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Lighting in small spaces with no budget


Kyle Kearns

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Hey guys, I'm shooting my first short film on Saturday and I'm having trouble trying to design the lighting.

 

The short is about a high school girl who is being bullied, so the theme is dark/moodier. The director says they like the look of the Youtube series Impulse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdKCzhU7kQI

For the locker room scene/hallway scenes my original idea was to boom lights overhead in two or three softboxes to mimic the over head florescent lights that would already be there, but make the light more contrasty.

The problem with that is we don't have proper grip equipment, we have only  or four cheap light stands and on.ly one of which has the capability to boom a softbox.

My other idea was to try to use the building's florescent lights and try to somehow shape the light with negative fill.

 

Here's some pictures from my location scout:

https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code=kZCN64kZ0h1mUvCRu94kCGz8KFs4lbHCp6vy&fbclid=IwAR1PB_ugpK7HRmUj__3NhYe2sWRI7MgYZ0LxXXPeqnOmMt3nhRZI8ni11O0

 

My main concern is that the overhead lights are the only lights I can motivate light from, I'm not sure where else to put lights to where it will look good and still make sense for the location/story. There are no windows in this location and if there were it wouldn't make sense to show them since it's going to be night time when we shoot.

Time on set is going to be very limited, so I'm trying to figure out as much as I can before I show up. Any help is appreciated!

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The link works if one copies and pastes it. ?

If it were me, with minimal lighting equipment and crew, I would forgo the idea of rigging soft boxes and use as much of the available lighting as possible.  Negative fills might be a good idea.  I would also look for some small LED battery powered lights that I could hide on the set to add some punch and dimension to the existing lighting.  Maybe even tape or mount something to the ceiling if it could be kept out of frame.  If you are moving with the actors through these sets, you might think about mounting the small LED light on to a boom pole and have it move with the actor, if it helps or is necessary.

Given that there is not so much lighting one can do with such minimal resources, I would concentrate on camera placement, framing, and blocking to create this story and the drama that the script calls for. Using the existing lighting in a way frees you to create frames without the limitation of keeping lighting equipment out of the frame.  And with that freedom, you can move the camera almost anywhere without limitations.

Don't also forget that there is much one can also add to the look via digital color correction as well.  And don't forget that you can remove some of the existing light bulbs to create more mood.  So bring a nice ladder with you!

So, go out and have fun, and don't worry too much ?

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You don't actually need a REAL window or light to motivate from.  Just pretend there is one out of frame, and be roughly consistent with it.   You need the director's cooperation so you can work your coverage around where you motivate your light from (of course you can cheat it some)

 

So how did your project go?

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Thanks guys!

It didn’t go as I’d hoped, but I think it went well!

I ended up talking to a gaffer at the rental house and he suggested hanging some 60w tungsten bulbs from the ceiling using gaff tape (for the locker room scene).

I went with that idea and I liked how it was looking, but on the time of the scene I could one get one bulb on and one section of overhead fluorescent lights in the room wouldn’t turn off for some reason, maybe emergency lights? Anyway, I still liked the way it looked for the most part, just wish we weren’t rushing through everything.

Ill post a few frames in a little bit.

The majority of the time we were so tight on time that I didn’t have anytime to add or tweak lighting which was a real bummer. I think the director was probably a little too ambitious with the schedule.

We didn’t end up finishing, so we’re getting the last couple scenes this weekend, which is good because I might actually have time to light them!

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