How can I light a room like this

John1 · November 17, 2014

I saw this on a feature film and I sort of like it. It looks close to real. The room is dark as it will be in real life but then we can see our actors on the screen without illuminating all the room. How do i acheive this look. How many lights, where and how do i place it/them. I just really love the look.

John1 · November 17, 2014

I love the look above as opposed to this look here. Everything just look bright and flat. Doesn't look creative or interesting to me. Every thing just looks flat and boring

Mike Bao · November 17, 2014

You need a large room with a window and ideally ground floor so you can easily put the light outside and shoot through the window. Fresnel would be a good start and you can pick how hard you want it,what color you want,shoot it though blinds or leaves or any pattern you want.

Having a room with dark walls as opposed to white helps immensly. Underexpose the key to taste. perhaps add an underexposed fill as well.

David Mullen ASC · November 17, 2014

"John1", are you aware that this website has a real name policy? You should edit your User Name to be your real first and last name. This was the registration page when you joined:

John1 · November 17, 2014

David, I would. Mike, the room above has no window and d ligthing was achieved well

David Mullen ASC · November 17, 2014

If the room has no window then you need the space to back up the light and use black flags to create window patterns. This is hard to do in a small room if you want sharp shadow patterns because the black flags can't be right next to the light or else the shadow pattern gets too soft.

It's basically one bright sharp light, in this case, gelled blue. But there may also be a very dim, very soft bounce fill light just to keep the shadows from going completely black, that's a matter of taste just as with the amount of underexposure.

Guy Holt · November 17, 2014

If the room has no window then you need the space to back up the light and use black flags to create window patterns. This is hard to do in a small room if you want sharp shadow patterns because the black flags can't be right next to the light or else the shadow pattern gets too soft.

If you don't have the room to work flags as David suggests, another approach is to put a large mirror where the window would be (to the left of the foot of the bed in the picture above) and put the Fresnel light on the other side of the room (to the right of the head of the bed). You can then place Gaffer's tape directly onto the mirror to create the window pattern you want. Since the light is traveling the length of the room before it hits the mirror, it has become collimated and and so the tape on the mirror will create crisp shadows. You can use different types of diffusion (Hampshire Frost, Light Opal, Opal etc.) to control the crispness of the shadows, Another approach is to put a Leko with a window gobo pattern in the corner where the window would be. To do this you will need a zoom leko with a 25-50 lens to get sufficient spread over the short throw and a dimmer to control the intensity. The mirror approach offers more flexibility.

Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting Rental & Sales in Boston

John E Clark · November 17, 2014

Speaking of 'mirrors' is highly reflective silver mylar used to eliminate the danger/weight of actual an actual glass mirror?

Guy Holt · November 17, 2014

Speaking of 'mirrors' is highly reflective silver mylar used to eliminate the danger/weight of actual an actual glass mirror?

Mylar is typically not reflective enough. Your local rental house should be able to provide you with a 4x4 mirror on a reflector board yoke that will pop into a Jr Stand. Just be very careful handling it because they are fragile.

Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting Rental & Sales in Boston

Mark Dunn · November 17, 2014

The two examples you give aren't alternative ways of lighting the same scene, they're completely different schemes. The intent is very different.

Edward Lawrence Conley III · November 20, 2014

Speaking of 'mirrors' is highly reflective silver mylar used to eliminate the danger/weight of actual an actual glass mirror?

http://sandiegofilmequipment.com/Rental.aspx?Department=Grip%20Department&Category=Reflectors%20and%20Fill

David Landau · November 24, 2014

You can create this look by cutting a showcard with a window pattern - something i and every gaffer I know have done many times. As David points out, the further you are from the source the sharper the shadows on the wall and the closer you are to the source the more soft the pattern edges will be. You will need to use a hard light, a fresnel works generally better than an open-faced unit. The light isn't very high, rather at a lower angle striking the bed and wall. There does appear to be a soft fill to stop the shadows from going too dark. The easiest way to accomplish this is to bounce an open-faced unit into the ceiling. As David mentions, it probably has 1/2 CTB (1/2 blue) gel on it. Using and open-face Mickey or Mighty allows you to close or open the barn doors to adjust the intensity of the fill. If you are working in a set with no ceiling, put up foamcore on a grip stand or attach it to the grid and bounce the unit into that.

I did a film and used a source four ERS (leko) with a 50 degree lens to provide the window pattern across the bed and wall. The room was very small but it worked well.