OldMotel Room

D

DDirector

Veteran
The script is a comedy, but there is a dark (thriller) moment in the middle.

*A college guy surprises his girlfriend with a motel room after prom. But all he could afford was this very old run down sketchy motel.
After trying to convince her to stay a random guy jumps from the closet threatening to kill the woman with a knife around the neck. Then the owner pops in and apologizes for the incident. He knows the guy, and means no harm. They then get the room for free.

I think I want to fog up the place so it looks like a smokers room.

The motel room will be built in a studio, so we have the option to rig lights from above. I want to make some really dramatic lighting, as all these films will have a chance at a nomination to win 'best cinematography' in my college, and I'm looking for another win for the second time in a row. :)

The thing is, 6 short films will be about a motel room. So, they will be lit similarly in a way, but ours needs to stand out.

Our set may be given an older 1970's-1980's theme to make it look older and in a way cooler from the rest.

Can I get some tips on lighting, camera, or anything about the set?
I am comparing the two movies: 'No Country For Old Men' & 'Derailed'

Format: Arri SRIII Super 16mm
Run time: 5min
Theme: Old, Warn down, 1970's-1980's?
 
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The room is not to scale, and is not 100% guaranteed the layout will look the same as in the pictures.
I am the one who is designing the layout of the motel room, depending on the script, and so far this is what I cam up with. But, it has not been confirmed.

*The possible changes that may happen is the movement of the window. It may be moved to the same side as the front door, and the interior adjusted accordingly. Not sure how yet, or if it even will be.

​


Motel 1.jpgMotel 2.jpgMotel 3.jpg

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This is the basic layout with the basic set decoration. The interior will not look the same in our film as we want an older theme compared to the other scripts.
So, this is not a 1970's-1980's themed motel interior decoration. It will just be dated, but basically the same.
 
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A few films that come to mind: No Country For Old Men, Psycho ( original B&W and color remake), Planes Trains and Automobiles , if I think up some more I will let you know.
 
Thanks!
'No Country For Old Men' actually looks similar to my other room plans, which is good.

I realized something in it too. I want wanted that older feeling. And were probably using the wooden panel walls, but I noticed what gives that feeling is the colour. I know I wanted it to look old through the colour, but was unsure what exactly it was. And now realized, its a yellowy tinge like in that movie.
How would I give it that yellow tinge? In camera or post?
- If in camera, how? What filter would I need if I can use a filter
 
+1 for No Country For Old Men - Deakins did a great job.
If you have a chance, watch DVD with his cometary on.

Frank
 
Check out Edward Hopper for 'mood'... and 'hotel rooms'...

Hotel%20Room.jpg


hopper-hotelbyarailroad.jpg


hopper_edward_night_windows.jpg


8-a-woman-in-the-sun-edward-hopper-2.jpg
 
Thanks. The examples helped a lot!

I had a talk with the Director not too long ago and for the set look, we both really liked the 'No Country For Old Men', the lighting was okay, just a bit too dark.
Its good that it was lit with practicles, as thats what we want too.

I didn't get to show him 'Derailed' but I know that's what he meant by having it a bit brighter.
So, we are aiming to have the motel room lighting to look more like 'Derailed'

But, can I get some tips on lighting this?
*I need the illusion it is light with only practicles. There is a window, but its a night scene.
Derailed has only practicles, but it looks way more lit than it should be.

Should I light with practicles and add a bit more light in to fill the room more, or have more dim practicles just for the look and use more lights?
 
Were shooting the motel room on Super 16.
I don't think we will have any external monitors, or anything besides a light meter to judge exposure.

The room will be dark, but not as dark as in 'No Country For Old Men' but most likely like in 'Derailed' as seen in the pics below:

'Derailed' (Practicals & Additional Hidden Lights)
Motel Lighting 1.JPGMotel Lighting 2.JPGMotel Lighting 3.JPG


'No Country For Old Men' (Practicals Only)

Motel Lighting Practicals 1.JPGMotel Lighting Practicals 2.JPG​




What I like is that it looks like the scene is lit completely with practicals. But its not really, and that's why the characters are lit up so well. Unlike the other movie which seems to be only practicals, making the scene look darker with more shadows- Which we Liked, but it was just a bit too dark.

I'm pretty sure we will only have access to Arri (150, 300, 650, 1000w) lighting and Kino Flo's.

Would you take the approach to light the motel room just like in 'No Country For Old Men' with only practicals or like 'Derailed' and use practicals with additional lights hidden?

If I take the approach to make it look like 'Derailed' I will have to find a way to make the light very soft but yet still look like its coming from that single light stand.​
 
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i don't recall the scene, but i highly doubt it was lit with practicals. do you have literature or something somewhere about how they lit it?
 
How about breaking bad or pulp fiction? I haven't seen pulp fiction in a while but I do remember a motel scene.
 
Going back to this, were slowly getting close to the week of shooting this short film.

By lighting the scene with mainly practices, how do I pull off the shot so the lights are not exploding to get a good exposure of the room?
Will I have to use additional lights to light the subjects if that is the only light in the room?

