tricky office scene

Steve Laramie

Steve Laramie

Veteran
I have ideas on how to light this theoretically but in practice I need some grip help. Just a normal office scene not a large room just 2 cubicles in a hallway. It seems as though it is lit with all overhead fluorescents and no daylight sneaks through. We have a kino flo gaffers kit which im sure will come in handy on this. We also have a ton of fresnels and softboxes. My main concern is that we are in a high rise building in center city philly. And I do not want to risk setting any fire alarms off. I think the million in insurance we have will go real fast replacing all the office stuff and our gear after the sprinklers kick on. I know this is a long shot of happening but shi* happens. Especially on film sets.

I was considering doing this all with the kino flos, The original practicals, and what I am thinking is possibly 4-5 china balls for close ups. There is a long take handheld shot tracking back with a 2 shot and then the rest is just a master and a few CUs.

If I do go with chinaballs what should my balance be? The Kinos we have are tungstun or daylight optional. I really do not know what the practicals in the building are though. I am assuming 4100k
 
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> I am assuming 4100k

Probably, but find out. Check them all if possible.

I'd go with the kino, but I'd put matching globes in from the ceiling, if they have the same mount, and if the CRI is high enough.

If they are 4100k, then you could use photoflood bulbs in the china balls to match, or half blues with tungsten units. That should get you in the ball park.
 
yesterday we were shooting ina classroom and we lit it using 3 big kino screens a wall-o-lite for the corridor and two short 4 tube kinos for fill.

It looked great.
 
Yeah I dont meen to sound snoody but Im really to busy with this project to spend a full day and a bunch of money on 1 light like that. But here is the problem guys. The fluorescent overheads really cant be checked or replaced. They are covered with some kind of weird iron egg crate type thing that I dont want to mess with. And I really dont want to replace almost 100 bulbs. I am almost wondering if the scenes can be lit without using any of the practicals and all daylight balanced bulbs?
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Also now that I think about it. Can those 2 banks that have blow outs be kind of photographically gross? It wouldnt really bother me but Im wondering what you guys think.
 
KKeller said:
Seems like a lot of work for just a clamp light.
Click to expand...

I built one of these during an evening. It wasn't a hard work, I assure. It costed me around 25 euro ($35).

lairhair, before throwing more hypothesis and ideas, have you shot some test shots there with only the practical light and the camera you're gonna use? It could help.
 
To me it all depends on the look you are after. I'd go with the existing practicals in the ceiling augmented with temp matched CFL's in chinaballs for keys and some small LED lighting you could hang off of the ceiling grid to give just a little bit of rim where needed. The other question is how much light do you need? You could show up on one of those new fangled DSLR's and have plenty of light with what you've got or show up with a HVX/35mm adapter and be begging for more.

I would avoid trying to relight the place with all tungsten if you still want it to look like an office. You need that almost icky flat fill everywhere and you've already got it. Would take alot of tungsten instruments to recreate the look. And any shots with the sea of cubes as the background may also include some ceiling in it.

Test shots. And more test shots. What color temp was that photo taken at? From there you should be able to at least get a close guess to the color temp of the existing light. Take a DSLR and match it to your camera you'll be shooting with and use it to test with if you dont want to haul an entire camera kit up there. Should at least give you a clue as to what you are up against.

Watch 2nd unit TV's two segments from The Office in season 2 - http://www.2nd-unit.tv/

Gaffer and DP share some interesting tidbits about shooting in a real office - or in their case now a set that is built like a real live office.
 
Well we are shooting RED so its not as light demanding as the HVX. The photo was taken with a fluorescent pre set on a D200. I feel that it may be a little closer to daylight balance though. I am going to talk to maintenance and see if they can check for me.
 
Fluorescent preset is about 4000K on most all cameras. Fluorescent H would be daylight 5000K range. If you used the Fluorescent setting and not a Fluorescent H (which I don't think the D200 has), and also considering that your photo clearly shows a warm cast to it which says to me, the overheads are probably 3500K tubes which would be the most common lower color temperature after 4100K. Of course you could look at the tubes overhead as well. Many times you can get lucky and see the color temperature marked on them.
 
If you have the money for it, I'm not sure if these can be rented, I used one once and it worked pretty well, their probably better for film though.



http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/904/Lightmeters_Accessories_Color_Temperature.html

Also are you planning on seeing the ceiling in the shot? If not take c-stand arms, take the tiling off, and "make a grid" It should be able to support 650w Fresnel's. I did it with Arri's and LTM, I know moles are heavier, so just be careful. If you want I can email you pictures of the set-up. Just PM me your email.
 
2x4s with a baby plate also work quite well. Look up in the ceiling and see where the main supports are tied too and try to be as close to possible those. And a safety cable never hurt either...
 
Talk with a janitor or building manager. They are responsible for changing out the bulbs. Ask to see a couple of new ones, they're probably in a closet near by.

If they are standard T-12 sized lights, you are in luck. You can use them in your 4ft-4bank. Ask to borrow a couple for the shoot. Just pop them in and you're good.

:-)
 
I sent a few questions to maintenance. I asked what the color balance was on the bulbs (daylight tungsten or fluorescent) hopefully they will know. And I am also asking where the heat sensors and or sprinklers are. If I am far enough away from those then I can probably use some tungstun softboxes and CTB them if we are going daylight. I have some large CTGs if we are doing fluorescent. We shall see.

As far as the ceiling being in the shot... It will not be intentionally framed but I can see us catching a few glimpses of it.
 
Ok maintnence says they are f32s. Anyone know what the temp on these are. Also they said heat sensors are everywhere. So if I go with hot lights I guess I will have to put styraphone cups over them or something like that to block heat.
 
f32 only designates that they are 32w t8's I believe, still come in a variety of color temps. From that pic at least it looks like they are using all of the same temp bulbs, see if they can get you an exact model number of the bulb, not just the type.
 
Those come in a variety of color temps - should be a 3 digit number after that telling you the temp like 950, 741, 841, 865
 
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