Another thing I decided to have a look at as part of my research, was a bit on lighting on a low budget, specially with low budget locations (real houses, rooms, halls and so on). The big difference between working on a low budget vs working with a big budget, is that a lot of the main production are mainly shot on a studio and fake rooms which makes it easier because they can adjust the light in any way they want, when in our case we can't. We don't have as much equipment as someone can get with a big budget, but that still doesn't prevent us from getting a decent lighting set with the equipment we have available. I went to have a look at the people cine light, who are really good when it comes down to lighting. I found this statement from them, that was actually very true and was the part that made me realize that a lot of people go through the same thing we do when it comes to lighting, but that it can all be fixed and worked around.
Low-budget filmmaking almost always uses existing locations – real houses, offices and so on. It’s usually much cheaper to find a workable location than to build a set. But these locations often come with a downside. They’re sometimes cramped, they may not have enough power available, and often the time schedule is limited. The budget itself presents limitations. You may not have anywhere near the number or types of lights you would need in an ideal situation. So low-budget filmmaking ends up being a compromise between numerous factors. Those that are successful at low-budget filmmaking are the people who are good at making these compromises in a way that helps to sell the scene to the viewer.
http://www.cinelight.com/low-budget-lighting/
Over the last several years, in numerous films, both low-budget and high-budget, editors and directors have a strong preference for close-ups, far more than in earlier films. Close-ups are great for low budget work; they can be shot practically everywhere. For example, you don’t need a wide shot of a fabulous ballroom filled with a hundred costumed extras to show the audience where the action takes place. Nowadays, it is quite simple to fake it with a few elements of interior decoration and sound effects, conversation or dancing, narrowing the shot to the two principals getting a refill from the punch bowl while one or two couples waltz by in front of the camera to sell the idea that there are 50 more couples in the scene.
This is actually very very helpful for us, because we do have scenes like the one in the nightclub or the community hall where the wedding party takes place, where we have to make it look there is plenty of people in there. Close Ups help a lot with this, because they can give the illusion of bigger space in a small room or with no that many people. If you manage to get 5 people in a shot from a CU, making it look busy, people with automatically assume that the rest of the room is going to be
filled with that amount of people as well. This also helps a lot with light, because it means we can get more detail light on some close ups that trying to illuminate an entire room in a wide shot. Of course this doesn't meant that we will not be shooting WS, but it means that we will keep an eye on our CU more.
I also found a lot of very useful tips and steps to follow in order to make sure I am on the right track of attempting to get the best type of light possible. This are some of those tips, followed by how it will affect my work and how it can help:
Many scenes in films are significantly overlit, which requires lots of high-power instruments and then even more lighting for accent and highlights. Establish a low-level base fill for the room and then concentrate on lighting the actors, or the main area of action in the scene.
Less is enough
Cameras today are far more light-sensitive so don’t need the high levels of light that were once necessary. Instead of 1k or 2k you can use 300W or 800W or even less.
A simple lighting plan can be quite effective and uses fewer instruments. Every light you add in the scene will need another light to either even out the effect or counteract it.
Put effort into lighting accents that make walls interesting. Table lamps that cast a fan of light on the wall, light through Venetian blinds, or if the wall is fairly lit, use a cutter (black foamcore or cardboard) to cast an angled shadow in the upper corners.
The real world is packed with shadows that make the light more interesting, so you don’t have to be afraid to let the actors to walk through shadows, just don’t have them deliver important lines there.
In some shots you can use windows and the real light coming through them for fill, key or even backlight, just by adding some diffusion or by placing reflectors in the room.
This is all very relevant to our project, because some of this are basics when it comes down to lighting, but a lot of people don't know or understand them. I didn't know too much about things like less light sometimes is more, but I do understand now that it is important to focus and just cover the part in which the action is taking place, otherwise you are wasting light on areas that you might not even be using or that are not relevant for your shot. Also that not always a lot of light means that is good, because depending on the light mood you want to create, sometimes just a bit of light is enough. This particular point affects a lot in our shoot, specially in the scene where Don gets into the backroom with the boys at the community hall, because in the actual location, the light is actually too bright for the type of mood of that scene (you can see more about this on the post related to camera test shots) and I have to find a way of reducing the light there a bit in order to achieve this, meaning that although the room actually provides with a lot of light, the actual light that we need for that scene, needs to be less. Shadows tend to be a problem sometimes, but I have been undestading with the research that they can also become part of the film as long as they don't disrupt any important scene or piece of dialogue. This will be mainly taken into account for some of the exterior parts like the football pitch, because depending on the natural light that we get we might get some big shadows or non at all.
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