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Lighting A Film Or High Definition Set: Discussing The Reasons
By Frey | November 28, 2007
From time to time I talk to someone that claims to be a Director of Photography (cinematographer). But once I get into the conversation with them, it becomes apparent, rather quickly, that the person has no idea about the art and science of lighting a film set (or High Definition/video set). There seems to be no how or why in it for them - it’s just “put some light on the person talking and shoot.”
Okay, let me stop here a second to say that I am not going to go into detail (today anyway) about 3 or 4 point lighting techniques (or really any lighting techniques). There are many good books out there that you can buy (and I do recommend buying and reading a few) that teach proper lighting, if you don’t already know.
By the way: you actors should be reading these books as well, since it’s your face in front of the camera. A badly lit scene can make you look bad - in other words, it affects the way people perceive your acting! Think about it - you’re doing a drama where you fall in love with someone, but they don’t know it yet. As you are reflecting on how to win them over, the Director of Photography lights you in all the wrong ways - so your romantic reflections turn out to look more like a psycho plotting something sick than romance… Get the idea? It’s to your advantage to work with a Director of Photography you can trust.
Lighting for mood is tricky and the formulas are different for every different genre you’d be working on. For instance, you could probably get away with 2 lights, if you were working on a horror film or similar style film. The lighting would be harsh and the fall-off would be quick. Perfect for getting that scary look and feel. But, once you go past that kind of film, where’s the next step? Will three lights do for a thought provoking drama? Will four lights suffice enough to light a romantic comedy?
Both lighting scenarios are doubtful. But why is that? Because even though the three and four lights are lighting the subject, you have to take into consideration there is an entire set. I’ve worked with other Cinematographers who actually light the entire set to within 1+/- stop. This way of lighting is often tricky, but even more, it is often extremely time-consuming.
I personally don’t mind a few stops of latitude to help enhance the mood, but 1) I have to know what mood the scene calls for. 2) I have to know what camera and lenses I’ll be using. 3) I have to know the medium I’m recording to.
Film has more latitude than High Definition. This means that I don’t have to work as hard with film to get those tighter light ratios (which means film can possibly save some time on set - post is a completely different issue though). With the newer film stocks coming out, there’s even less grain and more latitude than ever before. It seems like the film manufacturers (Kodak, Fujifilm, Ilford) are pulling out all the stops to keep us away from High Definition. And I have to say, film looks damn good, especially when used on exteriors.
If you watch TV on Tuesday evenings, you may or may not know that Fox’s House switched over from shooting on 35mm film to High Definition last season. The Director of Photography has been doing a really good job with this and I’ve barely been able to tell a difference. Of course, the show is over 99% interiors (every few episodes, they show an exterior, but for the most part the only exterior in the show is the exterior shot of the hospital in the opening credits), so I can completely see and understand why they switched.
The show Scrubs (another Medical/Hospital show), on the other hand, is still shot on 16mm film. Why? Besides it is probably easier to light, and 16mm having a softer look (which means the characters look friendlier), I’d venture to guess that another reason would be due to them shooting a lot of exteriors (ever notice that every episode shows interaction outside of the hospital?). It’s just a guess, but it’s an educated guess.
And you are wrong if you think that post production can fix bad or improper lighting. Although post production has the ability tweak the shots, the people in post can not fix badly lit scenes.
So, it all boils down to this: Lighting is not about throwing lights onto a bunch of people and turning a camera on. Lighting is a science that helps to focus the mood of the scene, which in turn helps the audience to focus their mood. So, ultimately, a Director of Photography controls the lighting to help put the audience into the proper mood…
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Topics: acting, crew, film, high definition, production |
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