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How has this shot been lit?


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Thanks Tim.

 

Would you think something like a mini Kino Flo would have been used for the face? Definitely Fluorescent?

 

The lamp in the background is a standard tungsten bulb?

 

Apart from those two lights do you think there is anything else lighting this scene?

 

Thanks

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The image looks like it been graded heavily so I can't guess at color temp, It's possible the entire shot was lit with a couple of 60W bulbs plus the practical light.

 

Might be a small Kino source in the foreground but I'd guess a diffused fresnel or even just a soft bare bulb with some diffusion.

 

Why do you ask?

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Yea kino for sure, there is a lot of kino in Fight Club. Notice the guy sitting in the background, he's got light on his head as well. So there was a lot more going in that shot then meets the eye. I thought Jeff did a fantastic job with Fight Club, his first big narrative film, having been a camera operator for Fincher on The Game and Seven previously. Photochemical finish as well, so kudos' for making such a stylistic look in-camera. Fincher pushed the format to it's limits for sure, hence the reason he shoots digital today.

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Of course. Thought it looked familiar, darker than I recall though. Amazing looking film, especially given the lack of digital post. Wasn't it Fight Club and Saving Private Ryan that started the bleach bypass trend?

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Of course. Thought it looked familiar, darker than I recall though. Amazing looking film, especially given the lack of digital post. Wasn't it Fight Club and Saving Private Ryan that started the bleach bypass trend?

 

I thought Se7en was the very first to do that...

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Seven is one of my favorite photographed films. When it came out, I was just a teenager and was blown away with the look. Khondji pushed it even further with Panic Room, which pushed the limits of grain and black levels on 35mm to a level I had never seen before. I'm personally not a fan of underexposing like that, but it left a lasting impression on me and opened my mind to what was acceptable.

 

It's unfortunate true pieces of cinematic art like Seven, don't get the credit they deserve in the main stream awards.

 

Ohh and yes, I believe Seven was the first to make a hand-full of bleach bypass prints.

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleach_bypass

 

Bleach bypass was first used in Japanese filmmaker Kon Ichikawa's 1960 film Her Brother. Kazuo Miyagawa as Daiei Motion Picture Company's cameraman invented bleach bypass for Ichikawa's film,[1][2][3] inspired by the color rendition in the 1956 release of Moby-Dick, printed using Technicolor, and was achieved through the use of an additional black and white overlay. Despite this early foray into the technique, it remained overlooked for the most part until its use by Roger Deakins in 1984.

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Cool stuff David, thanks for posting that. I didn't know other hollywood films had experimented with it before.

 

On the "Seven" Criterion Laserdisc liner notes, they mention using a bleach bypass print to make the HD master. It looks entirely different then the overly clean, green/blue tinted DVD and BluRay produced by Criterion much later in time.

 

As a side note, it's amazing to see the movie ON film. I had an opportunity to see it projected in 35mm last year and it still blows my mind away at how well it was made for a photochemical film.

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I though Khondji and Conrad Hall Jr. shared credit on Panic Room? Wonder what the story was behind that. Still my favorite reference for low-key ambient night interior.

 

There was a re-shoot after Foster had her pregnancy and I think Khondji was already booked on another shoot and couldn't come back, so Conrad Hall Jr stepped in and finished the re-shoots.

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There was a re-shoot after Foster had her pregnancy and I think Khondji was already booked on another shoot and couldn't come back, so Conrad Hall Jr stepped in and finished the re-shoots.

 

Another version of the story is that Khondji was removed after falling out with Jodie Foster, and yet another version has it that he quit after arguing with Fincher about the lack of creative input he had, due to the entire movie having been pre-visualized.

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Stuart's version is correct. Fincher talks very briefly about it on the commentary, how Khondji wasn't too happy about every shot being mapped out already, down to the lens size and the height above ground.

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