Cheating

M

morgan_moore

Major Contributor
Could users more experienced in doing 'drama' fill me in a little on 'cheating'

ie moving lights between shooting different angles of the same scene

I have steered away from this apart from maybe adding some more fill for CU and ECUs

S
 
"Cheating a shot" is lighting or framing your shot so it looks best to the camera. For example, you may move an actor closer or farther away from the person they are talking to in a scene so that you can get the right look for a shot. It may not be how the actor would stand or face in real life, but it works for the camera angle. That would be called "cheating".

It's important to remember to let your practicals motivate your lighting before you cheat anything. If you have a window or a lamp in the room, you should let those be the main location from where light is coming from. If your key light were to be coming from an opposing side, it would look unnatural, unless you've established that there is another, stronger light in the room.

Once you have your practicals motivating your key lighting, then you can experiment with cheating. For example, if on a reverse shot, your actor doesn't have enough key light, you can slightly move the key so that it is lighting your actor properly. Same goes for the back light. In one angle it may be working as a good rim, but in a different angle it may be blowing out the entire side of your actors face. Tweak your lighting for each angle, but don't re-light the scene from what you've already established.
 
if you pay attention to even top hollywood films/shows that you are watching there is OBVIOUS and evident cheating in just about every single shot. I was just watching a movie with scott caan and it was so obvious in between shots the light and even positioning of the character was moving slightly. 90% of viewers won't ever notice it but DP's can
 
Besides everything else already mentioned include everything on set as well. For example, when on location where you don't have wild walls quite often to get a vantage point where in the previous shot someone was sitting at a desk or something that was along a wall, you move the items and "cheat" them out so you can position the camera behind for a reverse.
 
Thanks

I try to light a scene so that it will work from all the angles I will shoot it from, this can be tricky, I just wonder if it is 'normal' to completely relight for a second angle, typically two actors talking when you are shooting from their opposing positions (or close to)

I unsder stand the need to keep the 'theme' of the lighting consistent but sounds like I can 'cheat ' away, and yes I have done the furniture thing too, making space for the camera, but now tend to try and think ahead by setting the room so I dont 'checkmate' myself for the last angle of three

I suppose with more elaborate grip one can avoid issues with lightstands etc in scenes where the ceiling is excluded by having lights on booms

S
 
I've seen a DP take the same key light used for a medium shot, and move it closer and diffuse it slightly for the close up, so that
the light was more flattering on the actor's face.
 
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