Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

M

matthewd5

Veteran
hello.

i am going to be helping out a group of people this weekend, they are putting together a dozen or so comedy sketches to air on public access cable and hopefully go on to air it in many other places...

the first group of them are going to take place in an office building.

i haven't seen the location yet as it is 80+ miles away.

any suggestions on ways to light it in an interesting way, yet still have it look like an office without taking away from the sketch?

i mean if the lighting is too creative it could take away the concept of it being in an actual office building/office cubical

matthew
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

Hopefully there are some windows. I would look to use the natural light and use artificial light (and bounce) to accentuate this. I would look to use some cookies to cast interesting patterns on the background as well as splashes of light. Perhaps you can get some 'desk lamps' for practical eye candy.
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

ok i thought that having natural light (5600k) mixed with my incandescent light would get messy?

then i found out the shoot is actually at 7pm or later so where we are that means pretty damn dark.

i have a stack of black and white foam board and a couple of trusty razor type utility knives to carve up some patterns.

came up with a nice combination of bogen super clamps, super flex arms and there version of a duckbill clips, i have two of those, so it will make it really easy to maneuver the panels in front of the lights.

its an interesting task of making the office lighting interesting but still keeping it to look like an "office"

i have a pack of "party" gels but not sure how that will work.

i'm taking a swiss army knife approach.

i am also hoping that walter's next newsletter is on how to light a ROOM vs. an interview.

matthew
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

I am assuming, like most offices, that there is a cieling full of Floros? Can you get Gels to slide in them? That, along with practicals might be nice. Mixing Color Temps can be good and bad.
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

And there's of course full CTB, that will make your tungsten lights 5600K.
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

Lighting is always a balance of time vs. look.
Make sure you don't spend 3 hours re-inventing the wheel. You are starting at 7pm so the actors and others might not want to stay there all night doing this.
You said a dozen sketches. If each takes a half hour to shoot, which seems real quick, then you're shooting till 1AM without counting any lighting, rehearsals, script changes, drag in, etc.

What kind of look do you want? Perhaps the sickly look of flourescents overhead might work for the script.
Lots of patterns and colored gels would seem to be out of place for an office setup. But I haven't seen the script.
Might be an all night work scene, in which case the overheads could be turned off and just a few small pools of light would work well along with a few in-shot practicals.
Possiblities are endless.
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

thanks for all the suggestions...

there will be a dozen sketches in all but sunday night we are just doing two...

yes it still has to look like an office and for at lest one of the bits looking like a sickly office environment might be just the thing. sort of dilbert like.

i guess the whole thing caught me off guard because everything i could think of was too "creative" or artsy.

i guess maybe just shoot it like its an office!

i have the warm cards and there is a special green one for floruscents so maybe i'll try that.

i'm bringing my sony monitor and i'll see what it really looks like under that.

i have a ton of lights but maybe just a small fill light might be just enough?

what sort of color correcting gel should i use if the flor. is pretty bright and i'm only adding a fill light to bring out their faces?

matthew
 
Re: Suggestions for comedy sketchs shot in office

You know, shooting for that 'sickly-green' office environment might be the best. Green, crushed blacks. A yellow tint on the highlights? Now, thats a a freakin office dungeon.
 
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