Help me light this scene from American Beauty!

[Dan_Lahav]

As part of a film school project, we have to recreate a scene from a movie to the very last detail. I'm in charge of lighting/DP and need some help lighting the dinner scene from the film American Beauty. These are the 4 main shots:

Any help is much appreciated! We have many 2K's, 1k's, 650's, 250's, etc. at our disposal in the studio.

 

[Barry_S]

Re: Help me light this scene from American Beauty!

In the first shot, it really looks like they're using a Chimera Pancake lantern (or something similar) hung directly over the dining table.  

http://pikespeak.invision1.com/chimera/products/lanterns.cfm  

Notice that the table top is the brightest object in the scene, but the light is soft and it gently illuminates the rest of the room.  You can get good clues to the lighting from the chair shadows in the scene and the highlights on the hair.  You could position a large softbox directly overhead and experiment with short strips of silk hanging off of the sides to get a similar effect.  They may also have some very soft flagged off soft light coming from the direction of the camera, but it's very subtle, so it's possible that the whole scene was illuminated with a pancake lantern.  

The light matches pretty well on the individual shots, but you can see by the highlights in the gold picture frame and the lack of shadows under the chin, that they've got some softlights not too far off the axis of camera.  The light is soft and close, taking advantage of the inverse square law so the light falls off rapidly.  

 

[Dan_Lahav]

Re: Help me light this scene from American Beauty!

thanks barry. lots to think about here... I really appreciate the input!

 

[Erik Olson]

Re: Help me light this scene from American Beauty!

I'd say those practicals are on a common dimmer too - likely mini-candellabra 40w dimmed between 40 - 60%. Exposing for the DVX, you'll need to take them closer to 25%.

Like Barry said, I'd wager they used a single chicken coop or Chimera-style fixture. If you look at the coverage shot, you can see a shadow about between 6 and 7' off the floor.

They likely had a meat-axe on all four sides of the coop to flag spill from the top of the set - likely four or five stops difference there. With DVX, you'll have a narrower latitude and want to keep the number of stops closer to two or three.

Send a picture of your version when you finish it?

Good luck!

e