renting lighting for a short film

Finnegan

Finnegan

Well-known member
I'm shooting a short suspense/murder film in a few weeks and I don't have any lighting equipment of my own, and I'm not in a position to buy any right now (saving for a 35mm adapter and a few lenses) so I think renting is my best option. now, I'll be honest - I'm not quite sure what equipment I need for this shoot. that's why I'm here asking you guys!

alright, so most of the shots are going to be indoors. these interior shots are going to be in a bedroom with one practical light - a small bedside table lamp. for these shots, its important that the room seems dimly lit, but that the talent is still lit well enough where she looks great on film. there are three outdoor locations, and one of them is an early morning sequence, the other is a dusk sequence, the last is a middle of the night sequence at a nearby lake (meaning no AC outlets nearby).

like I said earlier, I don't know what exactly I should be renting. I figure the indoor shots could be handled with one 650w put through a softbox and maybe one other (or two) 250w fill lights put off a reflector/diffuser. is that too much? too little? I have no idea. should I just use natural light for the outdoor shots? how the hell am I going to shoot the one at the lake?
 
I'm not a pro, but here's my advice...

For a low light look, put the practical on a dimmer and shoot a 300 into the ceiling (or china ball) to bring up the ambient light. Key the talent from the position of the lamp with a 650 and softbox (might need a C-stand to keep it out of shot). Outside I would say getting a 5-in-1 bounce card would be good to use, but beyond that I'm not sure.

What kind of budget do you have for renting?
 
Well, what kind of budget are we talking about here? The sky is really the limit when it comes to renting lighting gears. For starter, get a 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser for all outdoor shoots; it's a simple tool that gives great results. When there's no outlet, a generator is your only shot. There's really no way for me to recommend anything for indoor without being there and seeing what it's like, but I'll tell you that production design is 80% of what makes it looks good, with lighting the remaining 20%. Go look at some other thriller movies and see how the room is decorated, then spend some time and some money to make that room looks good. Get a dimmer on that practical light or use a shaded lamp for a nice soft look without blowing out. No amount of lighting can save you if the room is mostly empty white walls.
 
I can't give you an exact figure with regards to budget; the simple fact is that it depends on when I decide to shoot it. at the moment, I'm scouting out locations and dealing with the rest of the pre-production process. I've only casted one role so far! I just want to prepare as much as possible, and this is one of the foreseeable problems that I see being a major pain to deal with since I don't have my own gear.

ideally, I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible. the lighting I rent should be effective for what I want to achieve, which I sort of detailed in the first post. and I'm well aware that DPs spend a ton of time getting into the director's head to make sure that they do their best job to bring the director's vision to life and I've only given you a few short descriptions of the look I'm going for, so I don't expect anything superbly informative or anything from you all. although, if you manage to get something like that to me I'd love you forever.
 
If you need some Chinaballs for ambient, just buy them. You can get half a dozen 24" with sockets and 300w lamps for under $100. Rent the c-stands and a flag kit. The other bonus with the chinaballs is that you can use the sockets bare if you want some hard, sloppy light in a small area. I have often used 25-60w bulbs bare on set behind furniture or other objects, to help give some separation. If you need to motivate that light, try a nightlight.

If you'll be shooting into a lot of windows, you may wish to rethink chinaballs. They can be very hard to hide in reflections.

What camera/film are you shooting on? The more sensitivity, the less you'll need to spend.

I gaffed a bedroom scene with three lights and was very happy with it. If it's just one room, I can't imagine needing more than four or five fixtures for almost any situation. Use a large hard light gelled blue through a window if you can. Have another hard light to use as key. Use chinaballs for fill, if they're too sloppy that's why you'll have flags. If that doesn't work, you can try bouncing a hard source.

Bring an assortment of bulbs for the practical fixture. If it's in the shots, you might want it 25w or less. If it's not, you might bump it up to 200w. The flexibility is nice.

If you're going for a natural look, bring a few sheets of 1/2 CTO and 1/2 CTB.
 
ProfessorU said:
If you need some Chinaballs for ambient, just buy them. You can get half a dozen 24" with sockets and 300w lamps for under $100. Rent the c-stands and a flag kit. The other bonus with the chinaballs is that you can use the sockets bare if you want some hard, sloppy light in a small area. I have often used 25-60w bulbs bare on set behind furniture or other objects, to help give some separation. If you need to motivate that light, try a nightlight.

If you'll be shooting into a lot of windows, you may wish to rethink chinaballs. They can be very hard to hide in reflections.

What camera/film are you shooting on? The more sensitivity, the less you'll need to spend.

I gaffed a bedroom scene with three lights and was very happy with it. If it's just one room, I can't imagine needing more than four or five fixtures for almost any situation. Use a large hard light gelled blue through a window if you can. Have another hard light to use as key. Use chinaballs for fill, if they're too sloppy that's why you'll have flags. If that doesn't work, you can try bouncing a hard source.

Bring an assortment of bulbs for the practical fixture. If it's in the shots, you might want it 25w or less. If it's not, you might bump it up to 200w. The flexibility is nice.

If you're going for a natural look, bring a few sheets of 1/2 CTO and 1/2 CTB.
Click to expand...

this was very helpful, thanks a lot. I'm shooting on a canon xh-a1, unfortunately, I don't have a 35mm adapter or a set of lenses. but I guess that might be a good thing since I'm trying to be cost-efficient with lighting and 35mm adapters eat light for breakfast. as for the chinaballs, I haven't found an ideal bedroom yet (still in pre-production) so I'll keep the option open and if worst comes to worst I'll just keep windows or mirrors out of the shot entirely to hide them.

one question though: why use a blue gel for a light coming through the window? I know that sun tends to lean toward a blue light in color temperature, but won't a blue gel be a little too blue?
 
I assumed you were shooting at night. The blue will help it look like moonlight. In general, blue is the least objectionable color of unmotivated light and is associated with night-time. A blue backlight or kicker streaming through a window at night is very common in Hollywood lighting.
 
ah, moonlight is good because I most of the bedroom shots will be at night. night and early morning. so with this blue window light - do you have it shining through the window from outside or just in the windows location?
 
I have used both. If you light through the window, you'll need more wattage, but you don't have to move the lights around as much because they won't be in as many shots. Lighting from inside will give you more control.
Be sure to use black stands and black stingers so you don't see them through the glass.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top