A DIY-guide to how we designed, built and lit our film set

[Ekblom]

Hello!

We released our film (Love Between Storeys) for a week on Valentine's. Along with the film we're uploading a 12-part series covering how we designed, built and lit our elevator set. You can start checking out the guide here.

We wrote this guide for newbies and amateurs on the DIY filmmaking scene as an attempt to give something back to the community.

Love Between Storeys is a half hour romantic comedy about a boy and a girl who get stuck in an office lift. We produced it with 2200 €, and it was shot with a Canon 550D/T2i for six days in Helsinki, Finland and one day in London.

Here's the first updates:


An Introduction to Making Love Between Storeys

Making Love Between Storeys: The Elevator Set​

The Elevator Set: Concept​

Concept: Why Build an Elevator?​

Comments, questions and suggestions are more than welcome on our website or in this thread. I'll be popping in to update the thread as we release new stuff.

The full movie is watchable here till the 21st. You can also see the trailer here.

Hope you found this useful!

 

[Ekblom]

Here's some weekend reading for you!

First off we have a break down on our 360-degree light plan, and in Article 2 we talk about bouncing light during shoots. We also show you how to build your own reflector out of household items.

Article 1: Lighting: 360 Degree Light Plan

Article 2: Lighting: Bouncing Light During Shooting

In the next update we will uncover a set of contraptions we built to make our set feel like a real working elevator.

Hope you found this useful! If you like these posts you can support us by liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page!

 

[Ekblom]

In this update we take a look at a cardboard contraption we built to shape and block light to match our elevator door light source.
We're also covering how we used household fluorescents to create our floorlights.

Here we go:

Article 1: Lighting: The Doors and Their Cardboard Brothers

Article 2: Lighting: The Floor Lights

Next update will be about how we made our elevator buttons light up when pressed.
We'll also break down the different light modes we used in the elevator throughout the whole sequence.

Enjoy!

PS. If you like these posts you can support us by liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page!

 

[Ekblom]

In this update we show you how we made our elevator console seem fully functional. Article 2 preps our coming Modes and Moods section of our Lighting part of the guide.

Article 1: Lighting: Console & Label Lights

Article 2: Lighting: Modes & Moods

Have a good read!

As always - if you like these posts you can support us by liking our Facebook page.

 

[Ekblom]

In the following posts we break down the different lighting modes and moods we had in Love Between Storeys. We start by dissecting the Normal Light mode which we mostly used during the elevator sequence of our movie.

Article: Modes & Moods: Normal Light

Hope you found this article useful! In the next update we will have a look at how we handled darkness when the elevator loses power.

If you like these posts and would like to support us you can do so by Liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page. All our main project updates and articles will be announced there also.

Enjoy your weekend!

 

[Ekblom]

Now we talk about what we did to get some light into a scene where the elevator loses power and goes dark.

Article: Modes & Moods: Darkness

Enjoy!

As a general note I want to say that we've almost reached the end of this set building guide. I hope you've found the information we've provided useful. If you want you can support us by liking our facebook page. All project updates will be announced there in the future.

Until next time!

 

[Ekblom]

In this post we break down our elevator power saver light set up.

Article: Modes & Moods: Emergency Light

We're right at the end of our elevator set series with one more post to wrap it all up on Friday. Hope you've found our posts useful! If you want you can follow project updates by subscribing to our facebook page.

See ya!

 

[Ekblom]

This marks the end of our elevator set guide!

We've posted a wrap up on our blog and an index where we divided the different articles under CONCEPT -WOODWORK - SET DRESSING - LIGHTING, which we hope will make browsing of the guide easier.

Feel free to share this guide with people who might find this stuff useful!

Here's the wrap up:

Wrapping It Up – An Epilogue

Index to Making Love Between Storeys: The Elevator Set

According to statistics we're currently getting 30 - 50 readers per article we upload, which is awesome, but I'm sure there's more people who would find this information useful. So please share with us if you have any suggestions on how to improve and distribute this guide. I'll probably start a separate topic regarding this next week, but feel free to comment and blast away with critique/suggestions here also.

Oh yeah - if you think we should continue writing similar posts on other aspects of our production like Casting, Shooting, Scriptwriting and/or Premiere Organising, you can do one of the following (or all if you'd like).

- Drop us a line here in the comments.
- E-mail me at erik (at) betweenstoreys.com
- Subscribe to our facebook page (all updates appear here)

That's all I guess. Thanks for reading!