One of the most visible ways to show the degree of skill you have as a film maker is the lighting. It seems obvious, and it should be obvious, but for some reason it's still one of the places that most often gets either overlooked, ignored, forgotten about, or thrown together with the least prep time and though.
Lighting is literally in every shot of your movie. It can be natural light, ambient light, justified light, prepared and designed light, or any sort of combination. If there is no light, why shoot? Just drop in a black frame and record voice overs. Light hits everything in your shot, highlights some items, obscures others, and sets mood and style. Don't walk onto a set and simply say after a quick glance, "Yeah, this looks good as is. Let's shoot." Still set up a few things, try some low watt spots, use colors to adjust the feel or "temperature" of the room. At least experiment, even if you do wind up going back to that rare perfectly lit natural setup.
A lot of people think that lighting is just making sure you can see everything that's going on. Well, yes, at a very basic level you can get by on that. A lot of people think that you have lights, you set them up on what's in frame because that's how it's done. Sad but true, I've seen it happen. An offshoot of this is the notion that lighting purely exists to kill shadows. Well, yes and no. Shadows are natural. If you manage to shoot something that contains no shadows, people won't be able to tell what's wrong, but they will still know something is missing. The images just won't feel right. You need shadows, but you need to control them.
Figure out what your theoretical light source is, and push the shadows in a logical line from there. If it's an interior night shot, light softly from overhead, as well as any places there may be any lamps that are seen or reasonably on. If somebody comes home and flips one switch, just have that much light come from roughly that position. Diffuse the light as much as you can with silks or filters. I will cover some of the techniques and equipment in the next article. Remember that you're replicating a low wattage bulb with a high wattage one. Try and use a the thinnest of yellow, orange, or brown tints to lower wattage bulb simulations. Fresh, strong bulbs burn white, but that may not be what you're going for. If there are any windows, get some soft broad coverage with a light dark blue tint. Nothing too strong, unless you're reshooting THE ABYSS.
For exteriors at night, if you aren't shooting day for night, also remember the blue tint. Moonlight reads naturally with a blue tint, dawn and dusk are reddish orange, sliding towards yellow as the sun is perfectly overhead, where the colors read untinted. I honestly don't remember all of the science to it, at least not enough to go into detail or on record, but I remember the effects I need to work. If you want to simulate cloud cover, your best bet is to lightly cover everything to flatten out all shadows (despite what I said earlier, sometimes you need to), maybe add a light blue tint, but desaturate the color in the shot either live or in post. If it's cloudy, but you're shooting a sunny day, add a little yellow and some shadows, angled to the time of day. Play with the colors to your own tastes and style, of course, but subtlety is the key to realism.
Back to shooting at night, light everything. Many smaller budget movies either don't think of this or can't afford the equipment needed. If you can't pull off the shot right, rethink the shot. Light every element of the background you can for as far back as you don't want blackness. Your eyes adjust to the dark and can pick up more light than the camera. You light the foreground. You're paying attention to the foreground. Unfortunately not only would the camera have trouble picking up the background under normal circumstances, but now you've just added a serious contrast in the foreground to make that background seem much darker. The camera will likely also be adjusted to the focal point's light reading, meaning it's on yet another level going to lose definition in the background.
Daytime shoots are much simpler. Just take everything above and mix it around according to your needs. Don't assume that just because it's daytime you don't need to light. If you have people standing near a window, there's a very good chance that window will be a giant white blow-out. Since we've all seen movies where people are near windows, there has to be a way to shoot it, right?
I know way too many people who are unaware of apertures, film speed, shutter rates, and the like. In the cheap and easy digital age, everything is so cheap and automated that anyone can get nice equipment with amazing abilities, but only know where the red button is. It's like buying a $100 Swiss Army Knife for the toothpick. On most video cameras, the shutter speed and aperture are tied together. If you're getting an expensive camera where they are separated, you probably know enough about they to not need any basic advice, so we'll work with the standard.
Movies are a series of still images. Those images go into the camera not like water from a faucet, but much like they come out - frame by frame. Shutter speed is, to be basic, how long the shutter remains open each time it opens. Set your shutter speed to 1/100, around the standard, and you'll be letting in the light pretty much as is. The shutter remains open for longer intervals the lower the second number, so you may be able to get more light in by adjusting below 100. Because I'm advising you to light the set, I'm advising you don't drop the speed like that if you can avoid it. If you have a blown-out window, like above, adjust the speed until the window looks right, then light the rest of the set so it matches as seen through the viewfinder. Oh, yeah, always go by the viewfinder on the camera. Again, a lot of bad shots come from cameramen looking over the top of the camera as they prepare and shoot instead of through it.
When lighting at night, it's fine to light everything with powerful lights if you know you can adjust how it's read by the camera. Also, if you're doing action sequences, it's better to over light then bring up the shutter speed. By capturing more separate images, you get less blur to the movement. Something to play around with. It also may not hurt to have the actors move slightly slower, make sure to hit their marks, then speed up the footage in post. Combined with the different shutter speed, it can balance out nice. We'll get to speed at a later date in depth. Next time, some ideas, tricks, and thoughts on lighting equipment.
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| Make Me Proud |
Every other Monday
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indie masterpiece.
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| Patrick Storck |
Patrick hails from Baltimore, MD, where playing by the rules is frowned upon. Only average things come from playing it safe.
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