Jump to content

Ultra Low Budget lighting


Recommended Posts

So I just wrote a script for 'Wash us In the Blood', yes it takes place in a hotel room, I'm sorry, I usually end up there when I think cheap, but I think it's a pretty good idea. It's about a pastor in his 40s who has an illicit relationship with a 20 year old woman, when he tries to break up with her she threatens to tell his wife about the relationship and humiliates him and extorts him. I'm already storyboarding it, it's only a six page script https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VHlsYs2rCMFuYF38YZ_mIlNXtGsFZ8OZ/view?usp=sharing . I'll be shooting it this month. I want to be able to think outside the box and film a short with exteriors, but audio will be an issue. I just wrote the script today so I might do some revisions when I shoot it. I think it's perfect in terms of costs, overall I might spend around $300 to make it. As for lighting, the short takes place in the night time, so I envisioned low light, maybe a few lamps on, would it be a dumb idea to use lights from Lowes, I know the color rendering index would be bad, but I want to use some kind of lighting to try and make it look good, I think lighting the actors is important, especially the eyes. I was watching Phantom Thread and it's that little glint in the eyes that makes all difference, it's mesmerizing, I want to learn how to light actors before anything else. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

You don't need much for a hotel room, one light that can be bounced off of the ceiling or wall or a bedsheet when needed, a paper lantern with a bulb in it, and maybe swapping the compact flos in the lamps with tungsten or LED. 

The issue is daylight versus tungsten, do you want the interiors to be warmer than the exterior light coming in during the day, or do you want most of the light in daytime to feel like it comes from the window. Certainly you can justify a tungsten look for the interior and if the door isn't open all the time, perhaps you can cover the window with 1/2 CTO to correct it halfway to tungsten so you don't get as strong a color temperature mix, unless you want that. Some hotel rooms can even have a Cool White overhead and tungsten table lamps for a particularly noticeable color mix.

An eyelight is just icing on the cake, a low-wattage bare bulb under or above the lens would be enough, perhaps with some blackwrap around it to direct it a little.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Please don't pick up Lowel lights. They're so cheaply constructed. The best of the bunch is probably the Rifa softbox and Tota because it's so compact. But the DP and omni lights... their barn doors are unusable and fragile. I broke doors on omni lights twice, by simply trying to take them off!

Used tungsten on ebay is a perfect choice on a budget. Many people are replacing their tungstens with LED fixtures, so you'll find great quality tungsten fixtures for cheap.

I recommend Ianiro Redhead lights (Ianiro, not chinese copies). It's an open-face and great for bouncing because of the superwide beam angle. They're cheaper than the Arri open face counterpart. I'd get a 650w and 1kw. Bounce them off white cloth on the wall and barn-door them to shape. A fresnel equivalent will be more expensive due to the added mechanics and lens, but they can throw longer distances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks David, but the entire short takes place in the night time, I wanted to open the window curtains, hopefully I can get a location with a huge window that overlooks the skyline. I might shoot it in black and white in 1.85:1, I'll rent a Canon 50mm f/1.2 and EF 16-35mm f/2.8 lens to get the most from available light, as for eye light, I might look into small LED flashlighs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Stephen Sanchez said:

Please don't pick up Lowel lights. They're so cheaply constructed. The best of the bunch is probably the Rifa softbox and Tota because it's so compact. But the DP and omni lights... their barn doors are unusable and fragile. I broke doors on omni lights twice, by simply trying to take them off!

Used tungsten on ebay is a perfect choice on a budget. Many people are replacing their tungstens with LED fixtures, so you'll find great quality tungsten fixtures for cheap.

I recommend Ianiro Redhead lights (Ianiro, not chinese copies). It's an open-face and great for bouncing because of the superwide beam angle. They're cheaper than the Arri open face counterpart. I'd get a 650w and 1kw. Bounce them off white cloth on the wall and barn-door them to shape. A fresnel equivalent will be more expensive due to the added mechanics and lens, but they can throw longer distances.

