Mood Lighting

[dominic.lopez]

I have the task of lighting a scene for an upcoming short film that is proving to be complicated although I'm sure it shouldn't. I am having trouble figuring out the logistics of what I want to do and I could really use someone's help.

The director wants a particular scene to feel cold and absolutely wants to use blue color. What I thought about doing was using a very rich, powerful blue as a set light far in the background, a subdued blue color for a soft key and, what I was hoping for, was having a dirty yellow for the kicker/hairlight. However, now that I think about it, don't yellow and blue light make white?

I really want to use this color palette for the scene but I wouldn't even know where to begin. Any suggestions would be great.

Also, even if it could be done, how could I effectively control the yellow so it wouldn't spill over into the blue and inevitably create white? If the yellow and blue color scheme doesn't work, any other ideas on colors and how to execute that scheme would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

don't yellow and blue light make white?

In your case if you have a bluish key light, and yellow 'hair' light, the yellow and blue should not be combining at all... unless you have your hair light spilling into
areas covered by the bluish key.

While not quite what you are looking for, the triology of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2009, Swedish version), all have frequent use of blue/cyan background lighting, with the talent frequently lit with a yellow/white, and for some scenes with the central character, "Lisbet", no 'contrast' light at all, just 'coldish' cyanoblue...

 

[Michael Carter]

This is really one of those questions where doing some testing will yield a tremendous amount of real-world experience vs. the "I'll take a shot at guessing" response someone like myself might give.

Do you own a camera? Even a still camera? Preferably digital so you can test white balance settings? Gels are cheap. Give it a shot.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but there are hundreds of questions posted here where the appropriate response would be "do a test and then come back with more specific questions and some example frames". Every time you power up your camera you have a chance to learn something - go give it a try, refine your test based on those results, report back with some frame grabs or stills and point out specific instances you are having trouble with. It's well worth your time - good luck.

 

[dominic.lopez]

Thanks for the replies!

@ j1 - I am hoping the colors don't mix but inevitably there is always the chance of spill and that's really what I'm most concerned about. And thanks for the film suggestion. I will definitely take a look at the film to get a better understanding of what I'm hoping to achieve.

@ Michael - You're not a jerk. I was expecting this response and I have always advised the same. I already planned on doing a test I was just hoping someone had already lit a scene with this color palette and could point me in the right direction. While, I have all the equipment on the camera side, when I DP a film, I typically rent a lighting kit unless the gaffer has what I need already. I have a few gels in possession already (definitely the colors I plan on lighting with), I'll just have to acquire the lights before I can do any testing. I will run some tests some time this week and post some pics for feedback.

Thank you!