No country and Jesse James

[Chayse Irvin]

Hey Roger!

I was watching jesse james... again, and I was wondering how you lit the scene where Ed Miller and Jesse sit down and chat?

As well as how you lit Anton mending his wound in the motel room scene?

Thanks!

[Roger]

The close shots of the actors seated in Ed Miller's cabin were done on location with 2 feet of snow outside and a temperature of - 10 and falling. The lighting was primarily a low bounce in the doorway with ambiance from the windows. The snow created a problem whilst the sun was out and I was forced into using solids a lot of the time to reduce the light level and maintain a match between set ups. We broke for lunch I remember during the blue light of dusk and continued shooting after dark. Whilst the darkness allowed me to control the lighting a little better, with only one small heater inside the cabin the temperature plummeted and made it was very hard for the actors.
We had intended return to the same location to complete the scene but the snow also returned and we were forced into rebuilding the cabin in a warehouse. It was all done in quite a rush and I had to ask our production painter to create a skyline on some loose canvas at the same time as I was setting the lighting. Again, I bounced light from the floor and from Ultrabounce material hung to the side of the window openings. I used open face 2Ks for the soft bounce and a 10K, as I remember, to give the low light some shape. I was quite concerned about the match between the location work and the 'stage' especially as all the shots looking towards the windows were in fact done on 'stage'. The shot of Jesse riding towards the cabin was done whilst we had no snow on the ground but the actors were not available for us to complete the interior!

The shot of Anton in the motel room was done on a stage set. I lit the scene through the window with perhaps 5 x 2K Blondes shining through a double layer of diffusion - the first being a Light Grid near the lights and the second a Quarter Grid close to the window itself. I probably had Red Head inside the room and bouncing off some muslin on the floor by the window, but I am not certain of this.

[Nor Domingo]

The shot of Anton in the motel room was done on a stage set. I lit the scene through the window with perhaps 5 x 2K Blondes shining through a double layer of diffusion - the first being a Light Grid near the lights and the second a Quarter Grid close to the window itself. I probably had Red Head inside the room and bouncing off some muslin on the floor by the window, but I am not certain of this.

Just wondering, would using a 10K fresnel lamp behind the diffusions have the same effect as the 5 x 2K blondes? Also, I know you hardly use any lights when shooting exteriors(just reflectors), do you still try to put a silk butterfly above your subjects just to have a more flattering quality of light?

[Roger]

I 10K would not produce the wrap that I like. That is the point of using a number of smaller lights rather than one big one.
I rarely use a butterfly above actors on exteriors. I have done it but I usually I don't have the time. I will sometimes use a single net to take the sun down on a close shot but that's about it.

[Maya B.]

What about the reverse- on overcast days, do you add light for highlights or separation? I liked the overcast quality in a lot of the Jesse James exteriors, I was wondering how much you had added/taken away to get that look, or what your preference is in general in those conditions. As you know, Canadian winters can be pretty cloudy so I've been looking into different techniques and have been told that it's especially important to light exteriors when it's overcast- but of course it's all a matter of preference...

Maya

Toronto, Canada

[Chayse Irvin]

Thanks Roger.

I had another question about one of the scenes where Bob is in Jesse's room wandering through his things. He lays on the the bed and holds his hand up. The close up on Casey, the lighting begins to dim and the quality seems to changes a bit... it looks amazing and so natural. How did you create that?

[Maughanster Films]

Roger,
I was curious how are you getting a wrap around effect with smaller light shooting through diffusion? Isn't it the case if you are shooting lights through diffusion the diffusion becomes the source? I'm just curious how you are hitting that silk to manipulate the direction of light.

-Tyson

[sam_camera]

The 'Using Practicals' thread a while back viewtopic.php?f=1&t=252&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a touched on this.

I presume that 5 x 2K Blondes will fill a silk or trace frame more efficiently than a single big fresnel source. The fresnel would have to be backed off and may still produce uneven coverage of the frame (possibly hotter in the middle). The open face units (more powerful as in light output per kilowatt?) could be positioned to evenly cover the frame producing the big soft source.

Roger, how do position the 5 blondes? Evenly spaced ie. one in each corner and one in the middle?

Cheers

Sam

[Roger]

On overcast days I often do nothing, or I might use a 12' X 12' of some kind to catch some skylight, I might bounce a light into it if it's particularly dull in the faces or I might take a row of lights and punch them through a line of light grid cloths at some distance from the shot. For much of 'Jesse James' I used a few sheets of 8 X 4 poly or muslin on the close shots and nothing on the wides. It really depends on the day, the reflectivity of the ground and the script. 'Jesse James' wanted to feel raw and unvarnished.
For that shot of Casey, as he is lying on the bed and studying his hand, we waited for the sunlight to dip. I could have lit the shot but we were shooting quickly with this late sun and it was easy to make use of the light change.
The wrap is a matter of the size of the source. For example, a row of 5 X 4K HMIs spaced at 5' apart and shooting through 3 X 12' X 12' light grids will create a larger source and therefore more wrap. I will generally have the centre lights brighter than those on the outside just to give a feeling of directionality.