Airplane Scene - Day Interior

stephen_nugent

stephen_nugent

Well-known member
Has anybody lit airplane interiors? Shooting on sunday a scene that takes place in the passenger area and the cockpit. I would imagine multiple sources of light to give a wash of diffused light through the windows and working off that as key light. Maybe bounce or kinos for fill. Will also see if i can mount these lights on a dolly of some sort to create some airplane motion, though i guess with caution for any continuity issues. Otherwise keep it flying straight.. Cockpit I would also imagine a similar deal.

Comments suggestions would be most appreciated, to try and make this look real / direction/type of light etc. Not a big budget so minimalism is key.

Thanks!
 
Remember that planes fly above clouds, so it's always sunny. This generally means a single bright light coming in from windows on one said. If it's near dawn or dusk, the sun will eb low and blast through the entire cabin. - Though then it's common for people to close their blinds.


But depending on angles, seeing sunlight is definatly not a requirement. - And as aircraft normally fly pretty straight most of the time, the light-sources don't really move that much.

- Mikko
 
thanks mikko. just got offered this job and not much time to prepare. seems that we have no permission to have lights outside the aircraft so thinking of keeping a "blind" side in the interior where i set kinos or diffused/dimmed HMI's for soft highlights as if coming from the opposite windows and work off from there. Seing sunllight isnt necessary that's true but think otherwise it'll be too flat.

Most action take place in the business class cabin, thats 3-4 rows. Hopefully put some diffuser on the outside of the windows in view. Now the cockpit will be challenging as there are windows in most view, sun will intrude and dont know if we can move the aircraft around. also dont even know what power i can get in there, they said they got plugs to power a couple of 3kw hoovers. should be fun.
 
try and have as many of the windows shades down as possible. Or at least low. You are likely going to be shooting in a hanger, which means that unless they put the plane in sideways, you are going to see nothing but building out the windows.

Too bad you can't put lights on the outside.
 
Moz said:
You are likely going to be shooting in a hanger
Click to expand...

not even the luxury of that, just somewhere off the runway they said. This is a TV 'pilot', when we shoot the real thing we'll get a proper aircraft (that was heading to where jetplanes go to die) in a hanger.
 
In the cockpit you could try shooting from low angles as much as possible, so that you see sky outside...
 
Sad Max said:
In the cockpit you could try shooting from low angles as much as possible, so that you see sky outside...
Click to expand...

True, though might get tricky with low angles, since i have no access outside i'd prob set some kino bulbs as 'window' lights right above the pilots so will have to cheat them angles somehow. The space is probably much more cramped than I imagine. Though I did shoot a short set in a toilet once - cant be that bad :D
 
O.K.

I can think of just a few things....

1)... use green screen and composite later. (Pain in the arse and time consuming. But viable.)

2)... shoot in the seats by the wings and put the lights out on the wing on one side. diffuse of course or even use mattes on the windows...

3)...like you have already said, shoot and cheat your angles... how that will effect your mise en scène??? Sup to you
 
Ok, shoot went well and of course with many mishaps. What they described as the 70cm width of the isle was just about 50 so a short track of the dolly was set further back and the camera attached to a mini jib and with a little struggle we got the shot. All the scenes were lit just with 2x 2ft 2bank kinos for fill and a diffused 1.2 HMI set some distance in the aisle as backlilght for some of the shots. Sunlight through the windows acted as key/fill depending on the angle. Half way through the shoot the generator kindly offered by the airline ran out of petrol and they took their sweet time refueling. In the cockpit (that was much more cramped than the plane they showed us) we had the 2 kinos and a lot of rush as engineers and others lined up impatient to get the plane ready for the next flight.

Shot this with the Brevis and the HVX200. Currently i got a CF1 as my brevis was one of the early versions. The footage was a little too soft I think as I recently replaced the motor and should have optimized its oscillation. Waiting for the CF1Le any day now and hope to get better results. Here are some stills without any color correction. Will post footage once there's an edit.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23330/1200420016.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23330/1200420043.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23330/1200420082.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23330/1200420106.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23330/1200420136.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/23330/1200420156.jpg
 
The grabs are very convincing. Looks well-lit, framed and the other departments (wardrobe and so on) seal the deal.

Arranging to film on a commercial aircraft in the USA - especially one in regular service - is a very difficult and costly proposition. You should be pleased you were able to do what you needed.

e
 
Thanks Erik, considering it was just 1 gaffer and me for crew we managed to pull it off. Good luck with your plane, we got ours for just 250 euros + petrol :) Hope they flipped back the switches for the next flight...
 
Look into using a 400 watt joker with the softtube attachment..For key or fill.
www.k5600.com. You might want to think about litepanels as well , for fill and tight closeup shots. They are also easy to hide. Same with Vidleds, if you can get your hands on them.
It would have been very nice to work lights from outside the cabin, and I love the look of the light near sundown, when the plane banks, and the hard, warm light is moving accross the interior. Lights on roller stands would have been nice.
Good luck with your project.
 
thanks for the feedback people. filmat the k5600 looks interesting esp w/ the softtube accessory. I see the company had a booth at the last camerimage fest in poland. I'll tell ya its probably the best film fest i've been to, seeing as its one of the very few fests in Europe that focus on the work of the DOPs. Remember paying about $25 and getting into master classes held by big names in the trade, even shared a pint with the infamous Chris Doyle! Its on usually first week of december.
 
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