I've enjoyed looking at all of the pics people have been posting lately, so I thought it only fair to post a link to some pics from our current project.
http://www.sn-films.com/mvRandy.htm
I'm particularly proud of the 5th pic in the set. In this scene, one of the characters has sought refuge in the attic of the old house. What's this... a barefoot, buxom blonde wearing a little tanktop in the attic of an old house? What could possibly go wrong?!
The space we were shooting in was pretty tight, so we ended up placing a 500 watt halogen worklight in one corner to illuminate the set. To break up the harsh light, I took some black posterboard and cut a series of horizontal slits about 1 cm wide into it to make a cookie. The cookie was positioned between the light and the actress which results in the subtle bands of light across the set. The effect is a little hard to see in a still shot, but as the actress crawls across the set the bands of light really make the shot more interesting and give it some depth and texture. As a bonus, in one of the takes the actress crawled too close to the camera. Her head was cut out of the shot, but she re-invented the meaning of "rack" focus. Horror movies are so much fun!
Looks really good. One tiny, tiny thing though. A couple of the stills could have used some fill light in them. I don't know if it's just the compression for the jpeg, but some of them are a bit dark in places.
Other than that, great. Are you cutting a trailer / teaser?
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I'm buying everyone in here....something.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 01, 2004 08:59 AM: Message edited by: jb_617 ]</font>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks for the compliments and the constructive criticism.Originally posted by jb_617:
A couple of the stills could have used some fill light in them.
There are a couple scenes that we have yet to shoot that I want to include in the trailer. If we can get those shots taken care of this weekend, I should have a trailer up just in time for the holidays.
I agree with you 100% on the lighting in some of the shots. Lighting is a fickle mistress that we are very slowly getting to know. For example, in the first picture with the actress looking at the guy, the girls face is all shadow. We should have used a second light, or even some posterboard to bounce light back into the shot, to brighten up her face. Unfortunately, its one of those cases where it look "good" to the naked eye, but come across very different on video.
One thing that I really need to learn is how use lights to create that "halo" effect. I'm not sure what the correct term is, but in the close up of Randy (2nd picture) I would love to have had a small light behind the subject to create a bright edge along the back of his head and his neck to visually seperate him from the background. I have seen it done in movies all the time, but I haven't quite worked out how to do that and prevent the light from spilling all over the place.
Do you, or anyone else for that matter, know how to achieve that effect? Everytime I start to play around with setting up that "halo", I end up with a result that looks very unnatural, so I usually give up and we move on. Is it just a question of using small light with barn doors to control the spill, or is there more to it? In a shot like that (http://www.sn-films.com/Photos/Randy...t_reaction.jpg), should the light shine horizontally onto the actor's back, or should the light come in from above or below? Thanks in advance.
sn,
I checked out your site. I liked your stuff and the pictures were quite dramatic, so you've succeeded there IMO. The website is very nice too.
The KillTech promo is a smart marketing hook!
good luck from another blue stater.
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 01, 2004 03:46 PM: Message edited by: TJ_the_director ]</font>
Well, take this with a sack o' salt as I do animation. But, I believe that the halo thing is done by aiming a light from above and behind the actor so it hits the upper back and back of the head. I think Nigel may be of more help on this than me though.
Caveats aside, I think this book:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520089499/qid=1101987919/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-7925234-2751120"]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520089499/qid=1101987919/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-7925234-2751120[/ame]
is a must have. It's pretty old and a lot of modern filmakers have some problems with it. But, in my opinion it is THE definitive text on lighting. It's aimed at full budget stuff but the ideas are there and can be adapted to whatever money you have.
As a smug aside, this is what I love about 3D animation. I can use all the techniques in this book and not have to worry about money. Want 20 more lights in a scene? No worries, click, click click. Done.
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Ahh, 'toons.
Thanks for the tip. I'll have to check that book out sometime. In the meantime, I've been trying to learn the basics from this guy. There's some good stuff in there, although I don't have all of the equipment necessary to do some of the stuff he outlines.
http://www.mindspring.com/~schleiche...slighting.html
He specifically indicates that some of the tutorials are for interview situations, although some of the general concepts translate to narratives.
I think you've got some nice compositions. Definetley read up as much as you can on lighting...some of the shots are lit nicely while others are a bit ordinary. I realise its tough on a budget however.
I've had a month of experience as lightning assistent on set (even though I was more running around carrying lights then actually pointing them at actors and such) But what I do know about the halo is that it's usually the famed 'back lightning' done with a pretty strong light, or a few 36 W TL lights (I love those TL lights).
But a real easy trick is to get a 8W or 16W TL light a few inches of the actors face and point it where you want it. Wrap something around the TL so that it will only go one direction, and you've got yourself a nice little light, perfect for getting small shadows and not too big a halos.
The TL lights should give 'blue' or natural light though, beware of that.
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