Lighting - To show story arc?

[tomb378]

So I have a project that starts shooting on the 12th of december, its basically about a young orphan boy being knighted. The young boy will be standing at the tomb of his parents (when i say tomb, i think i mean effigies, just not sure of the word) he will be silent and introvert, the focus is on his expressions and sadness, his squires enter the scene after a while and begin to dress him in armour as if the young boy was preparing for his first battle, when he is fully dressed, he leaves the ante room, and into the main hall of a church where he walks towards the alter to be knighted.

Now the main narrative arc, is that he starts as a young frail innocent boy, who looks as if he is going to war for the first time, but by the time he has been dressed, his shoulders are more set and he seems much less, intimidated and well more intimidating.

basically i was wondering if anyone has any tips on lighting someone, to show frailty and smallness (maybe high lighting to make the face look more gaunt?) and then tips on how to light the second part, sort of hero lighting?

it maybe a question that is not so easily answered, i get that but if anyone has any tips that would be great! also if anyone is interested, ill try post the script later on, its only a 3 minute short so no long scripts haha

cheers

 

[Jeff Troiano]

I don't have any lighting suggestions, but I'm sure someone will help with that. I wanted to also suggest camera height/angle can also help portray emotion. A camera looking down can give the emotion of frailty. Then when the emotional transformation occurs, a lower camera angle can make him seem larger then life (so to speak). Again, I'm sure someone more experienced then myself, could also comment on how camera angles can help give the emotions you are looking for.

And I'm sure the Sound guys will also tell you, the background music/sounds, can help convey the emotion you want, as well.

All these things, as well as lighting, and acting, can make this what you want it to be.

 

[tomb378]

Thanks for the quick reply! Im hoping to have a test shoot in a week or so, so I'll definately give the camera heights a go and see what sort of results I can get

 

[tomb378]

anyone else got any tips?

 

[knightly]

We actually just got done with a shoot that changes lighting style with the main character's emotions... starting relatively natural and flatly lit and moving toward a really noir kind of look.

I would say that childhood innocence would be illustrated with a flat almost glowing cherubic lighting style and moving towards the chiseled warrior look with harsher lighting as the scene progresses:

You could pull this off with a single lighting setup by moving the actor and the camera in relation to the light. With the camera facing the broad lit actor facing the door, the camera could slowly make its way around to the interior as the actor gets the armor put on... by the time the camera is fully inside, the light that was a broad light is now a short key / rim light as the shadow side of the actor is now facing the camera.

 

[jax_rox]

We just completed a dynamically changing light setup by shooting on a soundstage, and rigging all our lights on a DMX controllable dimmer.

The actual placement and types of lights is really up to you in the end. There are a million and one ways to light something, and a million and one ways to evoke a certain thing. The way I would evoke a 'hero' feeling might be completely different to yours, and might be completely different the next show I have to convey a similar feeling.

As a starting point, think of colours that go with each emotion, and think of what type of lighting you want.

Maybe at the start, it's very dark and blue, with a lot of his face is shrouded in darkness. Harsh lighting. As it progresses, maybe the colour gets warmer, and a spotlight appears over him. Or maybe the lighting gets softer.

 

[tomb378]

thanks for the replies guys, went back to the location again the other day at a few different times to see what the sunlight was like, turns out it can get kinda strong in the part of the church we want to use, which is definately going to affect the lighting i had hoped for, but its an amazing location so I will have to work around it. But either way I have some ideas taking shape so it will hopefully turn out ok!

If only I had the budget to light from the outside as well, Get some big 2k's up at the windows and everything, but money is the key at the end of the day!

 

[knightly]

If you note in the two pix I posted, the left side of both of their faces are lit... but the camera is on the lit side in the cherub, and the shadow side of the knight. All things being equal, if you move the camera from the light side to the shadow side, the shadows will lengthen across the actor's face. It'll make them look harder as the "broad lighting" is meant to hide skin imperfections and widen the face whereas "short lighting" shows creases and wrinkles and thins the face making it look more gaunt.