Motivated lighting in the middle of nowhere...

Gary the Llama

Gary the Llama

Well-known member
I'm currently in pre-production on my first short film. Last night we went out to our location and did some lighting and camera tests. Our film takes place at night, in the middle of nowhere so we're very limited in our choices for motivated light. In other words, we have the moon and maybe some headlights...

But we keep finding shots that just look georgous... Except it doesn't really stick with the moon/headlights... It's a light from elsewhere... Is this okay or a huge no-no?

I'll post pics a bit later today...
 
That's tough. I've never liked the need to motivate light, even as an observer. It's one of the reasons I loved Film Noir they shot for beauty and that was it. I mean, from my point of view, I would look at the resulting image and ask: does this look or more importantly FEEL unnatural? If the lighting is so unnatural that the audience is going to be taken out of the story by it then no it's not good. But if it's unmotivated in theory, but it looks gorgeous and it doesn't look or feel unnatural and no one notices, well thats good work in my opinion.

Matt
 
I completely agree with you.

Since the short I'm doing is a horror I really want the lighting to give off a mood. And our opening shot taht I love so much totally ignores the rules of motivated lighting but it really sets the mood. I'm beginning to think - at this point - that the mood is more important.

And besides, this is my first film and a short so I can bend and break a few rules, right? ;)
 
what about lanterns or fire, or somethig like that. .. even if you just showed them every now and then it may make it seem more plausible for light to be coming from somewhere else. ..just a suggestion. :)
 
Finally got some grabs back from our cinematographer. Remember, these are just test shoots... These aren't our actors and the lighting and framing isn't final. Here they are. Please critique as much as you want! This is my first film and I need it.

Our establishing shot, with rain. Not bad but I don't like the way the barn is lit.
TFR-01.jpg


Same shot, minus the rain but I think the lighting looks a lot more natural (possible moonlight?) I love the way the barn look... This is so close to our storyboard it's scary.
TFR-02.jpg


We tried to frame the picture with tree branches... The lighting seems too bright on our subject and the branches are too distracting.
TFR-03.jpg


Here we're attempting to cast shadows on our subject's face... It needs a bit of tweaking but I like it.
TFR-06.jpg


Approaching the barn. This needs some work... We're trying to get a 35mm adapter rigged up to really make this shot look great.
TFR-07.jpg
 
It's looking good. No shot seems unnatural to me except the one with the treee branches... Motivated lighting is not a MUST, for any film, so don't worry...
 
taubkin said:
It's looking good. No shot seems unnatural to me except the one with the treee branches... Motivated lighting is not a MUST, for any film, so don't worry...
Click to expand...

I completely agree... That shot doesn't look natural at all... And he looks like a creepy stalker waiting in the bushes. :)
 
If anyone asks where the light is coming from, just tell them it is coming from the same place that the music is....
 
Rosestar said:
If anyone asks where the light is coming from, just tell them it is coming from the same place that the music is....
Click to expand...
Lol that's great.

Gary the Llama, I think the light on your barn looks like a yard light, which would be a totally acceptable lightsource, unless of course your barn is intended to be somewhere with no electricity. Otherwise I think if you moved your highlights more toward a blue hue, it could pass as moonlight. Looks good!

Lots of really good information on this board. I've got a couple short films in pre-production, and I want to make my best attempt at lighting, something I haven't done on past projects.
 
I can't take credit for the quote, "The light comes from the same place that the music does". I stole it from an interview of Ronald Victor Garcia, David Lynch's DP for Twin Peaks. From the story he relates, when he said this David Lynch did not laugh. :cry:
 
I think establishing "Motivation" is less important than making sure it's consistant.

I like the full silhouette provided in shot 1 with the rain. The front of the barn could be a bit softer but it works better than the other choices. But make sure you don't go "bright/dim/bright/dark" throughout the sequences.

I don't need a shot of the Sun to accept it's daylight.
 
Rosestar said:
If anyone asks where the light is coming from, just tell them it is coming from the same place that the music is....
Click to expand...
Great response.


To tag on:

What's the genre / feel of the piece? This, of course, matters. Film noir was mentioned -- different rules. And as for horror --- where does that giant blue or white light come from that's shooting either horizontally through the trees in the forest at night or UPWARD FROM THE GROUND just over the edge of a ridge on the periphery of the forest?!! It's in every damn Stephen King movie and every other X Files. Horror and, with the exceptions of the "it's so real it's scary" films like Blair Witch 1 and Open Water, and Noir are more Expressionistic genres, so they can look like what's in the character or storyteller's head -- whatever "lens"/perspective we are meant to be seeing the story through, which comes from "the same place the music is." Good Noir(and horror) are not lit just for beauty and that's that, but to aid story telling. That's a more important lighting motivator for me than physically justifying the light -- does it help tell the story, either by clarifying the story or world, shifting tone with the narrative, or commenting on the action in a way that other design elements aren't or commenting on the action of the story in a way that other design elements are, but strengthening those elements and the tonal comment, rather than being redundant. You might use it elsewhere so you develop a consistent vocabulary - all night scenes, every time someone is about to die, only in one characters scenes, etc. Like the music, it then becomes a visual theme which aides in the story telling by highlighting a particular element or theme in the story and saying, even if just subliminally, "hey viewer, this thing is like that other thing." Might be weird, say, to have a Dogma 95 (Open Water) piece and then but out with the blue light through the slats in the shack from every side of the shack (another effective horror cliché). Also, a little blue in post, or the "Punchy" filter in magic bullet, can help those shots look less lit and either more like bounce from the moon (intuitive - not physically logical) or just less like you set up a light and pointed it at a barn.
 
Gary the Llama,

The pictures already have me intrigued. Please post some edited clips when you have them.
 
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