lighting a large dark night club

L

leejam99

Active member
hello,

I'm shooting a scene inside of a dark night clube with very low lights. I will be doing some JIB shots where it will be panning almost the half of the club in one take. What kind of light would be the best for getting an overall even light through out the club? I was thinking of using Flourescent /Kino flow type. what kind and how many would i need? any suggestions? the room is about 1000 sq feet.

thanks!
James
 
leejam99 said:
What kind of light would be the best for getting an overall even light through out the club?
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How many night clubs have you been in that have an "overall even light throughout the club"?
Most night clubs I've been in usually have very moody lighting, with lots of flashing lights around the dance floor area. Kino flos are probably not the best choice for this. Try and use the existing lighting in the club and supplement with some more par cans and fresnels where needed.
 
ozduc said:
How many night clubs have you been in that have an "overall even light throughout the club"?
Most night clubs I've been in usually have very moody lighting, with lots of flashing lights around the dance floor area. Kino flos are probably not the best choice for this. Try and use the existing lighting in the club and supplement with some more par cans and fresnels where needed.
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I think what he is asking is how to create ambient light, which is basically the foundation of a lighting set up, it deosn't have to be even all the time. He probably just wants to be able to see something in the shadows.

For this, I would have to see the place to really help you out. Sounds like hanging lights might be a problem since your doing a jib shot. Look around in the cieling and see if you can't hide some fixtures behind supports. Failing that, you could stretch out some muslin or rip stop nylon across the cieling (assuming the cieling isn't bleach white...) and then hide various lights in the scene to bounce light off it. I don't know how high up the cieling is, but I'd rig a bunch of hidden 2k's and set them to flood. Be careful with 2k's though, you can't burn them at 90 degrees. If thats an issue, then go with a larger number of smaller hidden lights.

Hope that helps!
 
thanks and yes I should of said more lighter ambient light so that we can acutally see the club since its a commercial about the club ( floorplan, funirture, bar, etc). I definetly want to keep the scene as if it was an actual night club but i also need to show off the club at the same time.
 
j said:
turn on the house lights?
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If the house lights are on dimmers that is...
Nothing kills the the atmosphere in a nightclub like house lights all the way up at closing time..
 
I could be wrong, but don't they usually put flourescent tubes under bar areas to illuminate from under the counter and such? Taking kinoflo tubes out of the housing and taping them to things doesn't look bad on screen. Ive seen countless shots with a tube(s) in plain view. They are the one type of light that looks pretty cool on camera.
 
I think ozduc said it best when he pointed out a nightclub is unlikely to have even lighting throughout. If you have some larger units, you can proably throw some fill through diffusion, or maybe even hang a couple like cardmaverick suggested, and then hide smaller units that can be placed under/behind things to highlight key points of the set. Be creative.

Good luck
 
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