A DIY-guide to how we designed, built and lit our film set

Ekblom

Ekblom

Member
This isn't strictly about gear, so if you think this should be somewhere else then let me know.

Anyways, hello!

We released our film (Love Between Storeys) on YouTube for a week on Valentine's. Along with the film we're uploading a 12-part series covering how we designed, built and lit our elevator set. You can start checking out the guide here.

We wrote this guide for newbies and amateurs on the DIY filmmaking scene as an attempt to give something back to the community.

Love Between Storeys is a half hour romantic comedy about a boy and a girl who get stuck in an office lift. We produced it with 2200 €, and it was shot with a Canon 550D/T2i for six days in Helsinki, Finland and one day in London.


Here's the first updates:

An Introduction to Making Love Between Storeys

Making Love Between Storeys: The Elevator Set

The Elevator Set: Concept

Concept: Why Build an Elevator?

Concept: What Should the Elevator Look Like?

What Should the Elevator Look Like: How to Make the Space Visually Stimulating

What Should the Elevator Look Like: Light Sources


Oh yeah, the full movie is still up on YouTube till the 21st.

Here's our teaser:


Comments, questions and suggestions are more than welcome on our website or in this thread. I'll be popping in to update the thread as we release new stuff. Hope you find this useful!

Enjoy ;)
 
You ended it in the wrong place. He was at the crossroads of going after her, but there is no indication that he did. It also isn't clear that he didn't, so there's no clear resolution. All we have is the title to go on that this is love.

She could also have come back and found him at a later time, but we don't know. So we can't tell if it was a meaningful long term interaction or just a passing thing.
 
mail4joeg said:
You ended it in the wrong place. He was at the crossroads of going after her, but there is no indication that he did. It also isn't clear that he didn't, so there's no clear resolution. All we have is the title to go on that this is love.

She could also have come back and found him at a later time, but we don't know. So we can't tell if it was a meaningful long term interaction or just a passing thing.
Click to expand...

Hehehehe. The movie is more about depicting the moment when two people fall for each other, and less about how Adam and Jenny got to begin a meaningful relationship (or not). All the elements should be there to let you decide a logical continuation to their story ;)

The audience has so far been quite split on if it was actually love in the air, or was it just some sort of strange and strong attraction due to the circumstances. There's also differing opinions on if these characters find each other later or not.

What do you think?
 
Two new parts are up!

The first post is about where to build a set when you have no money for a studio. In the second we discuss how we divided the work before we started building the set.

Concept: Where should the elevator be built?

Concept: Who does what?

The parts up until now have been mostly introduction before we get to the real meat of the guide. I still suggest reading these if you're a newbie on the filmscene.

And just a note: the full movie is up on YouTube till tomorrow 5 PM GMT. If you wanna catch it, do it now.
 
New parts are up!

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We're still in the woodwork phase of making the elevator set. This time we have a look at how we built the ceiling, and how we made the doors look like they did. We also cover how we made the elevator doors move in the film, with an important lesson of how you can easily overcomplicate things.

Woodwork: Ceiling

Woodwork: The Doors

The Doors: Moving Doors

Have a good read, and enjoy your weekend ;)
 
Three new articles are up! This is the last batch where we talk about set dressing and logo design.

In the third article we make a point of that you shouldn't shy away from quick and easy solutions when designing your set as everything in film is make-believe.

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Article 1: Details and Logos: The Prism Logo

Article 2: Details and Logos: No Smoking Sign

Article 3: Details and Logos: Tape is Your Friend – Unorthodox (But Practical) Solutions

After these we will get to the real meat of the guide as we go through lighting plans and what different contraptions we built to make the elevator believable.

PS. If you like these posts and would like us to continue you can show your support by following/liking our facebook page.
 
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Now it's time to talk about how we handled lighting our film set. The first article is a brief intro to the Lighting section of our guide, including a list of gear we had and where we got it from. We also make a point of that we got most of the gear free, either because we were blessed by a natural disaster, or because we just dared to ask.

The second article details how we built our soft and powerful toplight. I recommend that article to all Amateurs on the DIY scene, as everybody can get their hands on bulbs and graden plant cover.

Article 1: The Elevator Set: Lighting

Article 2: Lighting: Making a Soft and Powerful Top Light

Hope you liked this new update, and as I said in my previous post - if you like these articles and would like us to continue please follow/like our facebook page.
 
Here's some weekend reading for you!

First off we have a break down on our 360-degree light plan, and in Article 2 we talk about bouncing light during shoots. We also show you how to build your own reflector out of household items.

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Article 1: Lighting: 360 Degree Light Plan

Article 2: Lighting: Bouncing Light During Shooting

In the next update we will uncover a set of contraptions we built to make our set feel like a real working elevator.

Hope you found this useful! If you like these posts you can support us by liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page!
 
In this update we take a look at a cardboard contraption we built to shape and block light to match our elevator door light source. We're also covering how we used household fluorescents to create our floorlights.

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elevator-floor-lights.jpg


Here we go:

Article 1: Lighting: The Doors and Their Cardboard Brothers

Article 2: Lighting: The Floor Lights

Next update will be about how we made our elevator buttons light up when pressed. We'll also break down the different light modes we used in the elevator throughout the whole sequence.

Enjoy!

PS. If you like these posts you can support us by liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page!
 
In the following posts we break down the different lighting modes and moods we had in Love Between Storeys. We start by dissecting the Normal Light mode which we mostly used during the elevator sequence of our movie.

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Article: Modes & Moods: Normal Light

Hope you found this article useful! In the next update we will have a look at how we handled darkness when the elevator loses power.

If you like these posts and would like to support us you can do so by Liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page. All our main project updates and articles will be announced there also.

Enjoy your weekend!
 
Now we talk about what we did to get some light into a scene where the elevator loses power and goes dark.

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Article: Modes & Moods: Darkness

Enjoy!

As a general note I want to say that we've almost reached the end of this set building guide. I hope you've found the information we've provided useful. If you want you can support us by liking our facebook page. All project updates will be announced there in the future.

Until next time!
 
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This marks the end of our elevator set guide!

We've posted a wrap up on our blog and an index where we divided the different articles under CONCEPT -WOODWORK - SET DRESSING - LIGHTING, which we hope will make browsing of the guide easier.

Feel free to share this guide with people who might find this stuff useful!

Here's the wrap up:

Wrapping It Up – An Epilogue

Index to Making Love Between Storeys: The Elevator Set

According to statistics we're currently getting 30 - 50 readers per article we upload, which is awesome, but I'm sure there's more people who would find this information useful. So please share with us if you have any suggestions on how to improve and distribute this guide. I'll probably start a separate topic regarding this next week, but feel free to comment and blast away with critique/suggestions here also.

Oh yeah - if you think we should continue writing similar posts on other aspects of our production like Casting, Shooting, Scriptwriting and/or Premiere Organising, you can do one of the following (or all if you'd like).

- Drop us a line here in the comments.
- E-mail me at erik (at) betweenstoreys.com
- Subscribe to our facebook page (all updates appear here)

That's all I guess. Thanks for reading!
 
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