tips for dogme/natural/available/documentary lighting?

[nycineaste]

I'm planning on shooting a Dogme 95 style movie, to take my focus off the technical hurdles and back on the story and acting. Ill add that I don't think its a superior way to make a movie, only _a_ way to make a certain kind of movie.

Any tips on shooting with no lights with the DVX?

So far I'm thinking:

-Expect and live with noise (from gain or bringing up exposure in post)
-Shoot towards a light source and leave the characters in siloutte when you can
- Turn on all the lights in the room.
-might cheat the Dogme rules(they all did), and put slightly higher powered bulbs in lamps, or bounce a bit of light.

What do documentary filmmakers do in these situations? Any place I can go for documentary lighting tips? (Besides here)?

 

[RPLace]

For instance, television documentary show Hoarders is filmed on-location with NO lighting in the houses be because the locations simply make it IMPOSSIBLE. However, the footage always looks good and quite professional - I am eager to learn tips on how exactly these shows get away with filming windows and such without overblowing them by a mile. I personally think it's the camera they use, maybe a special curve ability, that allows this, because again, the show has NO artificial lighting whatsoever on the locations - this show would be rendered impossible if filmed on a Canon DSLR imo.So that's probably my advice, to find out which cameras/editing styles they use, or film on a cloudy day or early morning/late afternoon. It's my opinion that a good camera is one that can at least give you an equality-centered documentary look in tough situations, and with Dogme films, this can be further edited to look like Dancer In The Dark. However, what few people realize is that The Tree Of Life was also mostly a Dogme film that, like Melancholia, was filmed on the Arri Alexa - the expensive cameras can really do miracles even in natural situations.

 

[David G. Smith]

You should test the heck out shooting like this. One thing to remember is that one of the main goals of lighting (And lighting control) for video (Outside of the creative aspects of lighting) is not only to just get an exposure, but to bring the luminance range of the scene to within the dynamic range of camera sensor capabilities, so that the highlights and shadows are exposed appropriately. Even with cheating on the Dogme ideal, like adding stronger practicals, you are probably going to be dealing with a luminance range that is way too large for the camera to deal with. This is where your testing comes in. You will need to shoot in situations like that and test how the way you set your exposure affects the image. A general rule of thumb for shooting video is to expose so that the highlights do not blow out, and then bring up the shadows with lights so that they expose properly. Since you are not going to be doing this, necessarily, you should test and really see how much you can get let your highlights go, before it becomes too unpleasant to you. Then test and see how underexposed your shadows and see how low you can go on that end before you into pure mud. You should thoroughly test your exposure settings with the various gain settings available to you also. You should also get to know the lower end of you shutter speed settings as well. It is normal to shoot 24 fps with a 1/48th/sec shutter speed, but, you can go lower than that to help with exposure, depending on the movement in the scene. It has been a long time since I shot with a DVX, and I don't remember the shutter speed settings on them are, but play around with the settings and see how they can help your exposure. If there is no movement in the scene, you can go very slow with the shutter and get some get images in very low light. Test and see how low you can go with normal movement. Once you have an intuitive understanding of how you can expose with your camera, you can come up with some simple methods to augment that with reflectors, higher wattage practicals, some simple additional lights, ect. For example, if you have some practicals out of the shot that have lampshades, you can remove the shades and place bounce board behind those to increase the light in the scene. I would also get some inexpensive Home Depot clamp work lights, with standard sockets and the aluminum reflectors, and a variety of bulbs, incandescent and CFLS to have around. They are probably the most versatile lights a low budget filmmaker can get. You will be amazed at just how much bouncing even a 40 watt incandescent light, from a clamp light off of a bounce board, can add to a scene. You can bounce the light from one of those lights onto a white ceiling or wall and really bring up the base level of light. There is a lot you can do, with very simple equipment, and an intimate knowledge of the exposure characteristics of your camera, to make great images.

 

[RyanT]

Honestly I just wouldn't bother at all. You're trying to worry less about these technical hurdles, right? Try not doing anything for a while, see what happens. Something good might come about it.

I realize this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I think it'd be interesting to do for at least one project.

 

[David G. Smith]

Honestly I just wouldn't bother at all. You're trying to worry less about these technical hurdles, right? Try not doing anything for a while, see what happens. Something good might come about it.

I realize this probably isn't what you want to hear, but I think it'd be interesting to do for at least one project.

Well, that is a viable alternative. Set your camera to auto everything and just go shoot. This is not an approach I would take, but, like I said, it is a viable alternative. You might be surprised at the results you get. Then again, that may not be a pleasant surprise. I would test it and see if you like it.