Im confused as to how to pull this off if there are only two lights in the room on the night stands by the bed, while the actors (3) are at the end of the bed.
 
DDirector said:
Were shooting the motel room on Super 16.
I don't think we will have any external monitors, or anything besides a light meter to judge exposure.

The room will be dark, but not as dark as in 'No Country For Old Men' but most likely like in 'Derailed' as seen in the pics below:

'Derailed' (Practicals & Additional Hidden Lights)
View attachment 46914View attachment 46915View attachment 46916


'No Country For Old Men' (Practicals Only)

View attachment 46919View attachment 46920​









What I like is that it looks like the scene is lit completely with practicals. But its not really, and that's why the characters are lit up so well. Unlike the other movie which seems to be only practicals, making the scene look darker with more shadows- Which we Liked, but it was just a bit too dark.

I'm pretty sure we will only have access to Arri (150, 300, 650, 1000w) lighting and Kino Flo's.

Would you take the approach to light the motel room just like in 'No Country For Old Men' with only practicals or like 'Derailed' and use practicals with additional lights hidden?

If I take the approach to make it look like 'Derailed' I will have to find a way to make the light very soft but yet still look like its coming from that single light stand.​
Click to expand...

It's a taste thing no? Wether you think that the pure and simple light of No Country fits the mood of your movie, of if it needs the more soft look. Personally I would take the hard directional light over overly soft lit light like in Derailed. I like the mood and the way the light shapes objects and creates space. I can't remember what his name is, but during the Arri cinematographer talks this old guy with white curly hair, talks about how you should aim at taking away rather than filling up with light. I like that approach... Same thing goes for Breaking Bad. I know that it's probably lit with hidden lights, but it's done damn well.

For what it's worth... If I were to light a different story, I might do something else. Let the feel of the script decide, and then add your interpretation?

Regarding the drawings you added on the first page. If the subject was in the bedroom I see 3 places from which you could cheat with the light.
1: Outside light... even though it's night, there's probably a sign or courtyard lamp that gives some light. Set up a lamp outside and emulate with that.
2: The bathroom. Warm directional light coming through the door.
3: The tv, depending on point of view you could cheat with a directional bluish light.

The practicals in the room I would probably fit with bulbs so that they don't look dimmed too much but without becoming dominating.

The bathroom:
1: Practical light over / next to the mirror? Then place a kino or the likes over that light without being in the shot. And then maybe add some more powerful bulbs in the practicals in the bedroom, if you at some point get to see through the door.

Fill with boards or very weak light, so your blacks don't crush. You wrote that you though No Country was a bit too dark...

In short... I would relight every angle and make it an edit job rather than one take.
 
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it's a mistake to think that most hollywoood movies... well most movies in general, that appear to be lit with practicals, are. Usually this is not the case.

One way to tell is indeed to see how blown out the practicals are. If they're genuinely lighting the room, well 1) it probably won't look great but 2) they'll certainly be blown out. If they're just in the scene as practicals and there are genuine lights for the subjects, it's likely they'll have gels or filters wrapped around them to bring them down a bit and they won't be as blown out.
 
DDirector said:
Im confused as to how to pull this off if there are only two lights in the room on the night stands by the bed, while the actors (3) are at the end of the bed.
Click to expand...

From the current issue of American Cinematographer:

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/January2012/GirlwiththeDragonTattoo/page1.php#

ac0112_GDT_10.jpg


The motivated lights are lamps on the sideboard at the wall, and the over head ceiling light... the fluorescents get the room up to a usable exposure level, while looking like they are coming from the practicals.

I've not see the film yet to know what the 'mood' of the shot ended up to be... but at least here's a picture of how some of the lighting was done for this shot.

Here's a trailer for the movie, and perhaps a couple of the brief shots look like they may be in the 'same place' as the one above, but are not the same shots... unfortunately... (perhaps AC should put the 'set' and the resulting graded shot together for these sorts of pictorials...)

 
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Search Deakins' site - there are dozens of questions he's answered about lighting "No Country".

I'd definitely start with practicals that are dim enough to register as realistic practicals, and work with some softer, motivated fill sources. If you can get some soft sources fairly high, you can use flags down lower to cutoff the spill and still keep some controlled softness.

A huge part of this is production design - down to tinting the walls (if it's paneling, using something like a tinted flat polyurethane to make it look aged and sleazy), dying curtains to tone them down, and finding the best props that suggest an era and ages of use.

For shooting film - bring your DSLR still camera; set the iso, shutter and color temp to match your camera, and take plenty of test shots. It's a priceless way to get a very tight feel for how things are working. (If you're shooting reversal stock, you may need to be a third or half stop or so hotter than the DSLR settings - I've always tended to hit the film a bit harder than the meter, polaroids or digital stills suggest).
 
That picture with the lighting setups helped.
It helps with visual aids to see how they light sets.
I'm already in the process of getting chinaball fixtures- similar to the once pictured.
 
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