How to light a hooker?

R

Reidwriter

Member
I need some input here,
We've got a scene in our upcoming indie where a guy in a convertible pulls up to a hooker on the corner at night.

The top will be down(the car's not the hooker's) so we don't have to worry about the shadows from the roof of the car.

We have pretty small light set. A lowell omni, totta, pro, and rifa. Plus a few extra 200ws and the obligatory work lights.

I know we can "moonlight gel" a couple of the bigger lights.

But how can I make it look cooler? I wanted to simulate the ubiquitous sodium vapor lamps, what kind of gel is going to give me that effect?

Not having much experience with the moonlight gels should I plan on throwing on some diffussion as well?

And if we just go with the moonlight blue, would a red kicker maybe spice things up a bit?

One caveat, the driver of the car ends up with a bloody face. Too strong of a sodium vapor look or too much and the blood will just look black...
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

Do you want your hooker to look hot, or unattractive?

It might be a good idea to give her a bit of fill, depending on how good looking you want to make her. I recently did a short film where we had a hooker as a central character, but she was supposed to be a 'good person' inside. Basically, we shot her with a hard light from behind, to give subtle shadows, and a rim of light behind her hair, but then gave enough fill to make her look pretty. We then further diffused the footage (did it in post) to make it look prettier.

But if your hooker is supposed to be, well, a dirty slut, then you might want to make her less attractive. Harder light from several angles can add more contrast and less of a 'pretty' look.

So yeah, do you want her to look pretty or ugly?
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

I lit a night street scene a couple of months ago and decided to mimic a high pressure sodium bulb by using a CTO gel over a 650W fresnel. I had the light stand jacked up pretty high--maybe 16 feet with the fresnel steeply angled down. The base of the stand was about 15-20 feet from the talent. I think I might have used a 3/4 CTO--either that or a full CTO. The actual streetlights also contributed maybe 25% of the light on the shots.

You could have your most powerful light high on a stand and gelled with a CTO and use another couple of lights for a cool fill from slightly below. Maybe a little diffusion and some 1/2 CTB over the fill lights.
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

Ah, the hooker with a heart of gold... ;D

Our hooker is going to look hookeresque, though I like what you did with the back lighting for the nice one.

And I'll plan on going with the full CTO.
I am very new to this and looking at those color wheels of gel colors is a tad daunting.

Since we're all pretty inexperienced most of the lighting will be safe, using tried and true methods.

In addition to full CTB for my halogen lights, and the above mentioned CTOs what else should I plan on.
It's a very compressed scheduled so we really don't have time for a lot of lighting changes.
I do understand that sunlight can change throughout the day, but we lack the time and the funds for the whole palate of CTBs.

I did want to get some diffusion as well. Can you recommend a good middle of the diffusion. Trying to decide via the names on the websites doesn't cut it for me.

And then if there is something we should really, really have just in case or if I'm forgetting something.
All of our lights are halogens. We aren't doing any firelight scenes or anything.

And has anyone dealt with sales rep whom you can call and run these questions by and they will tell you buy this and that, and then you buy this and that and maybe the other thing as well.

I appreciate it.
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

Well, the diffusion I used was a last-minute choice, so I doubled up the video layer in Premiere, blurred and appropriately blew-out the top layer, and made it about 15% transparent. It gave a good look, but took a long time to render...

It would have been much better to use filtration on the lens. I've used Tiffen's Soft FX filters before, and with a 1/2 or so they add a nice, relatively subtle softening of the image. I would assume a light ProMist would do that as well, but would appear more glowy, rather than just generally more soft.

If only panty hose were made the same these days as they were in the 40s. Then we could just stretch it over the lens, ala Casablanca. Man I love that movie... ;D
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

Crap,
I forgot to mention that we're using the anamorphic lens and don't have the matteboxes...
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

Hmmm...I don't know about that then...I'm not exactly sure if filters (screw ons) can be used with the anamorphic lens...

Anyone else know about this?


One thing though, the Premiere trick I did worked relatively well... In a second I'll post a still of the softened footage
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

138101243.jpg


This is an example of the Hooker thing we did...the Premiere diffusion is subtle, but it's there, and makes the shot look less harsh.
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

;)

You can't have her! She's my actress...she's been in every movie I've done since tenth grade ;D
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

You cannot put them in front of the adapter.

There has been some speculation that you could not put them between the adapter and the camera either. I haven't tested that combination.
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

How do Gels hold up when using them with 650watt plus lights? I guess in a way it doesn't matter because I saw a film crew here in Philadelphia shooting a scene and they were using some pretty big lights with a big sheet of orange gel on them. I just wondered if the gel gets hot from the light and starts to burn a hole in it.
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

Oh, of course it does -- so you have to get a little distance from the light to the gel. As long as you've got the gel a ways away, and some airflow between it and the light surface, you should be okay. Keep an eye on it though!
 
Re: How to light a hooker?

I learned this the hard way...

It was a few years ago, and my first shoot with a lighting set-up. Everyone on set thought they smelled something burning...but we quickly looked around, and there didn't seem to be anything on fire! Soon enough, we were in the middle of a take when the colour temperature of the scene changed for no apparent reason...the light had burned a hole right through the flesh toned gel!

So I'm reiterating what Barry already said: Keep a close watch on your gels!
 
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