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How would you light this?


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I love the cinematography of the movie Arrival. It's one of my favorites. I've been wondering about what kind of lighting (other than soft light, obviously) was used to accomplish the look.

 

Take the still below, for example. How do you think it was lit?

 

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/~bgzimmer/arrival-office-trailer2.jpg

 

Thanks

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Depends on how many stops you need relative to the sensitivity of your camera. Given that Arrival was shot on a camera with at least 14 stops of DR, I think replicating this lighting with tungsten is absolutely possible. A camera with only 8 or 9 stops? Might need some more tungsten and electricity.

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"Arrival" was all shot at T/2 and underexposed / rated higher than 800 (I don't have the AC article here with me to check but probably ISO 1280?), so you don't need a lot of light for a shot like that. There is a faint glow/hotter spot in each window that suggests heavy diffusion on the window but one soft unit in addition per window. I'd probably cover the windows with 1000H paper and then hit each window with a 2K tungsten going through a 4'x4' frame of 250 for starters. But I could be completely off the mark, sort of depends on if the set was lit for other wider angles.

 

You could, for example, to reduce the speed of the fall-off from window glass to subject, use something very light on each window like Opal or Hampshire Frost and then several feet back put a large frame of Full Grid or Muslin that covered the view for all the windows, and then put some big lights behind that, like a row of 5K's or 10K's or a few Maxis.

 

This is just my theory / observation, but when you use extremely light diffusion on a window -- think of it as if the window were dirty -- then put a soft source from far far away -- think of it as an overcast sky -- you can get hybrid effect of both a fast fall-off for the light glowing from the dirt on the window (so that is where the source effectively starts) and a slow fall-off for light passing through the clearer areas of the window (so that the source effectively is far away.) Plus then it is possible if not looking straight at the windows to put the farther big soft light at an angle not seen by the camera so that the hot spot from the light isn't seen. That way you get the diffused white windows and the soft key light but the windows won't be as hot to camera.

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David, the purpose of rating the Alexa at higher ISO (this was shot on Alexa, if I recall correctly) is to add digital noise?

 

About the lighting, could there be any negative fill there? Ratio on her face looks very high contrast. On the other hand, I hardly detect any shadows, but that could be the extreme soft lighting.

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I think that your intuition there is Negative fill is a good one. However that is generally decided upon while lighting and can be hard to tell. If your in a space with white walls you may notice too much light bouncing onto your fill side and need it. Or your key light is so strong the white walls help even the contrast out. I would say its the last step in the process.

 

You can achieve high contrast with soft light. It will just depends on the angle the source is coming from and lighting ratios. This example has soft light coming from mostly the rear third and a little bit from the side so her fill side gets very little light on it. Just be careful that your soft light doesn't wrap around the face/front of the scene too much - keep it coming from behind and a little on the side.

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I seem to remember reading an interview with Bradford Young where he said that the first thing he does on any set or location is cover the off camera walls with solids so he can control the amount of ambient light bouncing around.

 

I'd say that this room is lit entirely by the soft window light that's in shot. The slight edge on the camera left side of her face looks like nothing more than the passive bounce from the wall.

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Thanks guys. I also noticed the outdoor footage looks very natural and with little contrast (mainly overcast days).

 

Take this frame, for example:

 

12013-arrival-featurette-amy-adams.jpg

 

As far as cinematography goes, I notice the wide aperture (T2 as David Mullen said) to create the very soft look. It also feels like a log image. Color wise, do you feel anything major was done in post to get this look or was this just white balancing in the camera? It feels cold and blueish.

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I notice the wide aperture (T2 as David Mullen said) to create the very soft look. It also feels like a log image.

They also shot with a special set of UltraPrimes that had the lens coatings removed. That would also contribute to an overall softer, lower contrast look

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I usually expect that there was a another light to wrap the windowlight. What do you think about the reflections on the pencil holder (on the desk) and the white cup on the window sill? Also the pictureframe on the bookshelf?

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I usually expect that there was a another light to wrap the windowlight.  

I don't think there was. Having watched the film very recently, this shot starts outside the door to the office, and gradually moves into the room to end in this position. At its widest you can see that there are more windows off to camera right, which would make the light wrap more. Any sources in the room would have to be hanging from the ceiling, or they'd be in shot, and the angles don't seem right for that. 

 

It's possible that they added something for the closer coverage, but I don't think so.

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