Scene in a Movie Theater

[Matt Serrins]

I'm shooting a scene in an old movie theater, where the characters will be watching a classic movie, and I'm wondering how to light it.

 

My plan is to run the 35mm projector to fill the theater (it's cavernous) and use some video projectors and soft light to give flicker and accent. I'm going to composite in the scenes where the movie is actually shown due to budget constraints (i can't get a 35mm print of the film in the script and video projection is not a possibility in the location)

 

Any other suggestions or tips for how to light this?

 

Should I use a smoke machine to give the light coming out of the 35mm projector some depth and also give a sense of the space itself?

 

Thanks for all your help.

 

Matt Serrins

[Thomas Masper]

Hi Matt

I have the same problem, I need to shoot a scene in a movie theater, in super8 (Kodak Tri-X 7278, B&W 160ISO) and video miniDV.

I found out that with the 35mm projector there wasn't enought light to expose film, and the image on miniDv at maximum aperture with 1/50'' was too dark.

So I think I'm going to lit characters with tungsten lamps (key ligth, fill light, back ligth and just some effect light) and use hands or whatelse for the flickering purpose.

 

I'm new in cinematography, so this is all I can say about your problem.

I hope this can help you, if you solved your problem, let me know, I'm shooting the next month, so any suggestion is wellcome

 

Thomas

[Nate Downes]

A trio of 1k's diffused, one of them tied to a "flicker-generator" gives good results.

[Michael Nash]

Check the archives from previous years; this has been discussed many times.