No, I meant lights from Lowe's (laughter), I can't afford any tungsten lights at the moment. But I'd have to see the color temperature of the lights in the hotel room, don't have any LEE filters to color correct. Once I know the location I'll get a good idea of how I can make it work. I remember on my first short film I used a Kino Flo 4-bank to light the hotel at 2700k , and on the second I just bounced Lowel lights on the ceiling. This time I was looking at LADY BLUE SHANGHAI, the look of it would fit perfectly, especially at (6:13)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Paper lanterns (China balls) with a household incandescent bulb inside are really cheap and look good. You will need some sort of stand to put it on and a household dimmer to adjust the intensity.

If you’re willing to spend a little more, a Lantern Lock fixture will give a rigid fixture that can be positioned in more ways. These fixtures require their own paper lanterns since the spacing is a little different. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I showed my script around on a Reddit subforum and all of a sudden everyone turned against me, including a young local actress, everyone keeps telling me that it's not a "story" or that it feels "incomplete", but I wanted the characters to stand for an idea, it's actually a reduced version of a feature length screenplay that I wrote,  Sadie Thompson. The whole concept was about resisting temptation and being punished for it, it's about being boxed in. I think this one is about being stuck with yourself, how to live with the guilt and persecution. I even thought about shooting in Academy Ratio 1.37, I've felt like a prisoner in my own body, it's an awful feeling, and I realized that is what the idea was about. I really didn't care about the dialogue, but the embodiment of an idea. I realize that taking on this endeavor you discover that there will be lots of people against you, it's almost like they are offended when you think differently, no one experiments with the craft. Everyone's trying to write the same "feel good" story, and I understand that there's good and bad craftsmanship, but I think the rules of cinema can be bent beyond the literature. Maybe you don't really need a screenplay to make a movie, especially a short film, there' doesn't need to be a beginning, middle, or end.... 

I decided to rent a Canon RP mirrorless. I'm going to use a 22mm lens, I just think I'm a little tired of conventional filmmaking and all the rules, if it turns out awful at least I went all the way... I actually thought of using small lighting panels from Lowe's, use some tracing paper and clip them on, just to create some separation. I'm just going to jump into it and ignore what people think of it, I know I'm never going to make it, so I might as well do whatever I want. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
1 hour ago, Josh Gallegos said:

I showed my script around on a Reddit subforum and all of a sudden everyone turned against me,

That’s the nature of the internet unfortunately. Believe in yourself and your taste and just make something. By moving forward, you’ll eventually attract like-minded people and it’ll get easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
4 hours ago, Satsuki Murashige said:

That’s the nature of the internet unfortunately. Believe in yourself and your taste and just make something. By moving forward, you’ll eventually attract like-minded people and it’ll get easier.

Nature of the world. Everybody's a critic. If you're too sensitive to it (as am I), filmmaking can be an extremely difficult hobby or career to navigate.  It really sucks though.  No question about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually I just looked through the script and it's not what I thought it was. I'm making revisions to it.

Does anyone know how to create a ghosting effect?

I know it has to do with the shutter speed. 

the effects in 11:08

 

Edited by Josh Gallegos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

It happens when you shoot at a low frame rate and then convert it back 24 fps, because at a lower frame rate your motion is sampled with fewer frames (so it looks steppier) and a longer shutter time if the shutter angle is left at 180 degrees. So at 8 fps with a 180 degree shutter angle, the exposure time per frame is 1/16 instead of 1/48 when shooting at 24 fps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Non-cinema video cameras typically don’t allow you to shoot at slower frame rates (under-cranking), I would check the camera manual to make sure yours can do it.

Most will allow faster frame rates for slow motion (over-cranking) at fixed frame rates like 30, 60, 120fps.

