Anyone shot a scene just with chinese lanterns and practicals? Advice please!

H

Hutchman

Active member
Hey guys,

I've got a few scenes coming up about this couple on a dinner date, and the director wants it done with chinese lanterns and practicals, eg candles and lamps, shooting wide open or close to it with fast lenses, and having those bud lights as part of the set design so we can get that lovely bokeh look in the background.

I've never used lanterns before, are they as much as a pain in the butt as I'm thinking they'll be? What do you guys use to control spill? etc.

Any other advice on this sort of scence would be appreciated.

THANKS
 
Skirts on lanterns controls spill... but those are for the lanterns not in the shot. Usually the practicals in the shot are really low wattage so they simply show up on screen, but don't really do anything major with lighting design.
 
Yep, skirt your lanterns that are not practicals for the shot. Have all of them on a dimmer, and if you have an actor/camera moving in the shot don't be afraid to put a lantern on a boom pole and move it with the camera for a bit of fill light if you need it.

Also make sure you buy lanterns with porcelain sockets. I bought a few of the cheap film tools sockets (metal, with a plastic switch) and all of the switches melted due to the heat since they were located two inches from the bulbs!
 
I've used this type of lighting set-up for a number of films now, shooting with a 5D on a few and HMC/DVX on others. Here's my advice:

1. Everything must be on a dimmer. Since you're not dealing with high watt lights, you can use DIY dimmers. And since you're not using the practicals (lamps) to actually light the scene, you need them not to over expose. I'd recommend having at least 2 of these for the shoot (one for practicals and one for lanterns, $8 each): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e9Rk7_B8GY

2. Get a variety of different watt light bulbs. When you dim lights, they get warmer in color temperature while emitting less light. The way to counteract this, if you want to have more control over your color temperature, is to get different wattage light bulbs. Getting a variety of 40/60/75/100W tungsten bulbs (you can get a box for $1.25 each at Home Depot) will allow you to control your color temperature and intensity independently. Anything that's not tungsten filament will not dim. Sometimes I use daylight balanced CFL bulbs (120W equivalent) for when I have scenes with sunlight as a practical source.

3. Hang the lanterns off C-stands. What I do is I'll have the wire coming out of the top of the lantern, through a gobo head, down a gobo arm, and then down the C-stand. Whole set-up looks like this (on the right): http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...46936544_1329930103_31732644_1707302575_n.jpg This allows you complete control over the lantern and how to hang it.

4. Since I'm always on a budget, I use blackwrap to control the light spilling off the lantern. Does a pretty bang up job, and is very reusable and cheap. I got a huge roll like 2 years ago at Barbizon and haven't even used half of it yet (just keep reusing the pieces).

5. To connect the light bulb in the lantern, I use this really handy item I found in the electrical aisle at Home Depot for under $2: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/400/b2/b2f2a646-ed67-42bb-91b6-c6306370bcaa_400.jpg I've used this with up to 100W tungsten filament and 120W equivalent CFL bulbs with no problems. I assume you won't be going any higher than this. Just plug an extension cord into the back of this guy and you no longer have any need for expensive alternatives. My lanterns are from IKEA but I'm not sure if they sell my exact ones any more. They were $6 each when I got em, but I'm sure you already have some lanterns if you're planning to use em.

A safety note: Setting up your lanterns like I do makes it so they do not have a switch. I counteract this by always using it on a dimmer, which acts also as a switch. I also have some home-made light switches that are the same as the dimmer but just act as a switch for on and off. MOST IMPORTANT PART: Do NOT plug the extension cord into the wall before connecting the light bulb. The socket adapter is safe in that it won't melt from my experience, but I had a grip once who for some reason insisted on plugging the socket adapter into the extension cord after putting the extension cord to the wall. Zapped his hand and we had to spend 20 minutes cleaning a smashed bulb that he dropped. You've been warned!

Good luck! Hopefully my advice helps!
 
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Chinese lanterns are great, and extremely inexpensive.

Regarding spill, and the relative brightness between your subject and the background, this is something you can control to some extent even without flags.

Light intensity falls off according to the inverse square law. In a nutshell, each time you double the distance between your light and the subject, the intensity of the light on the subject drops four times (or two stops). You can use this to your advantage.

Let's say your actors are 5 feet away from the light, and the back wall is 10 feet away from the light. Your back wall is now getting two stops of light less than your actors are. You can play with this ratio by moving the light, the actors, and the wall relative to each other. Of course it also helps tremendously if the wall isn't white.

Don't forget to use motivated lighting as much as possible. You should always think about where the light would really be coming from, otherwise it can just look like a low budget movie where you just set up a light for no reason.

Good luck!
 
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