Budget Lighting for Passion Projects
This month’s podcast focuses on your budget lighting questions. Specifically, I cover these topics:
- How-to lighting set-ups for Inner Circle member’s projects
- Advice for lighting on a micro-budget
- Tips on recreating looks in camera and in post
- How to light for an iPhone shoot
- The Gaffer/DP relationship and workflows
- New this month – RED LUTS available in the store
Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for this month’s Inner Circle podcast. Just a reminder that you can submit more questions here-
Submit Podcast Questions
SIC Podcast EP. 11 is now live on iTunes!
Podcast Questions:
0:17
I want to shoot a film with my Iphone 4s. I’ve downloaded some handy apps that will be helpful while shooting. All my shoots would happen at night. It’s very guerrilla, budget friendly style affair. I’ll be the only one shooting. I want the final output to be in black and white. My biggest concern is lighting. I don’t have extra hands helping me out with this project.. Any tips/suggestions would be vastly appreciated. Regards, Prat.
5:37
Shane, I would love if you can offer your insights about the cinematography and lighting used in the movies, End Of Watch and Nightcrawler. How would you go about replicating the looks in these movies? Aidil Singapore
11:25
Hi Shane. Since i see that you are very resourceful on EOS system for LUTs, i would like to ask if you have some Red Mx luts to apply at Red footage directly to RedCineXPro. Thank you! Jean
15:29
What is the best advice you can give to a filmmaker on a micro budget? What is the bare minimum to get a good cinematic look? How would you rate the importance of the following factors and how can I design the story and the production to keep the costs reasonable? Production design: Costume: Hair & makeup: Camera & lenses: Camera movement: Grip & lighting: Locations: I have uneducated guesses on most of these, but I have no experience with the first three in the list. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Rob:-] — Robert (Rob) Shaver
20:26
Hi Shane! Great post on the Greatest Game! Looking forward to more IC content- GREAT idea. 1. For each scene (Condor high school shot, the cottage and warehouse) about how long did it take your grips to set up? How much was pre-planned vs. on the day? 2. 3 18ks plus all those 6k space lights is a lot of firepower. Were you shooting a pretty slow stock? If you were shooting that same scene with an Alexa or C500/300 at 800/850 would you go to smaller instruments? Say M40s or M18s? And how do you know before the day how much you’ll need- gut or photometric calculations based on instrument vs distance? Thank you! Dan Rubottom
27:40
Dear Shane, could you please expand on the issue of creating a color palette of a film. How to choose colors and textures of the scene to achieve good contrast and depth? Thank you, Edward Smyła.
32:24
Hey, I was wondering if you had any ideas for low budget night shoots in the woods?
39:03
While filming car scenes in NFS where you would film one action with multiple cameras (including GoPros mounted on the cars) did you film separate wide takes without the GoPro’s or did you just do a single take with all cameras and angles and then digitally remove any GoPros that were visible in the wide angle shots? If you did something completely different, what was your approach in regards to shot planing when it came to capturing the multitude of different angles? Thanks!
44:08
Dear MR Shane first of all thank you for the Lighting Techniques series . I have some questions about your post the power of shaping light i want to know Did you use in shooting the greatest game film roll film or digital camera ? what was the ISO in Grand Room Scene ? Final Request please Can you mention in every post to the camera used in shooting and the ISO ? Regards Ahmed
45:15
As the Cinematographer, could you tell me about your relationship with your gaffer? How involved is he or she in the design of the lighting? Do you mostly let them know the look and feel you are going for then they decide what lights to place where? Or do you tell them more specifically exactly what fixtures you want and where to put them and they just make it happen? Or is a combination of both? I guess I would just like to know what your workflow looks like from pre-production on with your gaffer? Thanks! -Josh
49:08
Question 1: I’m trying to shoot an action piece in an abandoned building, where I want a gritty, claustrophobic, “high danger” feeling. I was wondering what kind of lighting setup you would suggest to support that kind of mood.
50:52
Question 2: I fell in love with the cinematography of the currently running series “Utopia” season 2. It has a very colorful/contrasty look (outside scenes, too) and some very nice framing. How do I have to shoot/light if I want to be able to recreate that look in camera/post? Here’s a reference: http://ppl.ug/VraYnNFbsl4/
52:40
Hi Shane, There will be thousands of DP’s who will be able to say, ‘I was mentored by Shane Hurlbut.’ Thank you so much for doing this! I’ve been shooting very contrasty commercials lately and I wonder if I should always have just a bit of exposure in my blacks even if I plan on crushing them in post. I’ve tried both ways on this and I’m still not sure the best route to go.
54:40
Another question is what is the process for shooting for post/ vfx work? How do you know if a location will work for a VFX shot… How to light a green screen in daylight and so on? Sloan
