specific light choice needed

[MatRich]

I will be starting a short soon where I want to use lighting to help tell my story. I have two basic lighting situations that will both be shot inside a tim hortons at night. This makes power an issue and size.

1. I have a homeless man who will be walking into the building through a corridor. I want this light to be harsh and gritty. I was thinking a blue light of some sort but Im not sure which types of light to buy. I was thinking of a green or blue tone. My question is, which lights to buy for this.

2. I have three teenagers to light indoors at the same location but this time with soft lighting. Im thinking soft box as key and china ball as fill. my question here is what bulbs to go in here to look natural and soft. also what about back light, Im wondering if this is realy necessary conserve a realistic look.

I will be working off of a 7D and possibly an a33. There is a phenomenon that occurs with the 7D and fluorescent lights and I dont think there is any work arround other than lower my shutter speed. if anyone knows of any, or how lighting can help, please inform me. thanks!

 

[Jitup]

1. If you are looking for a "harsh" light you can use an open face light. It will give you harder lines. I would do one of two things in this situation. Since you want to have a bluish light you can buy a 500watt work light and try that. If you are not happy with the way the light is thrown, try reshaping the reflector so that it is rounder and dose not have hard creases in it. Do some camera tests and see if you like the color. If not you can buy a Lowel color balanced halogen bulb that will work in your work light. Or you can just buy a Lowel tota and that would probably do what you want. I assume it is safe to say you plan on using more than one light for the scene correct?

You can also try using an open face tungsten unit and use a gel. Play around. Try using full blue 1/2 blue and also try some different green gels. You can layer gels, but just make sure you do your math because adding gels will slow the light. The more gels you have the more stopped down it will be. Just make sure you use your meter and you should be fine, or if you are running a decent monitor you might be able to get away without metering, but it is always good practice to.

Try different light modifiers such as cookies to manipulate your light and make it look harsh. Try getting a metal screen and put some holes and cuts in it and try moving it at different distances from your light. Be creative and experiment. Also try mercury vapor or metal halide bulbs from home depot. They might give you the desired light you are looking for.

2 Since you are going to be inside you will want to use tungsten lights. If you are shooting a short you really want to paint the mood with light so it is hard for me to give you an accurate description of how I would light that situation with out knowing the story line or the lay out of your location. If you want pm me the scene as well as a location pictures or a layout print and I will draw you a lighting diagram for how I would light that scene. I need to know the movement of the actors as well as a shot list and the camera positions. Any other info would also help.

 

[Mike H.]

You shouldn't have a problem with flicker if you're using Kino Flos, but if you're talking about commercial flos that you would find in overhead store lighting then you have to shoot with a shutter speed that is divisible by your country's operating electrical frequency. In North America the power runs at 60Hz so you would have to use a shutter of 1/60 or 1/120 and so on.
As for shooting suggestions I'd highly recommend finding a Cinematographer that you can collaborate with. Even if they're still in film school they should have good ideas that they can bring to your film. And, it sounds like you will be shooting in a difficult location because you will have light sources with different colour temperatures. The overhead flos won't match your tungsten light sources. On a big budget shoot they will gel the overheads to match, or swap the bulbs out, but I don't think you can do this.
1) You could go for realism and shoot using existing light with reflectors for shaping. That would be the easiest/simplest approach.
2) Or you could put green correction gel on your tungsten lights to match the overheads, then make a custom white balance in camera.
And remember, if you want harsh light with defined shadows use a fresnel, or par light. And for a soft light you need a large source that can wrap around your subject. You can get a large softbox, or a white reflector and bounce the light from your fresnels onto the subject.
Again, I recommend finding someone qualified to help you. Good luck!

 

[MatRich]

Thanks for the reply's guys. I consider myself well qualified creatively for this shoot. I have good experience using these lights and making the right choices creatively. I just need help with the technical purchase decisions. I think I will go with some half blue and greens and play with that for my homeless actor. I want to light him from above In a harsh way so I will look into the types of lights you guys suggested and set them on a handheld boom above head.

as for the soft lighting: I am hesitating to use a back light since I dont want the light to look un justified. I think I will come equiped with both options but just see when I get there. Probably going to light with a soft box high up to match ceiling lights found in tim hortons and a fill light from the bottom with a china ball to make the thing look crazy soft. I know I will go with tungston for these lights. And maybee actualy if I use a hair light I could get some half blue diffused to look like moonlight. does this sound like a good idea?

 

[Mike H.]

Even if you do have some knowledge of lighting it's still a good idea to have a Cinematographer. As the Director of the film you really need to spend your time with the actors, not fiddling around with gels and softboxes. But I'll leave that to you.
For a super soft look setup a large silk, 8x8 or 12x12 frame, and put as much light as you can through it. Any fresnel, par, or open face will do the trick. Just don't burn the silk.
Find out how many amps are running on each circuit too. If it's 20amps you might be able to get away with running a 2K, but I'd use 1Ks to be safe.