Lighting a horror location.

[Daan Werdefroy]

Hello,

I'll be shooting a horror short in 2 weekes. We just managed to arrange our principal location and now I had a small question regarding lighting for a base level.

 

The story will take place during 1 night and all in the same location. It's style is based on the tv-series Hannibal. The more the story progresses, the more chiaroscuro I think I will be going.

 

My question is regarding to the main living room. This room is quite big : 6m wide vs 15m length. Since I would like to have a small base level of lighting I'm thinking of hanging practicals. ie chandeliers. These give light and can be put into the frame. The only thing is that I have no idea how big these should be. I'm shooting on alexa with zeis hi-speeds.

 

Would it be enough if each chandelier gave the equivalent of a 1K? say 10 100watt-bulbs?

I'm guessing a base leven of f4 would be very nice.

 

Thanks in advance

[Phil Rhodes]

Looks like a big soft source, probably a bit big to be a single spacelight, so maybe a big diffusion panel flown overhead, roughly over the table so they're being backlit by it. Could be a fluorescent bank of some sort.

 

Those sorts of lights often have to be quite powerful or by the time you've diffused it there's nothing left.

 

P

[David Mullen ASC]

Just make sure your chandelier can handle that much power, it may be safer to try 60w or 75w bulbs for starters, that's still going to be a pretty bright practical with 10 of those.

[Daan Werdefroy]

Looks like a big soft source, probably a bit big to be a single spacelight, so maybe a big diffusion panel flown overhead, roughly over the table so they're being backlit by it. Could be a fluorescent bank of some sort.

 

Those sorts of lights often have to be quite powerful or by the time you've diffused it there's nothing left.

 

 

Would the chandeliers, turning some of them off for contrast, having a grid cloth between the remaining actives ones and clever blocking achieve, kinda, the same effect?

 

Or do I just light the wide shot with the practicals and get some kino's on booms for the CU?

I'm on a student budget, as you may have noticed :)

 

Just make sure your chandelier can handle that much power, it may be safer to try 60w or 75w bulbs for starters, that's still going to be a pretty bright practical with 10 of those.

Thank you David, good point. I'll have to check that.

If I may ask, what units do you tend to use for a big room, INT NIGHT ? I'm struggling to guess what unit equivalent I need just to get an ambient level.

[David Mullen ASC]

If the shots are very wide, then the practicals will have to do most of the work, and that will then determine the look of the tighter shots.

 

How I'd light a large space depends on the look I want, the needs of the story, and what the rigging issues will be -- i.e. can I rig anything to the ceiling? If not any lamps, can I mount a white sheet or something to bounce off of? Am I better off lighting from the ground, from the side, not from above?

 

Obviously that example frame is lit with a big soft box overhead with a teaser all around, or at least, one for the back wall. For a reoccurring set on a TV series, they would possibly just build a soft box with light bulbs inside, diffusion frame underneath, and a black skirt all around, hung from the grid.