Lighting a Small Space

T

tuesday

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I have one scene in a very small location (not really any room for C-stands, etc.). There is a lighting bar with 4 spots for medium base (household type) lights with a recommended maximum of 100W per bulb.

I've found a lot of 250W-500W bulbs specifically for film use, but there's not that much in the 100W range. Are there any disadvantages/considerations to trying a few different halogen spot/floods from Home Depot? I'll be doing lighting tests beforehand.

Any recommendations for bulbs that might work well in this situation?

Thanks!
 
Blue Max 26w compact fluorescent, six phosphors, 5500K, 90+ CRI. Takes a few minutes to warm up and stabilize. There's other out there too of course, google is your friend (when they aren't selling your every move to their advertisers of course).

When you're done, take 'em home and use 'em in reading lamps. Vast improvment of light quality over incandescents.
 
Are you planning to light to room with this fixture, or you want this fixture in the shot but not to light the "scene"?
 
If you get a socket extender like a swivelier, you could easily run bulbs of more than 100w. The rating in a fixture takes into account all the heat that the bulb will generate that builds up inside the fixture. But if you remove the lamp a few inches from the actual fixture, you could use something much more powerful like a 250w PAR38 without melting the thing down.

Also consider a wall spreader and space savers so you can use "real" lights.
 
Bruce: Thanks for the CFL suggestion. Are there any advantages of Blue Max over other brands? Google has many sources of CFLs, but most reviews I've found talk about the subjective feel of a light rather than specifics (e.g., any color spikes to avoid).

Moseph: Thanks for the socket extender suggestion. There are a lot more bulb options tested for film above 100W. The wall spreader is a great idea, but may be above my comfort level until I can see how someone else uses it.

Andrew: Autopoles are a great idea. Do you know if any places rent them (preferably in Los Angeles)? Google turned up nothing.

starcentral: Thanks for being so thorough! Quite contrary, but I'd like to test both hard and soft lighting (not at the same time) since the space is so small. CFLs will be super soft, but can be near impossible to control (especially if there isn't room to flag it off in this space), so do you have any suggestions for hard lighting? Also, can you clarify as to motivation?
 
You say very small location, but that doesn't really tell us much, as different folks might have a different idea of what a very small location might be. How big is the location you are shooting in, how high is the ceiling, and what type of celling is it, what color are the walls? You also failed to tell us what kind of scene you are shooting, and what type of mood you are trying to convey.
 
David: Good point. Don't have the exact dimensions on me now, but I'd say about 8' x 7', 10' ceilings. The walls will likely be painted a darker color, but they are off-white at the moment. The ceiling is white, solid, no texture. There are two actors in this scene. The mood of the scene is lighter, almost awkward in the beginning, but builds in tension up to the end of the scene.
 
Will the camera be in the room with the actors?
Static shot, or will the camera be following the actors?
Single focal length or different focal lengths?
 
Yes, camera will be in the room with the actors.

It will be handheld shots (shoulder rig), following actors where needed for coverage/blocking, but obviously, limited by the dimensions of the space. Treating it like static shots, but handheld for some movement.

Different focal lengths: selected from between 16mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm (on a 1.6 crop), but camera tests will likely narrow it down.
 
These kinds of post questions are really hard to offer suggestions for, but I will throw in my two cents and just throw out some things to think about. If you are lighting a space that small you might want to boost the practicals in the room, with bulbs up to the max rating of the fixtures. If the lights are in the shot you can adjust the brightness with dimmers (If they are incandescent bulbs), ND gels, CC gels or specifically cut house hold screen material (Metal) judiciously placed. As for that fixture you are talking about, a 4 socket medium base light, you may want to turn it into a "Covered Wagon" light which will give you a nice soft light to bring up the base ambiance with a nice soft light. You can shape a Covered Wagon light with black wrap but be careful about heat build up.

http://filmmakeriq.com/2011/03/building-your-own-covered-wagon-light/

http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/dv/feature/dv101-covered-wagon/16688
 
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That is a good idea.

