Lighting and other vital things.

[Sweeney Jet]

Everyone,

Planning my first movie. miniDV.... handheld. Being honest, I've no idea how to do this professionally. I just really want to do this 'cause I've worked hard on the script and I've always wanted to make a movie, since I was a kid. I'm currently in college, trying to get my film direction degree. But currently, there are no film classes. I have to wait a year or more for those classes... I don't wanna wait. But I have to. That's not gonna stop me, however, from doing this on my own... with friends.

How would light a movie, especially when I don't have lighting equipment (poor, lol)? Any other advice or compensations?

Anyone know where I can get an "affordable" microphone? With a boom?

I've made shorts before. It was okay. I notice my direction is... impatient. Any advice on direction? And I know I can act. But friends I'm working with -- some aren't "actors."

Anyway, the main thing is, I need a lot of advice. Particularly on lighting. And it's most likely black and white... trying to have a "noir" feel. Dark and forboding... but I probably shouldn't aim for that, since I am an amatuer. lol. Just the basics?

Thanks.

 

[Anodyneguitarist]

Well, since your in college (like me) I'll assume you want to go cheap on most of the stuff. Depending on your college you might be able to rent or checkout equipment.

Lighting... I (sometimes) use a 200 watt and a 300 watt lights, they aren't very expensive ($3-4 for the bulbs) and make a huge difference compared to regular household lights, so I'd recommend getting a couple 300 watt lights (make sure you have a dome for it, should be less than $20)

Mics... I actually just ordered a $50 shotgun mic off of amazon, it won't be anything amazing, but it'll be a hella lot better than the on board mic. If your college has something with a name like "media services" then they probably have something you could rent. There are some other threads on here that cover buying audio equipment.

Directing... Hitchcock might have been right about actors... Find the theatre kids and recruit them. They probably have about a million hours of play practice every night, but they can generally act. I usually weed out my friends and only ask the ones I think would be good to act. Give them scripts to read and try to give them a good feel for their character. Write a short biography for each character, let your actors know who the characters are, what do they think/feel, what motivates them? My friend and I used to film all the scenes and then use them to show our other friends what we wanted them to do.

Oh, and if you want to do "noir" then do it. Don't let something like being an "amateur" hold you back. If you don't shoot for it then you'll never hit it.

 

[NoahK]

I recommend this book- lots of super low budget tricks:

http://rebelsguide.com/

-Noah

 

[Anodyneguitarist]

that book looks good, just ordered mine

 

[Sweeney Jet]

Oh, and if you want to do "noir" then do it. Don't let something like being an "amateur" hold you back. If you don't shoot for it then you'll never hit it.

True.

Well, since your in college (like me) I'll assume you want to go cheap on most of the stuff. Depending on your college you might be able to rent or checkout equipment.

If your college has something with a name like "media services" then they probably have something you could rent. There are some other threads on here that cover buying audio equipment.

LOL. I've asked. They don't allow it, unless you have a class.

Directing... Hitchcock might have been right about actors... Find the theatre kids and recruit them. They probably have about a million hours of play practice every night, but they can generally act. I usually weed out my friends and only ask the ones I think would be good to act. Give them scripts to read and try to give them a good feel for their character. Write a short biography for each character, let your actors know who the characters are, what do they think/feel, what motivates them? My friend and I used to film all the scenes and then use them to show our other friends what we wanted them to do.

This is great advice. Thanks.

 

[Sweeney Jet]

Lighting... I (sometimes) use a 200 watt and a 300 watt lights, they aren't very expensive ($3-4 for the bulbs) and make a huge difference compared to regular household lights, so I'd recommend getting a couple 300 watt lights (make sure you have a dome for it, should be less than $20)

These "domes" are officially called what? And the 200/300 watt bulbs are sold at any store (same goes for the dome)?

 

[barnaclelapse]

I know places like Lowes and Home Depot carry those light bulbs.

I'm not sure if you can get them at Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if you could.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

The "domes", if my assumption is correct here, would be things like clamp lights. Just watch the maximum wattage rating on anything you buy and buy your bulbs to be at or below the rated wattage, so you don't have an incident.

For a bit more money, you can get some inexpensive Smith/Victor studio lights that take tungsten bulbs. The ones that can handle 500 watt bulbs are around $40, I think. They also mount nicely on stands. Clamp lights are inexpensive and versatile. Try searching this forum for "clamp light". I believe Knightly recommends a specific brand for good service and longevity. Even if you plan on buying a studio lighting kit, you can always use a couple of clamp lights. I believe the ones I have in my lighting kit take up to 150W light bulbs, which is good for fill, kickers, background light, etc.

 

[directorik]

Anyway, the main thing is, I need a lot of advice. Particularly on lighting. And it's most likely black and white... trying to have a "noir" feel. Dark and forboding... but I probably shouldn't aim for that, since I am an amatuer. lol. Just the basics?

Thanks.

Of course you should aim for that. Why do you think you shouldn't? Learn everything you can.
Aim high, fail often and keep going.

This example kind of puts all the following links in perspective.

For a nice beginning light kit I recommend:
A couple of work lights with stands from any home improvement store.

Five or six “scoop lights” - those clamp on work lights with the
silver reflector.

Three or four pieces of Foamcore from any art supply store to use to
bounce the light.

Two or three paper lanterns that you can get at Ikea. I hook each one
to a dimmer (home improvement store again) to get better control.

Some colored gels (check on line or if there is a small theater in your
town they often have extras) and some black wrap. Check Studio Depot

 

[knightly]

shoot a couple of little projects first (3-5 minutes) and run tests...tape is cheap..In fact, at $5, you can just keep a tape around that is your test tape for trying new things. Use it to figure out where to put lights etc. Play around and screw up, we only learn from our mistakes. If you jump into making this "killer" script with no experience, you'll be angry with yourself for not waiting until you had just a bit more experience.

