Lighting a tiny, rustic country house interior

S

stip

Well-known member
I'd love to hear your ideas and advice before talking to the lighting guy.
Here's a quick view what it's about



short film
genre: suspense
location: tiny, narrow, rustic country house in the middle of a forrest
shooting interior and outside
day and evening/night
power supply: there hasn't been any electricity until last year. The owner installed a solar power device which runs everything. The owner says if they stay over for a weekend, power level is at 95% when they leave. They also have a super loud fuel generator for emergency.
We will be around 10 people though staying for about 10 days, so power supply is an issue as I don't want to use up all stored energy.
time: spring/summer
camera: Red one
story starts at day and ends at evening/night.



I would like to be very flexible when shooting and there's also the power supply problem, so my idea was to light as far as possible with the existing light sources by exchanging the bulbs with energy saving video bulbs.
I currently have 8 50W 5400K balanced bulbs but I hear there are 3200K balanced ones.

For the interior/evening scenes, do you think it might be possible to set up the "natural" light sources there with such bulbs and add several prepared table lamps ect at certain positions to get a setup that gives a basic light for shooting? We have several LED devices that could be used as fill lights and be moved very quickly. This is something I really wish for this project, being able to shoot fast and intuitive, with only minor additional lighting setups.
Main purpose of lighting is to support suspense and the indisposition of the characters, is this possible with such a setup?


I have no idea whatsoever about lighting the interior for daytime scenes, do you have any suggestions for me before I go talk to the lighting guy? During the daytime scenes, tension is slowly building up, the need for suspensful lighting isn't there as much as for later evening/night scenes. Altough there are already strange things happening, I want the lighting to be quite neutral to contrast these strange activities. Does that make sense?! :)


For any ideas, advice or hints I'd be very thankful!
 
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You job sounds like it might need a genny

On 'IB' just watched it again

I think the windows are NDd down (see over exposure in the doorway but view through the windows)

The close up of the girl is cheated with a softbox close to her face (look at her eye catchlights) as are other macro shots

Obviously an overhead lamp over the desk

How they get the rest of the ambient fill soft and smooth is a mystery to me !


S

S
 
Morgan, thanks!

I was wondering about the fill too. There was one thing that caught my attention, the shadow of the closet. It looks like the background was filled from below to light the ceiling as well. I guess they added this ambient light in the later shots as previous shots where you can see this side of the room, background is much darker.
IB_1.JPGIB_2.JPG
 
For the evening interior scenes I would put high wattage reveals in all of the practical fixtures. I like reveals because they are cheap (you can get an 8 pack of 100 watt bulbs for like $8) and the light qaulity is good. Also they come in high wattages if you look enough, as high as 300 watts. Get a wide variety of strengths so you can take it down if you have too much ambience. I would also get some 4x8 sheets of Rmax insulation (check it) its about $10 a sheet and you can cut it down to a 4'x4', a 2'x4', and two 2'x2' pieces. The reverse side of this stuff is a shiny foil that gets an amazing amount of light output when reflecting light. The best thing about it is that this stuff is light as a feather, and can be put almost anywhere. I would use this stuff to bounce off whatever practicals are filling the room to direct more at your subjects.

For the daytime stuff, you could try doing the same as above except instead of reveals use some photoflood bulbs that are daylight rated. They are like $5 a pop and are nice pieces of kit to have. Just be careful because they get HOT!! I have melted pairs of gloves on these bulbs so make sure you either let them cool or get some extra pairs of gloves specifically for these bulbs, the ones that are specifically for working with hot stuff that are kind of useless for gripping.

As always, know where your breaker box is and if it uses fuses bring extras.

Now, you seem like you know what you are doing, I just detailed all this out for the edification of future thread readers. Obviously I tend to work with lower budgets, and I don't know much about the level of this project other than it is shot on a red, so there is at least some money for the project. But that doesn't mean that what I say wouldn't work of course, and your lighting guys would probably love a genny to blast HMI's through the windows as moonlight or daylight.

EDIT

The power supply problem is not one I really have a solution for, I'm afraid... Is it an MX Red One? You may be able to use smaller wattages if that's the case, but those night scenes will be a pain no matter what with the limited power supply.
 
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Stocks, it is not an MX Red One.
Thank you about advice about practicals, definately gonna bring that up. Yes, night/evening scenes will need more power, I guess we'll have to find a way to work it out, probably the fuel generator will do it's duty a couple of times :), we'll have to record the audio seperately anyway.
Definately gonna look into different variety of strenghts of reveals, good advice there!
 
To do the job right and get the best look, you really need a genny. I am not talking about a 500,000 watt one, just a quiet, crystal-sync, one. Probably a 3000 watt one would do you (Honda is the most common small putt-putt at light & grip rental houses.) Around here they rent for $75/day, $225/week. Or you can buy one for I believe around $2k-$3k.

Off that you can run all your small inside lights and hopefully some bigger lights you can punch through the windows for daylight stuff. I find punching a light through a window as your key tends to look better because it's natural and motivated on where the light is coming from.

Get some foamcore boards as bounce to catch some of that light at times for fill and you are pretty much set.

The other thing I would suggest is getting a hazer (not a fogger if possible.) It will add some softness and texture to your image that will be nice. Plus, you will be able to get shafts of light which will look fantastic. Again, they rent for around $75 for a high end rosco one. However, there are party hazers that are not designed to fill areas that can be bought for $200-$300. They may take a few minutes more to warm up and not pump out the fog as fast, but they also don't cost $2000!

The thing that's really going to hurt you is the older M sensor on the RED, and whatever speed glass you are going to use. Even with fast glass, the amount of light you are currently talking is not really enough for that sensor at 320. Not to mention that it will be harder to make the light softer because you won't be able to have as big sources and use heavier diffusion.


Matthew
 
Matthew,
thank you.
Yes, we were planning using hazer, Red needs some softness imo as it can look very digital and the house is supposed to be dusty after all. I'm starting to feel M sensor could be trouble for this project as you mentioned. Thanks for the good advices.
 
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