Lighting a scene is one of the more challenging tasks you'll do as a filmmaker, which is why it's so helpful to watch and learn how someone else does it.
The folks over at Dugly Habits, a production studio based in Germany, have shared a video that will walk you through the lighting decisions that allowed them to create three separate atmospheres/visual styles all within the same room, as well as reveal how they pulled off a bunch of great lighting SFX. Also, it's super entertaining! Not only do you get to see each lighting decision in real time, but you get to sit back and enjoy "Peter" and "Paula" perform a scene that coincides with each visual style.
So, without further ado...
Dugly Habits created this tutorial for the Dedolight International Competition 2015, so naturally they used quite a few Dedolights, including an SPS5 Dedolight Kit, but they also used "some other lights" and some special effects to get the atmospheres they were looking for. There are so many great lessons in the tutorial, including how to create depth and detail, but it also reveals how to pull of a ton of great lighting special effects, including car headlights, candle flicker, and lightening (with a shadow of a tree).
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14 Comments
Hehe... Just occured to me that lightning always seems to strike just outside the house in movies... Otherwise the timing of the flash and thunder would be different :)
October 4, 2015 at 11:44PM
great demo... please do one for documentary...
October 4, 2015 at 11:51PM
Nice video and very good effort, but, even though I can't precisely understand why, I must say the first two scenes look unnatural to me. In the very first one especially, that morning light just doesn't look right. Maybe they overdid it? I really like the third scene though.
October 5, 2015 at 3:10AM
They should have used an HMI light for the sun outside the window rather than a Tungsten with a CTB gel. D65 Sunlight has a very specific set of frequencies (that we are very used to seeing) that Tungsten just can't emulate. Cutting out more frequencies using a gel to simply shift the colour temperature just isn't enough. Hence why it looks a bit "fake" or staged.
October 5, 2015 at 5:28AM
Tungsten lights don't necessarly look fake when playing for daylight. Several films shot in a studio only use Tungsten lights, not HMI and it doesn't look fake (for example "Amour" by Haneke shot by Darius Khondji).
I agree with David, I think it looks fake because they overdid it. Too much different lights coming from toom much several directions.
I don't remember which DP said that but "the most difficult part as a cinematographer when you light a scene is not to turn lights on but to turn lights off".
October 5, 2015 at 8:45AM
It's very much the same thing of when David Gilmour of Pink Floyd says the notes you DON'T play are often more important than the notes you play :)
October 6, 2015 at 1:32AM
In addition to that I think it would've looked even more realistic if they had some sort of diffusion in front of the light coming from the outside like opal or a very transparent grid-cloth as the light looks too directional and harsh in my opinion. Though I guess that is more a matter of taste than anything else really.
October 7, 2015 at 8:04PM
My thoughts as well. When they turned on all the bounced ambience lights I was like "No! You ruined it!
The sunlight was okay I think, but then they added too much.
October 8, 2015 at 2:42PM
Very informative video and unusual approach.Thanks!
October 5, 2015 at 3:52PM
Awesome video, thanks for sharing!
October 5, 2015 at 9:26PM
WTF... the guy looks exactly like me !!!
October 7, 2015 at 10:16AM
Awesome. Lots of wattage though.
October 8, 2015 at 6:34AM, Edited October 8, 6:34AM
Being in Germany, wall sockets have 230 Volts, so any normal household 16 A fuse can take 3600 W!
Compared to 110 Volt systems, this is quite useful for filmmaking! :)
October 8, 2015 at 2:45PM
One missing detail in this is set decoration, it really adds more atmosphere to the shot. Not everyone will have the best set decorator(or will even have one) but they should consider adding or even subtracting props from the shot to add more flavor.
October 8, 2015 at 6:48PM