Cave Lighting

S

SILVERFOLK24

New member
I'm shooting a DVshort with my Cannon XL1s and want to make it appear as though I have a fire present coming from within the cave. I was wondering what would be the best way to go about giving it a fire like feel using lights. The scene is set in a prehistoric era. I was curious as to if it would look strange to light it as well as have a true fire present. The set is being built in my friends garage and I only have 2-4 over the shoulder shots, but the main focus is on the cave wall itself (cave art) which is my establishing shot and much more of the short will be done using the 8ft x 20ft wall. Any help would be great. Thanks, Alex
 
Don't want to use this as a sales pitch (i make these more because people need them than I make real money making them) but if you get stuck and want an easy solution, I sell an inexpensive flickerbox. If not this was discussed somewhere here before and I gave a few ways to make fire effects. Search!
 
I thank you for the reply. But as I am at the moment tight on cash. I need to know what would be a way to get the desired effects. I have lights kits I just want to give a really good feel of the fire being present.
 
Get yourself some red and orange gels, cut into strips and fixed to a rod or board at one end, large enough to place in front of your primary light source. Aim a fan at the gel-board to blow the various colored gels around in front of the light. Fire! Maybe gel your fill lights orange or red, to further sell the fire effect.

I wouldn't recommend any actual fire on set, unless it's going to be the subject of a shot, itself. And keep a couple of fire extinguishers in-hand and ready-to-use, if you do.
 
I done the "stripes of gel" fire effect, several times. I used variations of CTO with out red and had several opaque stipes (I used unexposed, developed x-ray film, but any opaque material will work) to add to the "flicker". This method is kind of a pain in the ass to set-up and get right, give your self extra time to do it if you are going to go that way.

I highly recommend a filcker box on a gelled light. It is so easy to use. The one on Walter Graff's site is very reasonable. You can also rent them.

As for gels, on the fickering light, I like to use a full CTO, sometimes combined with a half or quarter CTO. On the fill or portraiture lighting I like a half CTO and will add, at least a 1/4 CTB to the back light or kicker. Experiment with them to get what you like.
 
There is a classic Brazilian film shot in the sixties that involved a cave fire scene (for one of the ending shots) and it almost ended up killing principal photography crew (wich would deprive Brazil of very good filmakers and cast...). Main point is: Don't use real fire unless you are 100% sure about security and supervised. You could get into trouble.
 
I thank you all for the words. I really do want to use the fire on set, and I will have a crew on extreme alert as well. But what I may do is do the gels that you all recommended and "play with it. It's a project I've been working on for a while and I want it to be damn good. With your words I know that it is possible. Thanks, Alex. Oh by the way TAUBKIN Mr. Jeremy is one hell of a cool pic your using!!!LOL I dig that man. Thanks again you all.
 
What other ideas do you have that you can give me as well for the fire effects, I plan on doing them all to see what gives me the best outcome. None-the-lessWalter, you sold me as did all the other guys here. I'm gonna get the box from you today. I think that it would make for a better feel and it will give me far more control over my enviroment than a real fire would (of course). I thank you and I'll let you all know how it all turns out. Alex
 
Whatever you do don't actually light a fire in a cave. We learned the hard way. The cave we were in had absolutly no vents..
 
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