Edited by Satsuki Murashige
Typo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read the Canon RP only shot at 30fps but 24fps was later added through the firmware. The rental house rents cameras pretty cheap, they even added a BMPC 4K, which I think is the equivalent of super-16mm? I know that I read if you shoot in 4K, you get a cropped image and it uses 4x the storage data. I’ve never used a BMPC before, but then I’d have to get lens adapters to fit certain lenses and a monitor, I’d have to build up the camera which would cost more money. 

https://www.photorentalsource.com/Blackmagic-4K-Pocket-Cinema-Camera_p_490.html 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

You can use low cost LEDs, you just need to run tests and figure out what you're going to get. I have a couple of lights that take MR16s and they're almost always loaded with very cheap, very blue domestic LEDs because I find it useful. Obviously, you're not going to use it as a key light for your sympathetic lead, but it has its purpose.

P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know it’s funny, but I’m just going to use these lights https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-1000-Lumen-LED-Portable-Work-Light/1000706048?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-lit-_-google-_-lia-_-143-_-safetyandsecuritylighting-_-1000706048-_-0&placeholder=null&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi4CD_OWg7AIVjJ6zCh12PgH8EAQYBSABEgIDv_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I’m  buying three of them and then returning them back when I’m finished. I was going to tape on tracing paper to soften it a little more. It’s going to be in b&w so the color temperature won’t matter. It feels awkward filming in a hotel, feels like I’m doing a porno, it’s the last time I shoot in one. 

Edited by Josh Gallegos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Josh,

I read your script and I like it.

For what you intent to do - a zero-budget short - the script is more than good enough. I wouldn't concern yourself with the opinion of others, especially wanna-be writers (the internet is full of them).

As Woody Allen (well the Hemmingway character) put it in Midnight in Paris:

Hemmingway: My opinion is I hate it.

Gil: Well you haven't even read it yet.

Hemmingway: If it's bad, I'll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it's good, I'll be envious and hate all the more. You don't want the opinion of another writer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiZT-0fohBA

What people consider to be good is subjective. If everybody liked the same things, wouldn't the world be a boring place? We wouldn't need to make movies because every story would be the same.

Trust your instincts and make your film. It will find an audience and if it doesn't, it's all experience.

Your script is fine. I think people forget that a short is just that... short. You might have someone comment that it's incomplete, but you're making a 5 minute film not a 90 minute plus blockbuster movie. Shorts should have a sense of mystery and should provide questions, not answers. Engage the audience and let them fill in the blanks... Watch any David Lynch short film and you'll see what I mean. 

If I put my writers hat on and had to give you some advice it would be think about how you want the story to end. Personally, I would have the priest plot to have the girl killed and maybe add a couple of twists but that's me (and that's also a much longer film).

Keep us updated on your progress. Just don't be discouraged. As Justin said, "everybody's a critic today." Don't forget to have fun and remember your why.

All the best, David

Edited by David Priestley
Add link
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I'm definitely not discouraged, I'd rather keep at it than to never do it at all, and that was a first draft that I wrote, I wrote it in about ten minutes. I actually made a revision. I like the idea of of the character being stuck in a nightmare.... if that makes any sense... 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R5amGsOAGDk9DvZaZGJONWr9u3wGKn__/view?usp=sharing

I already have the thing casted, I'm shooting on the 25th of October. I'll probably keep making revisions until then but I'm confident it will turn into something better when the time comes to make it and the best part is that I'm not spending any money recklessly. Overall it's going to be about a $300 short. 

Edited by Josh Gallegos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

my most used light nowadays is a 40w daylight balanced Led panel which is powered with two NP-F970 batteries. The batteries are cheap so you can have many of them to last the full day if needed (much lower price per Wh than v-locks) and it has much higher output than similar wattage dual colour panels would have. If needing 3200K  I will just quickly gel it down with CTO.  Additional diffusion can be added in front of it to take off the multiple shadows the individual leds generate and to make it spread evenly to hide the beam edge. The panel has a remote as well which is extremely handy because you can turn it off remotely between takes to save batteries. 

I like to keep a small 15w dual colour panel with me as well. It works half a day with a single np-f970 battery and it is handy for small tasks and closeup. it is very lightweight as well so you can rig it anywhere with tape if you need to. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...