Suggestions for Lighting A Warehouse

[Sean Donnelly]

Hello All!

 

I am just discovering this resource and loving it! Thanks to everyone who contributes such great information. I am an in-house San Francisco Bay Area DP at a production company called Corduroy Media (corduroymedia.com) and wanted to float a lighting set up for the group.

 

I am working on a commercial for a tech client that takes place in an industrial, abandoned warehouse. The director and I settled on a moody vibe with strong shafts of light and strong edges on our characters. Because of the VFX involved and because we are shooting on the RED (a noisy camera in its own right) I want to be at f8 and IS0 400 for the show. Attached is a scout pic and inspiration images. My thought to get the look is the following:

 

3-4 Xenons outside kicking through windows with heat reducing gel/straw for warm glow

DF50 Hazer

1 joker 800 with small softbox on menace arm for top light- key on actors

2 joker 800s on menace arms for strong scratch on actors (I was also thinking of turning these into jo-lekos)

 

Any other thoughts? I am concerned about having enough value in the ceiling, but I think the Jokers/Xenons would bounce enough light from the ground to see the metal beams.

 

Cheers,

Sean Donnelly

[David Mullen ASC]

With a hazed set and backlight, there is usually enough ambience to bring up the ceiling. Smoke acts like millions of tiny bounce cards, sending light in different directions into the shadows.

 

If you were planning on using the hanging fluorescents, if it were possible to take off the cowling on the sides, it would allow more light to shine upwards but it also might lower the contrast too much in the smoked room.

[Stuart Brereton]

Using haze can make life very difficult for your VFX people. You should check with them before you shoot.

[Sean Donnelly]

Thanks for the tips. I will make sure to post the results!

 

Sean Donnelly

Director of Photography

Corduroy Media

www.corduroymedia.com

[Satsuki Murashige]

Welcome to the forum Sean.

 

One thing to remember is that once you haze the set, any light source (especially a hard source like a Joker or Joleko) will give off a visible beam. So you may be better off trying to build the lighting into practicals unless you are ok with revealing the off-camera sources in the foreground. Tough to pull off while lighting to 200fc, I know.

 

About the ceiling, looks like it has a lot of texture. I would think about using the floor bounce from the Xenons reflected into it. You can already see a bit of what the window light is doing, with just soft ambient skylight and bounce from the white building. If you pound that floor with the Xenons, you should get a brighter backlight on the ceiling. Also wetting down the floor will give you more output, though then you may have nuclear speculars on the floor that will be close to clipping. Hope you're on the ground floor!

 

I'm sure your gaffer will have additional thoughts.