Recreating lighting setup from Whiplash

[OlavAnders]

Hey! First post here.
I'm making a short film, set in a bowling alley. A main story point takes place at the reception. My main inspiration for the look of this film is Whiplash. The look I want to recreate for this specific shot is this:

I went to a local bowling alley and quickly shot some references:

Except for the highlights in the background, my main concern for this shot is the light on the actors faces. In the Whiplash scene, the edge of their faces seems to by separately lit. My question is: where is this light coming from? Is it directly above them? It doesn't really seem like it based on the shadows in their faces.

Anyone have any advice?

 

[AcousticAl]

A China ball can be your best friend here, providing key light for both actors. Then you can creep in some accents behind each of them for hair/shoulder as needed. The trick is to make every artificial source you add seem to be coming from something that is already there, or is perceived already to be there.

 

[OlavAnders]

Thanks for the great advice!
What kind of light source would you recommend for the hair lights?
(The equipment I have access to is a couple of kinos, redheads and led panels. I'll invest in a china ball though!)
I've had a tendency to overdo back and hair lights in the past ...

 

[AcousticAl]

China balls are incredibly inexpensive. Grab more than one.

As for hair lights... you want to make sure that everything you do in this space maintains even color temperature (unless, of course, you have motivation for a differing color cast somewhere in the frame). So, pick your fixture to give you dimming and shaping to keep it at the right level relative to the key, and to keep it from spilling, and to match the color temp (even if you need to use CT gels to do that).

 

[OlavAnders]

Again, thanks for the advice!
Is there anything I should know about china balls? Like what wattage to use etc.
Would I be okay if I just went to IKEA to get some?

 

[sfoster]

The trick is to make every artificial source you add seem to be coming from something that is already there, or is perceived already to be there.

I don't believe this is all that important.

I'm inclined to agree with the DP from LOTR. While setting up a shot hobbit sam asks him where the light is supposed to be coming from?

He replied "The same place as the music"

 

[jax_rox]

I'm inclined to agree with the DP from LOTR. While setting up a shot hobbit sam asks him where the light is supposed to be coming from?

He replied "The same place as the music"

Lighting doesn't have to be directly motivated, but it still needs to be motivated.

What I mean by that is, the audience needs to be able to sub-consciously justify that the lighting they're seeing on screen 'makes sense'. The simplest way often is to ensure lights are motivated from an actual or imagined source. Of course, they don't have to be - but that becomes more of a balancing act.

You don't have to explicitly see a light source in shot - but perhaps the light through the window is coming from the sun, the moon, a street lamp...

Key lights in particular have to make sense to some degree - otherwise it just looks like you've put a light in front of the actor...

Re the OP still:
Where do you think the light is originating from?

 

[OlavAnders]

In the still you see a light in the roof shining down on the counter. I'd assume there's a row of those lights and one is above the actors. (Probably enhanced by for instance a china ball)

 

[sfoster]

In the still you see a light in the roof shining down on the counter. I'd assume there's a row of those lights and one is above the actors. (Probably enhanced by for instance a china ball)

yeah that's a good bet. There is also something called "negative fill" where you can make one side of their face darker.

Usually with lighting you only add light, with negative fill you take it away.

 

[jax_rox]

This is my take on how it was potentially lit:

I can't comment on how many fixtures they did or didn't use, and the fixtures would have been skirted and/or neg fill used. The stairs in the background are also illuminated (don't forget about desiging the lighting for the background as well), but I ran out of space for arrows.

There is also a very subtle edgelight on Miles' hair - that could be convenient spill from the downlight, or another source entirely, perhaps motivated from the downlight/house light on the wall behind him.