Controlled soft daylight on a budget

[Marta Teixeira P. Simoes]

Hello everyone,

I'm preparing a short film with limited budget. I'm in the process of closing my light requests together with the gaffer. Of course we are looking for versatility (in the sense that the same lights will fit the different set ups) but there's one scene where I'm particularly worried about the quality of the light.

I have to light a daylight scene in a leaving room where 4 women will be seating around a table. I'll start in the morning, which means that the sun won't be hitting the window but as it is now, we will continue with this location during the entire day, which means it will start coming in through the window at some point.

Unfortunately, having the light outside the window is not an option. I'm thinking of placing it on the ceiling with the help of a polecat, but I also want to make sure that it will be possible to flag it and shape it around the actresses. Also, start with the wide and move for the closer shots for light continuity.

My doubt is - what would be the best light to go with on this situation? I would like it to be soft and have a natural feel, but at the same time possible to cut and shape. We are looking at some led options, kinos, dedo octadome and maybe 400 HMI?

Bellow there's 2 stills in black and white that are a reference, a picture of the possible framing and a picture of the leaving room.


Thank you in advance for your help!

[Phil Connolly]

If you plan your schedule to shoot the wides when the suns in the right place. Use one of those sun tracking phone apps.

A couple of Kino 4x4' bank or LED panels would be enough to give some shape to the close ups.   I'd probably lean towards kino as its would be a slightly larger softer source, then a light panel. Octodome would look nice, but maybe a bit more fiddly to move about and would take up more space. 

I'd only bring in an HMI if you could light through the window. Same with a pole cat , depending on you coverage if you can away with natural light on the wide, you can probably work from floor stands on the closeups - bringing in diff and neg fill as needed.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Beautiful location and reference frames. I would be tempted to shoot in natural light, as it is. But if that can’t be scheduled, then I would try to replicate the light as it is here.

Maybe you can black out the window and use a Litemat 8, Litetile, or some other flat large LED in its place to retain the soft sidey key light. If you put the curtain sheers in front of it, you may be ok with the reflection in the cabinet window.

Or maybe pull the table downstage away from the window and lose the other furniture, so you will still have the wood cabinet in the background, but you can have more freedom to light the table how you want.

I guess it will depend on the other coverage that you have planned. 

[Marta Teixeira P. Simoes]

Hello,

 

Thank you for the great input, as always.

I see how pushing to shoot the wide at the right time might be the clever solution since I don't have enough power and have space limitations.

My wish and instinct would always be to use the natural light, but I guess I have to wait for the director's final decision regarding the coverage of the scene and negotiate it with the assistant director.

Thanks again!

 

[Joseph Tese]

Check out the 350watt Aladdin, it should be plenty soft..light enough to menace confidently, and should have plenty of output too. If I were to interpret your reference and that location I would start with that or something similar, with a grid. Concerning the window, if you don’t want to wait for the sun to hit it, then something like a j400 would work fine through it, diffused and/or closed shears.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Joseph Tese