Lighting for a night time bedroom scene with only the T.V. lighting up the room?

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Filmkid2003

Well-known member
Hey everyone. I am going to be filming a scene with my Panasonic GH2 in 1080p 24. The scene calls for the character to fall asleep staring at a poster on the ceiling above his bed while the T.V. at the foot of his bed stays on, with no lights on in the bedroom and with all the shades drawn. How should I light the scene so the T.V. light is the only practical? I have some 300w daylight balanced bulbs and also two 1,000 watt quartz lights with softboxes. I am guessing these will be too bright though. Should I get some blue gels? Is there a way to light the room in a way so it appears dark enough so the T.V. glare will look like the only light source or am I asking for too much? Also, I don't want to go higher than 320 ISO on my GH2 if possible. Can someone please help? By the way, its a small room so, with the T.V. bright setting set all the way up, it should light up the ceiling and walls nearby pretty good.
 
You should look into the lighting techniques used for simulating fire. What you're after is somewhat similar, but the color and intensity of the TV would be dependant on what your character was watching. I would not suggest trying to utilize the TV itself as a practical. In a dark room the TV seems bright, but does not put out a very significant amount of light. You'll want a medium sized diffused source in the same position you would have the TV. You probably want to lay down a base fill as well as adding in additional sources for color. Have someone move flags in front of several gelled lights at various intervals to simulate as you see fit. The color and intensity would only vary when there is a cut. Simulating an action flick might involve a great deal more action with the flags than a documentary for example. A little experimentation should get you what you need.
 
Color-wise, you might white-balance for tungsten and use a daylight source for the TV. If you're going to light the character at all (which you'll probably have to), use tungsten or tungsten color.
 
Thanks, guys. Potato, how would you suggest I use the base fill? What direction should I point it in? What color do you suggest? Should I use my softbox light kit and just dial down the wattage to the desired intensity? By the way, the actor will be lying in bed and I will film him at a profile angled full shot and tilt up to the ceiling to reveal the poster he is looking at, so I can`t light up the ceiling too much with base fill because it has to reflect the T.V. cast light. thanks.
 
You'll have to experiment to see what works. Finding a balance of lighting intensity will likely be one of your bigger challenges since you don't want to have too much light reflecting onto the ceiling. The larger the room and the darker and less reflective the set dressing is, the more light you can use. For a realistic shot you will want a high contrast ratio, though you might find it doesn't quite work for the style of your picture. Adjust as needed there is no right or wrong. As for color I agree with the suggestions given above.
 
Filmkid2003 said:
I can`t light up the ceiling too much with base fill because it has to reflect the T.V. cast light. thanks.
Click to expand...

You aren't limited to a single source for the "TV cast light." The important thing is that it LOOKS LIKE it's coming from the same source, not that it IS coming from the same source.
 
I would simply use led lights. IMO these will be perfect. A couple of them coming from the TV aimed at the actor and then a couple of leds dimmed around where the actor would be as well.
 
Let's get something clear. When a room looks 'underlit' it's more about how you approach the light. As someone mentioned, lots of contrast helps. But to also get the walls to light up clearly... well you're going to need to play around with intensity levels.

Personally when a scene is meant to look 'dark' I always shoot a stop down with lots of contrast. To help it look dark, I also tend to under light the background. This means the walls, ceiling etc. However you WANT the ceilings and walls to be brightly lit... but you're going to have to compromise. Choose the main f-stop you want your subject to be lit by, then find out a good f-stop for the walls and ceiling that's maybe 1-3 stops under the main light source. Control this with flagging, diffusion, etc. You'll have to do tests because I'm not sure how much you want to see the poster or not.

Another compromise is to have an added light with heavy diffusion and lots of black foil pointed JUST at the poster to bump it up about 1 stop above everything else.

Oh, and if you want to shoot at 320 iso, use a lot of light. Just cut around the TV (shot of the TV, then shot of subject with light representing the TV). As someone mentioned, TV's give off hardly any light.

The way I like to represent TV light is to 'create' a TV with diffusion paper, and in FRONT of the diffusion paper I place 4 flags in a box shape (with flags or black foil blocking spill before the diffusion if it's not on the barn doors). The purpose of the flags in front is to help spill of the diffused light onto the walls, especially in a small space. I attach the light to a dimmer and someone off set can practice flickering the image. For added effect, as someone mentioned, have another person switching between different colored gels. Turn on a TV at home and study how the light looks depending on what you're watching, and try to mimic it (but you can get away with a lot).

Oh and if you have the TV in the scene with the subject, keep in mind that it's blue, so gel everything daylight to match it closer. Thought it's usually better to just greenscreen it to avoid problems.
 
Before you do the gag be sure to sit in a dark room with a TV and watch the walls and ceiling to get the right idea about what TV illumination is really like. Most people are surprised to see how infrequently it changes with ordinary material showing.

I used to do all kinds of stuff. Then a gaffer who'd been at it a lot longer than I put a 2' Kino tube diagonally across a TV and waved a flag across part of it once in a while. Cuts are usually pretty short and you don't need a lot of waving.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all the input. It was very helpful. I ended up using two daylight balanced CFL bulbs. One for spill and the other one held by my one crew member to mimic the light cast by the T.V. I had him wave it just a little bit every few seconds, making the room brighter, then dimmer, etc. I am pleased with the results especially since this is a no budget short and I have no trained D.P. helping me out. My D.P. is dvxuser and all of you! Thanks again!
 
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