Lighting Moving Objects...

Cephalectomy

Cephalectomy

Active member
Ok, I've looked around for articles and all I seem to find about lighting is practice yourself and the standard 3 light setup. Now this is great and all for interviews and static shots but what about moving shots, with people running in frame and such, do they use a ton of lights or another method? I'm hoping to do a short film this summer (horror based) and there will be a character running in the woods (how typical eh :P) but being on a budget and not having much for lighting (I have 3 lights i bought from rostronics, and i'm going to grab a couple worklights as extras to light up the background) I'd like to know what a good approach would be. So if anyone has any opinions, know of any websites, or previous threads that help in this department I'd greatly appriciate the help! Thank you :)
 
Cheep, fast, out of control.

Cheep, fast, out of control.

Try putting a 500w bulb in a china lanternthen attatching the china lantern to a broom handle/boom pole and having a PA run with with the light source out of frame? Use more lanterns and PA's as needed.

$15 in supplies, unlimited production value.

PS
Were you that dude in American Movie? Just wondering.

Peace
 
Good idea with the work lights. You can get color corrected bulbs that will fit them (the same ones that go in a Lowell Tota light or V-lite) and they are great bounce lights or background lights for the DP on a budget.

When I did lighting on the feature film Geekin (just screened at a film festival last month) my light kit consisted of 2 Britek 600s (with softboxes) and a home depot 500 watt worklight. By the end of the shoot I had added 2 Altman 650 fresnels and some cliplights.

China lanterns are great, small beam halogen lights are great poor man's spotlights. Ge Reveal bulbs mix well with color corrected bulbs on video since they don't have the dull yellow rays on regualr consumer bulbs but aren't as expensive as 3200K photofloor bulbs (and have longer life.)

My biggest regret on "Geekin" was that in some scenes I didn't give the actors enough seperation from the background. It's a movie about RPG geeks so many of the actors wore mostly black and in some shots they seem to blend in with the background too much because they are being lighted with only the main lights that are lighting the whole set. If I had put a china lantern just off frame (being careful to not cause any lens flair in the camera) they would have been just bright enough to stand out but not enough to look weird. Or if I had used a mini spot to give them some edge light they would have been more seperated from the background more. Oh well I'm still very happy with the movie, live and learn.

BTW check out the trailer @:
http://www.geekinmovie.com
 
For moving subjects, that's what I learned:

One approach, you light the whole area/room with the same logic of the three point lighting (of course you might not want all three, but still), maybe your key is a soft light coming from a window to camera left, Or you backlight the whole location with a strong harp beam coming from that small window in the background, etc... The downside is that you need big guns and you still have to be very good in balancing, flagging, scrimming so you still have decent exposure in every place of the room/area (the actor approaches the key light, he cannot blow out/it can't be too dark opposite the key, etc...).

The second approach is to light small places in the middle of the trajectory, mark the actions and light for the key moments of the scene. If your lights are well positioned in a natural way, the actor doesn't have to be perfectly lit for the whole action. You will understand this better the minute you try...

Whatever you do, keep it simple. Many sources can get complicated to handle (many lights need many more flags...)... I'd just backlight the whole area and do the running lantern trick...

Cheers!
 
Don't be too rigid and stess out over 3 point lighting,most Hollywood fillmmakers can't and wont adhere to it in EVERY shot.I'm doing a series right now and discovered that backight(as in toplight for making a subject stand out it not always useful or natural)....Play with a variation of the 3,but don't stifle yourself with the "3 point rule".....Interesting things will happen when you subtract one,add another,etc.But yea you have to know the rules first before you can break 'em.Hope that kinda helped friend.
 
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