How Would You Light This? Bathroom fight scene, no power.

Chance White

Chance White

Well-known member
Bathroom fight scene. Standard residential bathroom. Shower on left, toilet, then sink with mirror. It is in a post apocalyptic setting so there is no power.

Would love to see different ideas/solutions for an interesting look. Have to shoot with high shutter speed and should look like sunlight is streaming in from a nearby window.

No windows in the bathroom BTW.

Thanks.
 
The dimensions of the bathroom would be useful.

But at a guess.

Hard light source, flagged off to ensure it came in as squarish beam. Set it fairly high. Add some smoke for effect, this will accent the light. Dont be afraid to add a little kick, to seperate your subjects from backgrounds. They key to all this is controlling spill and making sure the light hits exactly and only where you want it.
 
Might also be useful to have some idea of the intended camera positions. Are we low, are we bird's eye, are we objective 3rd party or POV of the fighters, etc.

If you are POV or birds eye, that wall is off limits. And putting a source there WITH flags isn't going to be easy. And keep it off camera. This is definitely one of those times where building a set would be helpful. A set of rafters above or a false wall where the window would be would be VERY useful. Push a 5k through the window and blow it out, or greenscreen it and you're golden.
 
As far as camera positions, Bourne Ultimatum style handheld. Getting the camera anywhere and everywhere as it is a compact 7D rig...

I'd say the dimensions would be 6 by 10 roughly?
 
Also how is smoke typically added? I heard there is some kind of 'spray' smoke? Where do I get this SMOKE I keep hearing about? Surely the fog machine from Party City is not the pro option.
 
Chance,

I am not a lighting designer or a DP, though I do play one at work, and now on a small set. I am going to tell you something that I have to tell my current director. When you see certain things in Hollywood, don't assume you can replicate them. There are a LOT of things that can be done cheaply or can be faked fairly well. But there are just SOME things that you are going to have to deal with.

You have a 6x10 space with no windows, and you want to replicate a strong window light. If we stop there, this is not a problem. However, if we start moving the camera, then we now have an issue. You need to "hide" a wall. If we assume that the actors came in through a door, whether it's visible or not, there cannot be a window there. If there is a mirror on a wall, chances are that is NOT an exterior wall. So we can't hide the window on the wall with the door, or the wall with the mirror. That leaves two. If the fight takes place Bourne style, we will see all 4 walls. Maybe not all at once, but if you are going to see all 4 walls, then you HAVE to have a real window.

So now your challenge is to figure out your blocking so that you can hide one of the walls without the door or the mirror. Having done that, you need to figure out how to get a fixture into that space, and make it simulate a window. If you shoot down at F2 or lower, then a 2K behind silk might work.

Re-reading your original post, it seems that the ONLY place we really have to work is the shower, so you can NEVER show it. I recently had to shoot a bathroom scene in a bathroom the size you are describing. I don't have my production stills back yet, but I used practical lighting to do most of it. I stuck a 750 in the shower to bring up ambient then used the practicals as my beauty lights. You don't have this option since you have no power in your scene.

You may want to re-examine this scene, because to do it properly, you are GOING to need a window.
 
Perrone,

Thanks for the feedback on this. I actually shot a version of this scene already. I had a 750w with diffusion shooting through the doorway, and I taped a warm flourescent on the ceiling. I will post it tomorrow perhaps. I wasn't happy with it and will be reshooting. I didn't achieve the contrast ratio I wanted, so yeah I may need a stronger light shooting through the door way. I know this is a pretty challenging set up and I appreciate all feedback.

One of the things I really didn't care for were the shadows. And of course it's hard to soften the shadows without washing the overall scene out in this scenario. Again maybe a stronger key is the, key, ha. Unfortunately I only have 750w JTL's, I could double them up, but then I have 2 shadows to soften. If only I had a 2k.
 
And again, how is that awesome smoke achieved, the kind of smoke that makes light beams visible that is seen so often?
 
Bounce off the ceiling for a shadowless unmotivated light source, and don't shoot up. Ideally diffused light from a window would be good, but you don't got one of those...
 
If you want the smoke you're going to need your light sources further back so that you get a harder cut out of the doorway, but then you need bigger lights....I really think the solution to this is a hard light coming through the doorway, negative fill all around the sides of the room that you will not see, then maybe maybe a little bounce by camera to get some more fill on the actors faces and perhaps provide a little eyelight as well.

A cookie on the light coming through the doorway is also not a bad idea. I think with those combined you should come up with something nice and gritty. Hopefully whatever you've got will give you enough to shoot high shutter...As I think that'll be the challenge.

Also, don't rule out shiny boards as an option to light the scene. Depending on what the nearest source of sunlight is, it could be a good way to get a whole lotta light your way. Only thing is you're bound by the sun.
 
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