You might also consider a couple of small battery powered LED lights with diffusion which can be placed where needed to supplement motivated light. They can be moved out of the way for wider shots, and then mounted for your tight shots. You also have the ceiling which can act as a bounce by mounting a Kino Flo to shoot into it to bring up your base. A Chinese lantern with a 65w CFL inside mounted to a boom pole can also be moved rather quickly.
 
tuesday said:
Bruce: Thanks for the CFL suggestion. Are there any advantages of Blue Max over other brands? Google has many sources of CFLs, but most reviews I've found talk about the subjective feel of a light rather than specifics (e.g., any color spikes to avoid).
Click to expand...

Any advantages? Of course -- that's why I suggested them.

All discharge lights (fluorescent, HMI, LED, etc.) have color spikes. It's the nature of the beast. The problem with most fluorescents is that they are only interested in the quantity of light, not the quality. Thus, cheap big-box-store fluorescents look green (but nicely bright) in your footage, while expensive KinoFlo bulbs look white (but deliver fewer lumens). This is largely due to the number of phosphors used, and how they are used to tamp down spikes while filling in the holes in the spectrum.

The best make an attempt to approximate daylight. And that's where I pointed you, and why.
 
tuesday said:
Andrew: Autopoles are a great idea. Do you know if any places rent them (preferably in Los Angeles)? Google turned up nothing.
Click to expand...

+1 on the AutoPoles

AutoPole is a Manfrotto term. Matthews calls them "Matthpoles". Other brands probably call them other names too.
 
tuesday said:
starcentral: Thanks for being so thorough! Quite contrary, but I'd like to test both hard and soft lighting (not at the same time) since the space is so small. CFLs will be super soft, but can be near impossible to control (especially if there isn't room to flag it off in this space), so do you have any suggestions for hard lighting? Also, can you clarify as to motivation?
Click to expand...

Motivation is like in the scene, to the audience, where is the light "suppose" to come from. For example, you can have a table lamp next to the couch that's in the scene but in reality it is not the real light that is lighting the real scene. But perhaps on camera you want it to look like this where the light is coming from. Reality is you can use part of this light to help light your scene but "normally" extra light is added to boost the ambient level of the room light so that it is not as contrasty as just having a "single" light in a lamp lighting your "scene".

Motivation is the starting point for lighting any scene in my books. If you want flat lighting, you can do that by shining HARD lights in the corners of the room or even the ceiling. Other ways are to shine several HARD lights on a huge piece of diffusion fabric, or even through it. Like 4x4 or 6x6 in size.

If you want pure hard light this is more like a contrast looking scene with lots of shadows, not a lot of light on the walls for example. For this you will need to think more carefully about placement of the key lights that will light your actor or actors. They also have to be more controlled as they will keep traveling and can spill on your walls and cause shadows, increased light, etc..
 
tuesday said:
Bruce: Thanks for the CFL suggestion. Are there any advantages of Blue Max over other brands? Google has many sources of CFLs, but most reviews I've found talk about the subjective feel of a light rather than specifics (e.g., any color spikes to avoid).
Click to expand...
Kino Flo also makes edison base CFL lamps. Regular store bought CFL's will have a very noticeable green spike.
tuesday said:
Andrew: Autopoles are a great idea. Do you know if any places rent them (preferably in Los Angeles)? Google turned up nothing.
Click to expand...
Any lighting & grip rental company should have them. They're also known as polecats.
tuesday said:
starcentral: Thanks for being so thorough! Quite contrary, but I'd like to test both hard and soft lighting (not at the same time) since the space is so small. CFLs will be super soft, but can be near impossible to control (especially if there isn't room to flag it off in this space), so do you have any suggestions for hard lighting? Also, can you clarify as to motivation?
Click to expand...
Are you talking about bare CFL bulbs in the ceiling cans? Those will not be soft at all.

Also, what time of day does your scene take place at?
 
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