There's a thread around here called "lighting by example" that I started. It shows and explains resulting pictures from lighting setups...and has a fun indepth discussion about how to dissect lighting that you see in movies and tv...

warning!!! you'll never look at movies or tv the same way again. All you'll see for the next couple of months is the lighting.

My biggest advice is to just get the camera running and learn what works and what doesn't. Try different framings, get really close, get far away and zoom in, less light, more light, sun to the back, side, front...this stuff can only be mentioned in books, it'll never stick until you've done it.

 

[knightly]

for clamp lights, I recommend ACDelco as they have a bolted hinge, not a friction knuckle. I've been through a dozen of the friction types, but have only bought the ACDelco's one time each.

Coleman makes a 1000w work light that can reach 7' for about $70 on amazon ( http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Cable...ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1202414406&sr=1-7 ).

I also bought one of those "sun gun" type of lights that you can get at target, 3million candle power for $30 or so. Back it up a bit so the beam can widen, than catch it with a white bedsheet. You'll end up with a large soft light that will blanket one side of the subject with light. You'll need to use flags (black foam core) to stop the light from touching everything on set, but it's a nice cheap solution.

Protect your whites, and limit the amount of red on set...red will jump out of the image as it compresses badly and looks like crap. White tends to blow out really easily in digital, and once white is gone, it's gone. White and Red are evil colors with miniDV. You can use darker reds and they won't pop quite as much, but bright reds will almost always end up looking brighter than everything around them.

Put light into your shadows so you can bring the exposure of the brights down a bit...if your camera has zebras, use them...I set mine at 90% and don't let anything but the brightest parts of the image touch them...even then I try to avoid that. Caucasian skin is about 85%, Darker skin gets down to about 65-70% to be properly exposed.

If you can find online resources talking about the proper way to expose or light for reversal film, use their advice and you should get decent results form DV, just realize that the distance from black to white is much shorter in digital than in film...so you don't want to push extremes much, either light or dark. If you can get an extremely midtone shot, you can stretch it out a bit in post (watch BTS stuff on DVDs dealing with color timing/color correction to see what hollywood shoots for exposure wise - PanicRoom 3-disk, King Kong + production diaries, Seven).

 

[Sweeney Jet]

The "domes", if my assumption is correct here, would be things like clamp lights. Just watch the maximum wattage rating on anything you buy and buy your bulbs to be at or below the rated wattage, so you don't have an incident.

What do you mean by this? I am very unfamliar with watts or ratings and the like.

I also bought one of those "sun gun" type of lights that you can get at target, 3million candle power for $30 or so. Back it up a bit so the beam can widen, than catch it with a white bedsheet. You'll end up with a large soft light that will blanket one side of the subject with light. You'll need to use flags (black foam core) to stop the light from touching everything on set, but it's a nice cheap solution.

What's a foam core? And how do you officially call these "sun guns"?

Put light into your shadows so you can bring the exposure of the brights down a bit...if your camera has zebras, use them...I set mine at 90% and don't let anything but the brightest parts of the image touch them...even then I try to avoid that.

I don't understand this.

Of course you should aim for that. Why do you think you shouldn't? Learn everything you can.
Aim high, fail often and keep going.

Cool, then.

Five or six “scoop lights” - those clamp on work lights with the
silver reflector.

If I had the work lights, I would still need a reflector?

The thing about me, mainly, I have no idea what the gyst is about lighting 'cause the short movies I done so far was just using light where I see 'em. Where, how, etc... do I set this up? Or do I just light by eye?


And I'll surely look for Knightly's post on lighting here.

 

[Sweeney Jet]

Oh, and I really appreciate all of these great advices from you guys. Kudos.

 

[directorik]

If I had the work lights, I would still need a reflector?

The thing about me, mainly, I have no idea what the gyst is about lighting 'cause the short movies I done so far was just using light where I see 'em. Where, how, etc... do I set this up? Or do I just light by eye?

Yes.

The key to good lighting isn't just exposure. You want shadows
(especially for "dark and foreboding" style you want to try. So
using jut one work light won't do it.

You will need to use smaller lights in several different places
and reflectors to bounce softer light where you want it.

You can start with the standard 3 point lighting set up and work
from there. Set up your "key" light (the work light), a "fill"
light (the paper lantern) and a "back" light (the scoop light).
Then you can start to add bounce and back light as you see it.

For the most part you just light by eye. Hook your camera up to a
TV, set up your shot and start moving lights around until it
looks the way you want it.

Did you look at this example I linked to?

 

[scottspears]

I understand you wanting to get some directing under your belt. You've gotten some great advice from the people here. There are many cheap ways to assemble a light kit. You can check out my site for some pointers on china lanterns and other lights. http://www.scottspears.net

One other thing to consider is finding some help in somebody who may want to shoot for you. This way you won't have to wear some many hats, like director and DP. Network with other people interested in filmmaking. It's an collaborative art so the more the merrier.

Scott

 

[spinner]

How would light a movie, especially when I don't have lighting equipment (poor, lol)? Any other advice or compensations?

figure out where you are shooting and white balance like there is no tomorrow. Figure out where on your set the actors end up in shadow or where thier eyes end up looking like pits and avoid those areas.

I've made shorts before. It was okay. I notice my direction is... impatient. Any advice on direction? And I know I can act. But friends I'm working with -- some aren't "actors."

You have no choice but to be patient. If you 'cast' people who you know are not actors, you better act as though you appreciate thier involvement. Or you may find that you have no actors.


-- spinner