I dunno, what d'you want it to look like?

 

Phil

[Jon Rosenbloom]

Has anyone suggested using lighting balloons?

Also, what's the final product, a projected print, or - more likely - a dvd/beta-sp? If you're not printing, you could probably shoot 7218 at 1000 asa and go w/ whatever's there in the church.

 

If you want more footcandles:

you could get the balloons,

you can hide kinos behing the columns,

you can hide par cans between the pews,

You can put blue eca bulbs (250w) in the practical fixtures, and put nd gel on the camera side of the fixtures,

You can stretch some ropes above the knave and hang chinese lanterns,

 

There are plenty of ways to go. You must make sure to scout, decide on the framing, and then figure out what's out of frame.

 

Good luck!