Lighting a dining room in a mansion

[keithlango]

Another approach given the time constraints-- only do wides in this room (as DLD suggests) & get a stills camera to shoot the living crap out of the room to make background plates. Then do your CU's and MCU's on green screen in another location where you aren't so jammed up and comp your shots in post. If you frame the shots right you won't need to worry about the table or settings- just find a chair (or two) that sorta match what the location has. If you really want to add foreground elements, bring a pop-up green screen on set and shoot through the table settings to get foreground plates to layer into your comps in post. It's not exactly less hassle, but it does give you flexibility whereas your current situation leaves you with none.

[DLD]

The other thing is to try to emulate soaps and shoot with multiple cameras. A7SII is an inexpensive rental. Maybe set up a slider or two, so you could move in and out of the shot. The other option is to shoot wide and then zoom and pan in post.

Another approach given the time constraints-- only do wides in this room (as DLD suggests) & get a stills camera to shoot the living crap out of the room to make background plates ...

Or get a facsimile of the room in terms of the background. If a character is shown sitting at a table in front of a brown wall, see if one can get the same table and the type brown wall somewhere else. If you avoid unique characteristics in CU, you should be able to set the same CU in another location. Then, with full frame, a slightly blurred background is easy to achieve, so no one will be wiser.

[sdanzig]

keithlango:
Green screening seems like the perfect suggestion. I in fact just bought a 10x12 ft green screen setup for another project and have been having success with my After Effects efforts. I'm going to use a background photo and try to successfully do a properly lit MCU. That'll let me keep it to under 20 shots I bet. I can probably get additional background photos after the shoot's done, without even needing lighting.

To all:
Most useful forum I've ever seen. Thanks guys!

[David W. Jones]

Something to think about... Take pictures of the interior before you start your project, so you can put everything back in its original location. One reason I stopped letting outsiders use my house for shoots was the disruption. Having to move furniture back to where my wife originally had it, after crews just put things where ever. You don't want to pissoff the owners and lose the location. Something else to think about... Are you going to need to show proof of insurance?

[KMR]

Too bad your location doesn't have that lovely (urp!) track lighting as shown on the ceiling in your reference pic!

[sdanzig]

KMR, that's probably a compromise, in exchange for having actual candles on the chandelier. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like, in the picture, judging by the glow on the walls, that the track lighting is actually on. But what I want to know is... is that a security camera above the doorway?

[KMR]

I guess I would have chosen a supplementary light source that wasn't so ... at odds with the overall decor in the room.

As for what's above the doorway, it looks like there's a slight ledge, and some kind of gold-colored objet d'art sitting on it.

[sdanzig]

Just to update people who might have wondered how this turned out, it didn't have a chance to go over the lighting plan with the DP, and I ended up with mostly flat lighting for the room. Everything got lit, but I didn't get the effect of the daylight raking the walls like I wanted. I'm not comfortable saying how that happened. Fortunately, many other aspects of the film went right, so I'm still very happy with my film, but, I'm doing my own cinematography for the next shoot so all my planning actually means something.

[IronFilm]

I own a lighting and grip truck. If I didn't and were in your position with limited lighting instruments, I would write a curtain pull into the script. "pull the shades so we can get to eating James" That way you don't have to deal with outside daylight issues. I would gel your daylight LED to match your Tungsten lighting and shoot 3200K. Maybe it's just me, but I almost expect to see Tungsten style lighting and candle sticks in a 100 plus year old mansion.

(emphasis mine)

That is genius!

Demonstrating once again that the best place to save money (or time, and time is money) is in the script!

[IronFilm]

A large room with several characters in six hours won't leave you with many takes. Might have to do a quick wide pan and just stick with the CU's after that. This is a scene that needs a lot of rehearsal time regardless of the lighting issues. Maybe you can get the reaction shots somewhere else. Or something,

Agreed. Get as many rehearsals with the actors beforehand in some other rehearsal space before the shoot day itself.
You have no time at all for directing of the actors, you need to bang out those shots one after another double quick.

DLD: Well, 6 hours for three days, although one day is reserved for the kitchen scene (without windows), so it's two days. Hopefully after the first day, we'll know exactly what to do for the second day. I'm predicting about 9.5 to 10 hours total of shoot time, assuming the first time we're filming within an hour, and the second time it's within half an hour. And if I keep it to maybe 30-40 shots max? Ambitious but not impossible. I have my rehearsal scheduled.

Lighting and camera set up in only half an hour??? (even if you do most of the prep beforehand in the carpark outside)

Doesn't seem realistic.

Another approach given the time constraints-- only do wides in this room (as DLD suggests) & get a stills camera to shoot the living crap out of the room to make background plates. Then do your CU's and MCU's on green screen in another location where you aren't so jammed up and comp your shots in post. If you frame the shots right you won't need to worry about the table or settings- just find a chair (or two) that sorta match what the location has. If you really want to add foreground elements, bring a pop-up green screen on set and shoot through the table settings to get foreground plates to layer into your comps in post. It's not exactly less hassle, but it does give you flexibility whereas your current situation leaves you with none.

Nifty! Is a lot more work, but an interesting solution if you have very limited access to a location.