Shooting in tight spaces.

Michael Anthony Horrigan

Michael Anthony Horrigan

More Cowbell Pictures
Any tips for shooting in tight spaces?
I may be shooting a scene in a very small bachelor apartment, tiny really.

Any tips?
I'm using the Canon HV20.

Any ideas on how to make some of the shots more interesting? Maybe more camera movement?
Although a dolly or jib may be out of the question.

MAH
 
Just make a really small dolly. You can cut your PVC to fit your space. You can use skateboard trucks and aluminum angle, or buy a set of dolly wheels but either way you can get the base as small as you need, depending on how big your tripod head is.
 
Personally, I think the greatest advice for you would be not to use any camera movement at all. It would eliminate all the posibilities of tricking the eye to believe, that this room is biger. Ofcourse, if that's not what you are trying to acomplish, pans or other types of movement could be used. But I doubt it would be very good to do so.
 
Thanks, guys. I do have some shorter PVC pipes.
I may just try as many techniques as possible and see what works best.

Won't be able to back the camera up that much though.

Hmmm....
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Any tips for shooting in tight spaces?
I may be shooting a scene in a very small bachelor apartment, tiny really.

Any tips?
I'm using the Canon HV20.

Any ideas on how to make some of the shots more interesting? Maybe more camera movement?
Although a dolly or jib may be out of the question.

MAH
Click to expand...

Watch Orson Welles' adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Trial" (1962). The first number of minutes are spent in a small appartment, the hallway of the small appartment, and another room in another apartment...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Watch Orson Welles' adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Trial" (1962). The first number of minutes are spent in a small appartment, the hallway of the small appartment, and another room in another apartment...
Click to expand...
Yes.

Actually, the bedroom in that apartment is about the size of the entire apartment that I will be shooting. Imagine the kitchen, living room, etc... all crammed into that one room.

It did give me some ideas though.

Thanks,

MAH
 
Small spaces are tricky on a logistical front... very little room to hide lights and gear. From a lighting perspective, I'd say get some small chinas or build your own long silks and hang a few small lights from above. Work minimalistically across a broad area so that you're not having to tweak lights constantly. The hardest element is consistency through shots in tight spaces. If you're moving lights around on stands non stop; one, it's going to slow you down, and two, you're going to notice more irregularities later on. Best bet is to light as much as you can in a way that you don't have to move later on. Softer sources are typically better here but heck, maybe a large kicker through a window is perfect as well, depends on your story/tone/etc.

Shot-wise, focus on your story and embrace the fact that it's a small space. Work that into your shots. Experiment with wide lenses and thick foreground elements. That'll give you a sense of greater space and also isolate characters more. Tighter shots are going to connect them more with this space. The HV20 is so small that it offers some really creative mounting abilities.

Locations are always important when it comes to cinematography, without a good location, you might as well be shooting in a white void or something. So another factor to consider is, yes the room is small, but what can you do production design wise to bump up the visuals. Posters, artwork, dressings, colors, props, etc, all of these things can take a semi-dull room and turn it into something very interesting.
 
Great advice, Geoff.

I'll definitely go wide for many of the shots and see what I can do with my surroundings.
Lighting it will be tough, I'll see what I can do. I appreciate your time.
Hopefully I'll have something to show for it next week.

MAH
 
Hopefully you are on the first floor, so you can shoot into the room from a window or the hall. You could do that to move a bit back, but you can also do that for framing as well.

Think about incorporating mirrors, both for lighting and camera.

-J
 
j said:
Hopefully you are on the first floor, so you can shoot into the room from a window or the hall. You could do that to move a bit back, but you can also do that for framing as well.

Think about incorporating mirrors, both for lighting and camera.

-J
Click to expand...
Basement apartment. There may be a window though.
I'll take a close look at that. Great tips guys! Much appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Great advice, Geoff.

I'll definitely go wide for many of the shots and see what I can do with my surroundings.
Lighting it will be tough, I'll see what I can do. I appreciate your time.
Hopefully I'll have something to show for it next week.

MAH
Click to expand...

Agreed with Geoff about the set-dressing and prod design.

Since you are shooting with an HV20, you might think about suspending the camera from the ceiling. I did this with a camera of similar size, hung from an auto-pole. At least to get any "wide" shots you want, to emphasize the the smallness, and to possibly mix up the camera work so that you can help make the room slightly more interesting. That camera is so small, you can easily get it up and look down on the room.

M
 
I was watching the special features of The Darjeeling Limited, which was shot largely on a train, and they mounted the camera to tracks on the ceiling.
 
I'd say use a wide angle lens to accentuate the room's depth, but with the HV20, you're already as wide as anyone's gonna get.
 
I wish I had found this thread before shooting my LossFest entry. 80% of the film is in a 9x12 room. Being my first short, it suffers from beginneritis as expected, this thread would have helped with several of the problems. Now I want to try it again using these tips! Thanks for sharing guys!
 
On the HV20, I would get a telewide adapter and put it on the lens..This will make your camera wider and also is good for tight shots. I recently bought a raynox and attached it to a HV30, which if im not mistaken uses the same 43mm thread..i'm not sure. But I used it and with this adapter it really opened up shots in tight places. Especially if your planning in showing your project at 16x9.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...600_DCR_6600Pro_0_66x_Wide_Angle.html#reviews
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Any tips for shooting in tight spaces?
I may be shooting a scene in a very small bachelor apartment, tiny really.

Any tips?
I'm using the Canon HV20.

Any ideas on how to make some of the shots more interesting? Maybe more camera movement?
Although a dolly or jib may be out of the question.

MAH
Click to expand...


Watch Pieces of April to see what NOT to do with respect to shooting in a very small apartment with a small camera.

.
 
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