advice on lighting a scene

NICK ASH

NICK ASH

Well-known member
I have a scene that is coming up and was wondering what came out of here.
walk inside.jpg

As the talent walks through the door the "Sun" / "light" fill the room until it whites out the scene and carries into the next scene. I have 2 x 1k's / 2 x 500w. I never lit a scene this way and don't know where would be a god placement of the lights...and how to really achieve this effect to the full potential.

I also have a dimmer where I was thinking of initially lighting the scene and then using the other lights to blast the room...

as always, everyone here has always been a huge help...thanks for any assistance.
 
I'm afraid with the lights you have available you'll never be able to quite create that shot (assuming you want a wide angle like the sketch you posted). What you'll need to do for this is an aperture pull, opening your iris as the character walks in so the exposure gets super hot.
 
I wouldn't want to do that whole thing with light. I think a combination of an aperture pull and doing it in post like a Dip to white in PP at the end might achieve what you want. I'd watch out overexposing in camera. You make get color skew. Nice storyboard there!
 
Who is the character and why does the room white out when he enters? Is there a purpose for the white out or is it simply a gimmick thrown in to be "creative"?
A bit of insight might help in conjuring up an effects solution.
 
You should move to LA and become a story board artist, I would die for a board like that.

Going back to your post, if it's just the door that lets the light in I think you could be fine with the lights you have. This is what I would do: get a large mirror and aim all your lights into the mirror aiming the beam of light into the room making it one source. Have the room lit with one small practical, some daylight or nothing at all, expose for the room and when you open the door you get your desired effect.

For very little money you can get a bunch of 1000 watt work lights from Home Depot if you need more power and that works fine for a set up like this.
 
thanks guys. I appreciate the all the tips. I will work with my editor on seeing what he can do and bring this info to him and we'll do a sit down.

This is for a commercial I am shooting outside of LA this month.


Thanks for all of the kind words

storyboard.jpg
 
I think I will. I will do an aperture pull as Grug recommended and then whatever I want to tweak will be done in post. Eitehr way, I will just have fun with it and I am sure it will turn ok.
 
Heres a thought instead of spending hours in post creating something thats NOT going to look real anyway, IMO. Why not save dollars in post & put it up the other end & hire in a ) a big HMI or b) a gaffer.

I assume the storyboard has already been approved or sighted by an agency/ client . If you look at the storyboard there is a very strong backlight component in all shots when 'in store". Imo, light horsepower will make this job shine not some post production effect.

P.S. Using the sun is a nice cheap great idea if the planets & solar system are in alignment ; )
 
Surf it Mike said:
P.S. Using the sun is a nice cheap great idea if the planets & solar system are in alignment ; )
Click to expand...

He's shooting outside of Los Angeles, if it's away from the coast the planets & solar system are most likely in alignment. A good tech-scout and four or five mirror boards. If there isn't any money for large HMI's I doubt there will be money for a decent job in post.
 
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