Cinematography Breakdown: How To Light a Car Scene

Shane Hurlbut, ASC breaks down how he lit this interior car scene from SYFY’s Resident Alien. This is a clip from our Camera Movement: Create Character Emotions.

LIGHTING CAR INTERIORS:

When Shane lights the interior of a vehicle, it’s all about the ambiance which motivates him. For this scenario, he placed two 12×20 ultra bounces and blasted 18Ks and 4K Parcans into them. 

And to wrap the light, Shane would stage it more in the front depending on the angle. Then, Shane would typically bring down Harry’s over in the DI process by adding a little window. 

In addition, Shane also places some duvetyne on the back side of the truck with 4×4 floppies to overhang and create more shadow in the foreground. That way, your eye is driven to Asta. 

Likewise, when Shane switches coverage to Harry’s side, he just mirrors the same setup on the other side. Shane will also use 4×4 floppies over the top of the camera to bring Asta down in the foreground. Then, the audience’s eye is driven to Harry.

Camera Movement: Create Character Emotion 

Create character emotion with camera movement and composition!

• 1 Lesson
• 13 minutes of instructional video 

In Camera Movement: Create Character Emotions, Shane Hurlbut, ASC deconstructs a case study from the SYFY series to reveal how character emotion motivated the movement of the camera. 

From reading the script and understanding the characters on an in-depth level, Shane instructs how to turn it all into cinematic language. He shares why he made the decisions he did and guides you through the process with excerpts from the script, the shot list, and diagrams. 

• Detailed Written Breakdown
• English Subtitles