Designing the set

J

JayF

A few friends and I are working on a challenge.. 20 Days (Starting today) to make a short film.

Came up with the idea today, and right now I am designing the set on old fashioned paper. I need to build an office (most likely in my garage), but I am trying to think of how to create the "office lighting feel". I was thinking of cutting a window-sized hole through the drywall, putting up some cheap blinds, and then putting lights on the opposite side.

This is low-budget, and obviously a quick shoot (quick in time, not quality).

Any suggestions?

- Jay
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
20 days is actually a long time. Knightly can make one in 24 hours.

What about picking up some ceiling light grids at Home Depot and shining light through those? You can diffuse it with parchment paper (on the backside of the grids). You'll need some black wrap and some felt, too.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'd have to draw it because I haven't done it before, just thinking what I could do make it work. Home Depot sells lighting grids that offices use in the ceiling to make light more directional. I was thinking if you had some of these, put some parchment paper on the back of them to diffuse the light like flourescent lights do. You can use any color of lighting behind it (even construction lights, also from Home Depot) without worrying about the green tint. If your camera has a manual white balance, then you're fine with whatever. Black wrap is black alimunum foil and thick black felt will help you control the spill and help you control how much light bounces off the walls creating too much ambient light.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
depends on the kind of office you're going for.

An executive corner office would have sparse, contrasty, warm furnishings with big soft light either from one side and a higher contrast (not quite noir low-key, but not romantic comedy flat lighting) or the back with venetian blinds. For this effect, you can find some venetian blinds that have been replaced or thrown away. Look for offices in the area that have recently redecorated and ask nicely if they have any waste ones that they would be willing to part with.

A cube farm would be much more middle toned and muted colors with personal clutter in some cubicles and lots of pinned up and post-it noted things around...other cubicles would be immaculate as some people get kinda AR with their work spaces. The lighting for that would be closer to the flat lighting but would have most of the light coming from overhead flourescent fixtures which would have a greenish tinge to them. Flourescent fixtures can make lots of buzz in the audio depending on your audio equipment - so you may just want to gel regular lights green above the actors. This light is then reflected back onto the people's faces from the stuff around them...lots of large flat surfaces. Computers will throw a light bluish glow into the area as well.

And Vince, stop taking my name in vain (well...ok...my ego does like the attention) ;) Lots of people here have made 24-48 hour shorts here, not just me. They challenge you to produce quickly and make your longer shoots stronger. The part that no one see, however, is the month or two of preparation leading up to those 24 hours. The only way to make a 1-2 day shoot work out is to have all of your ducks in a row going into it. Otherwise, you will spend too much time floundering on set and not getting shots "in the can!"

Construction projects are great places to find cheap stuff, just go talk nicely to the foreman and ask if you can look through their refuse pile (you can find great lumber there too). They use 4000 2x4's in a construction project, so chucking 10-20 is nothing at all to them - their garbage piles can be great places to find raw materials to work with...where it's 5 times the number that I would normally use in any of my projects. Good places for any of the construction materials they would use to build a building. lighting fixtures would be harder to come by, but the grid for the face of them is cut to fit the space, so there's waste there generally.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've thought through this more and discussed it with a few people, and we were talking about how we would do some of the shots. We wouldn't be able to show the actor walking into the office, unless we get a bigger location and more $$ to make this work.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You could show your actor going into an office building - this will imply that he walked, rode the elevator, came up the steps and went into the office.

Or you could ask an office building to shoot a scene where someone walks into an office (During off hours). Then you only have one shot to shoot and you can then proceed with most of the shooting in your makeshift office.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
For office shoots, what we've done in the past is to ask managers of offices (with signing authority - so we can get the "Yes you really have permission to shoot here" papers signed legitimately) if we could "film" there. (shoot sounds violent, and video sounds like a noun rather than a verb) If you hit up 4 or 5 different businesses, you should be able to find one that says yes. That way, it's already set and decorated (be aware that there may be some stuff that they don't want on camera - confidential type of stuff) and let's you get a more honest feel without the effort of building the set...even if you end up building, it'll give you a feel for the look you're going for when building/painting the flats.

Always have a copy of the script for them to look through (preferably a copy they can keep so they feel invested in the thing - part of the inner circle). Be honest, friendly, like a producer...or a good used car salesman. Name, independant filmmaker, here's a link to my previous work online (so they can see you're legitimate)...I was wondering if it would be possible to use your location as...

Work it around their schedule so you don't disrupt their business. If you're looking to budget for bulding that set anyway, offer that budget as compensation for their time/space...they may require someone to be there, that budget could go to pay them as a liason/babysitter for you in their space.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
knightly said:
...

And Vince, stop taking my name in vain (well...ok...my ego does like the attention) ;) Lots of people here have made 24-48 hour shorts here, not just me. They challenge you to produce quickly and make your longer shoots stronger. The part that no one see, however, is the month or two of preparation leading up to those 24 hours. The only way to make a 1-2 day shoot work out is to have all of your ducks in a row going into it. Otherwise, you will spend too much time floundering on set and not getting shots "in the can!"

...
Click to expand...

I posted it in quick reply and forgot the emoticon. It was meant as an extreme, comical example much like your political statement that went arwy. :lol:

Sorry.

Whenever I saw office scenes, they always had the green tint balanced out (or they replaced all of the flourescent green-tint lights with special bulbs in the production). I was just thinking of a way to simulate the overhead flourescents while having more control over the light.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm not offended...never am really.

For offfice lighting, you can always add varying levels of magenta filtration to the flourescent lights to tone down the green cast.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top