Hi, welcome to the new cinematography breakdown episode, when I’m gonna show you
one of my last project, share several light schemes and a few camera movement tips…
Also I will show you how I worked with minimalistic interior
and exterior lighting setups for fast filming process.
Ok, it was a music video with dancing. After reading the script, I thought about how to
film a dancing. I had a ridiculous experience of dancing filming. All that I made was, making just
a long shot and a few middle shots of face, legs, arms, different details etc during a dancing.
Sounds boring and very simple. And on this project I had thought - why not to film all this story by
means of flying camera with steadycam. To make a few long complex shots with medium shot together,
matching editing in-frame.
So, I cut my fee rate a little, and consequently I had few free budget money for hiring a cool Steadycam cameraman.
Before working with Steadycam, I had to make a plan of camera movement in the frame.
When I visited dance rehearsal, I and choreographer though how to make interesting camera movement
and not to lose beautiful dancing choreography moments in the frame.
We managed to do something.
We spend a few hours of rehearsal to find interesting way of filming this. Filming
all dancing, I had some uncertainty about a focal lens. What I should choose for filming
middle shot and long shot together. I had chosen 45 mm of anamorphic lens.
By the way, on this project I used Hawk V-lite anamorphic lenses with Arri alexa mini.
So, on the preproduction we had a plan, plan of shooting. During scouting process,
I looked for good shooting point for dancing in the place. We had not enough financial
ability to rent many light sources, and I needed a big place with natural light.
Lighting scene # 1 I used one powerful light source
in interior place as a key and major source. This is Aputure 600D with fresnel lens.
Also I used haze… and I want to tell you one chit code with it. When you want to up
exposure in the scene using one powerful light, just use it with combination of haze together.
Haze is able to add a few additional stops for exposure, this is easy and cheap. I
needed this method because we filmed in big space with already one light source.
We griped 600D into metal construction above the window, for imitation of backlight from
the window. Do you see this beams? We just cut the lighting by means of soft diffusion frame. I asked
to add frost frame with half density for soft light, since direct light was too hard and looked
fake - guess why? Because we have the major soft and dull light from the window in the frame, and
actually it looks not hard. I tried to match it with 600D, using soft diffusion.
I love to use side and backlight, instead of fill light schemes, due to it looks more volumetric and
cinematic. And additional Astera light source is used for the shadow side of the character.
We didn’t need dark key, it would look like a pop music video
and the characters had to be visible most times.
Lighting scene # 2 I wanted to hide any light sources
in the scene, because we have a dancing inside a frame, and sometimes I need to turn the camera
to 360 degrees. But some scenes didn’t give me this opportunity and I just put additional light
source near the camera side. Like in this scene, because with only one aputure light, the scene
looked quite contrast. It’s still pop music video, where customer wanted to see bright and visible
people inside the frame. I Added godox 150W with soft diffusion filter like an extra side light.
So, if you are not my student, and you want to make cool light schemes, check my website.
Lighting scene # 3
I love this shot, and the light setup here is quite simple. If you want to repeat it,
you would not need powerful light for this, like a 600D. We just cut half of the fill light
by means of soft diffusion frost frame. We have a gradient and bounced the main light for backlight,
for separating the characters from the background.
Exterior Lighting
Lighting scene # 4
When I made this scene I used tested method of lighting a car. I made this setup before
and just want to remind you what strategy and tools I used here.
The first, in this night exterior scene, I need a key and major light source, which could imitate
street light. I think that a top light looks like a good choice here, because this light could lit
big space and objects from the top point. For this is used litemat with 300wt with the boom grip
system. 300wt litemat has quite large size and is able to cover big space with lighting. I had
a dimmer and power of this light is about half, it was enough for night and not high exposure.
Also, here you can see Astera tube. As you noticed, Yes, of course I wet the floor
for reflection lights. It helps image to look more volume
This side light was put to the right from the frame.
It was godox sz150r. And this light is just my car with lights on.
For haze I used my cheap and very simple smoke generator. Haze often worked on the background
only, like a part of street atmosphere in the scene. Not realistic sometimes,
but cinematic. Anyway this is a music video, not a documentary.
Lighting scene # 5
Continuing logic of all major light sources position on the long shot,
I made close up shots, I didn’t add extra light in the scene. I continued to make story with this
light setup but intensifying it a little bit in the certain shots. Like this, I put Astera
tube like an additional top light for making this image more contrast and for bright, visible face.
Lighting scene # 6
Top light with Astera is still here. In addition, we added backlight by means of other Astera here
and one more Astera tube here, like a fill light for the face.
It still is pop music video, we have to see faces in the frame.
It was quite fast shooting day, and some light setups had not been made,
unfortunately. You know this situation, when you don’t have a free time for new setup because you
are running out of budget. And consequently, Sometimes I just think that - we still have
to film many scenes, let’s use natural or native street lights for the next scenes.
Like this. I just used frost frame for softness of top native light.
Anyway, thanks for watching, hug you, bye.