shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestions.

P

perhaps

Active member
my crew and i will be shooting a short for 2 days in a Wegman's store (the location was changed so many times, this has finally been secured so i haven't been able to even visit it yet, and won't be able to as we're shooting in a week). i don't know what sort of lighting situation i'll be faced with inside, but we will be shooting inside and around a register, so there is a limited amount of space to setup lighting, etc.

most of the shots will consist of either the cashier or the customer, and i'd like to get the most out of these shots with the DVX100A.

can you guys recommend anything? i'm not sure if natural lighting only will be the best idea, as i don't know how dimly light the store is or whatever. however, i also don't know how much room there is for lighting tools, considering the space needed for the crew, camera, boom, etc. i can't achieve the nicer DOF by shooting farther away and zooming in because of the limited space, so that..limits me as well.

so any tips on getting the most out of these shots? certain settings / shooting modes i should use in the DVX, any lighting ideas, etc?

thanks.
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Well the light in a wegmans is more than likly going to look very ugly on film. I am guessing you wont be able to gel the lights they have nor will you be able to turn them off. Will you even be able to setup your own lights? Its hard to give you many ideas without knowing what this is all about. What look are you going for? Will a grimy 'naturalist' look work with your script?
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

What I can predict is you take a light kit and pack it with plus and minus green gels so you can make your lights match the flouros in the store. If the cashiers happen to be close to the door, you would also need a way to compensate for the daylight that will be invading the set. You could gel your windows with plusgreen (If the flouros are daylight balanced) and try to match, or you would have to live with the blue lighting. The thing is always try to have a stronger more lateral source of light to give depht to your frame, and use the soft overhead flouros as fill. So take one or two sources with you.

Good Luck!

Cheers!
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

it took us quite an effort to secure this location (we had to personally speak with the founder of Wegman's), and in order to keep the disruption factor to a minimum, there's no way we could gel the windows and what not.

we'll be able to setup lighting, but i'm just saying it will be a tight situation and fairly tricky. the script is very much in the vain of Office Space, so a "grimy" look is not what i'm going for, but rather a balanced and somewhat 'stale' look. i will probably be post processing the crap out of this, but i'd like to pull out all of the stops while on set to squeeze out the best look - i'm a little afraid that due to the assumed store lighting, the image will be too warm and flat looking.
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

I have no idea what a Wegmans is but can you not slip in and squeeze off a test shot with either your DVX or a Digital still cam (set on daylight and tungsten) so you get an advance idea on what you are dealing with ?

Whats a Wegmans ?
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

the location is roughly an hour and 40 minutes away, and until the weekend i'm studying at my university. no chance of getting there beforehand, unfortunately. anyway, Wegmans is a large chain of seasonal grocery stores.
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

[quote author=perhaps link=board=news;num=1109732561;start=0#5 date=03/02/05 at 12:02:02]the location is roughly an hour and 40 minutes away, and until the weekend i'm studying at my university. no chance of getting there beforehand, unfortunately. anyway, Wegmans is a large chain of seasonal grocery stores.[/quote]

Perhaps,

I'm in Syracuse so you know that I know what a Wegman's is ;). I have shot in Wegman's and P&C, I had the luxury of lighting (at the time I also shot with a BetaSP). If you can't light, I would suggest bringing a monitor with you and of course doing a white balance for each set up. I have had good luck with the F2 "Fluoro" setting in similar situations, it'll take the green spike out of the flourescents. What Wegman's and when?
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

If not being able to gel the lights or windows, I would find out what kind of fluorescent bulbs they are using, and bring a 4'-4bank kino and a 2'-2bank kino and put the same kind of bulbs inside. If you don't have access to kinos, then a couple of home-made "ghettoflo" will do well. Also, a couple of tungsten fresnell lights gelled to match would help for back light or to hit a hard to reach spot.

The intent being to match the fluorescent lights above.

Taubkin's point of natural spill light from windows could cause an additional headache, which would require more work to deal with.

-j
 
Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

Re: shooting in a Wegman's... need some suggestion

ROTFL I went to VPA Film School at Syracuse U and shot about a third of a senior thesis project at the Wegman's nearest campus...

...shopping carts for dollies...

...dressing their breakfast-foods aisle from end-to-end at 1 am...

oh, those were the days.
 
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