How would you light this church scene

Akpe ododoru · June 5, 2016

Reference video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_2q1rclwNE

Reference picture

Location to light and film

Hello everyone, am gonna be filming a wedding scene (movie) in a few weeks and was wondering if you guys can please help me with lighting.

The scene is meant to hold about 100 people

The scene is meant to be brightly lit like the ref video and pictures from the movie (Love actually)

Its going to be shot in day time

Camera used will be Arri Alexa

1) What type of lights and modifier will you use?

2) Where would you possition the lights ( Drawn diagram will be well appreciated)?

3) How many lights and what power

Any assistant would be really appreciated

Edited June 5, 2016 by Akpe ododoru

David Mullen ASC · June 5, 2016

Looks like a lot of nice window side light, do you need to add much lighting if you are shooting in the daytime?

I think the only issue might be that the alter area isn't bright enough to draw your eyes to it, so I'd consider an 18K HMI on a condor or scissor lift outside the side window closest to the alter, perhaps with a big diffusion draped over the outside of the window to soften it.

Coverage you can soften / enhance the soft window light look with some smaller HMI's bounced into white sheets. Tighter coverage you can use some smaller daylight soft lights like Kino Celebs through diffusion frames.

Akpe ododoru · June 6, 2016

Looks like a lot of nice window side light, do you need to add much lighting if you are shooting in the daytime?

I think the only issue might be that the alter area isn't bright enough to draw your eyes to it, so I'd consider an 18K HMI on a condor or scissor lift outside the side window closest to the alter, perhaps with a big diffusion draped over the outside of the window to soften it.

Coverage you can soften / enhance the soft window light look with some smaller HMI's bounced into white sheets. Tighter coverage you can use some smaller daylight soft lights like Kino Celebs through diffusion frames.

Thanks for the reply, not sure if they would have an 18k HMI but they might have access to 4k's.

Thanks again dude

Landon Hill · August 9, 2016

The production design plays a big part into this. The walls in the church are all white, which makes it seem brighter. If you have 4k HMIs you can place them inside and bounce them to bring the levels up even more, but you aren't going to get the same look as the church above because the color palate is so dark.

David Landau · August 9, 2016

I shot a short in a church during the day - low budget and a number of educational videos for a liturgy press company, also low budget. We used source four ERS lights with glass break up gobos and a stained class pattern gobo. This way you can use the source four as a key light to hit the alter and it will fit in with the stained glass window look. Daylight 4x4 Kino flos or daylight LED lights can be used for front fill and eye light on the close-ups and medium shots of the bride and groom. Use the source fours as 3/4 backlights. You seem to have a balcony. If you are lucky enough to get 4k HMIs, my suggestion is to put them up there and shine them down as back light, edging the crowd in te pews. As David said, the light from outside is really you key light for your wide shots and as your ambient light.

Have fun with it and make it high key - low contrast.

Stuart Allman · August 10, 2016

Akpe,

It looks like they used a balloon light up near the ceiling for ambient fill and lit via HMI's outside the windows (probably a series of 18k's). If you could stretch ultrabounce across the church ceiling you might be able to light that from the balcony via a series of 4k's and then put another series of 4k's outside the windows through diffusion to give you your window light. As long as you don't look at the side windows you should be OK. It's going to take a considerable amount of power and sizeable fixtures to fill that space, so you're going to need to bring in a large generator or a series of them.

Sorry I don't know a cheap way to go about it.

Stuart Allman

---------------------------

illuma.blogspot.com

AJ Young · August 10, 2016

What baseline exposure are you hoping to get? (IE: 800ISO at T2.8?)

Because of the higher sensitivity, you may be able to get away with a lot of natural light for most of the location and supplementing with HMI's where needed. However, the light will not be consistent, so approaching it like David suggested will be better for continuity.

I would discuss the basic blocking with your director to help guide you in deciding where you want to place your lighting. Depending on how much money your production is investing into the day(s) on this location, having an overhead of the blocking will help you plan accordingly.

In general, follow David's recommendation of HMI's. If you can't afford a condor, but can afford the 18k, then try bouncing in the light with a 10x or 20x ultra bounce. It'll soften and spread the light into the church, but will cut it down a lot too.

Amanda Eckle · August 30, 2016

Hey Akpe,

You probably already shot this-curious what did you end up using?? Would love to see!

For any future reference these small mattress lighting balloons are ones we commonly use in church's, theaters...etc-they are small and easy to move...

they are 9'x9'x3' and do 5.2k tungsten, 1150w hmi, and 3575w hybrid. (image below for reference) it is a great fairly inexpensive option when you need flexibility and a good diffused light...and yes these are available pretty much anywhere (I've used them all over the US)...there is also ones that are 20'x20'x4.5' and do 24k tungsten or 9.6k hmi not sure what hybrid...

Edited August 30, 2016 by Amanda Eckle