LIGHTINGMASTERCLASS
F ilmmaking is about transferring the ideas of a creator to a viewer. It’s like a conversation. But like any conversation, you need to use the right words, the right language, or it won’t make sense at all. “Fortunately,” says writer and director TomPaton, “we have over 100 years of cinematic language we can draw on to get our stories across.” A huge part of the vocabulary is in the lighting of a film, he says, which is something any filmmaker can work to improve, whether they’re shooting feature films like Tom, or something smaller. Suggestive, guiding and emotional, small changes will make a big difference tomood and atmosphere. It all starts with careful planning, says Tom, where the film as a whole, as well as each scene is plotted out in terms of its lighting design before shooting starts. “It’s just like deciding on set design, costumes and the actors,” he explains, “your lighting should be just as important as those.” Literally page by page? “Yes, definitely. My director of photography is George Burt, and he is inmy opinion one of the best cinematographers working today. We’ve been shooting together for 11 years, together on all five of my movies – and nowwe’re green-lit for a sixth – so we collaborate very well.” “On the most recent film, G-Loc , which we’ve just finished,” continues Tom, “we had our own office and we sat in there for four weeks prior to filming, mapping out camera movement and lighting. Of course you can adapt somewhat on set, but you really should be spending that time with your cinematographer to find out what the language of the film is, especially if you’re working with a DOP whomight have very different ideas about what the script needs. “If that happens, the clash of ideas is going to get felt on screen, and it’s not going to work as well. You need to be on the same page, agreeing on the mood and tone, that the lighting brings.”
“Good lighting doesn’t need to cost a lot, even on a feature film, but its effect is priceless”
that. The reflection give this cool moonlight look across the set. Coupled with the low- light performance of the camera it gave us this consistent, ethereal, almost otherworldly look to the movie. It’s not overly stylised, but it’s also got something different.” Less is more? With the success of his first movie, the budget was scaled up on his second, “so suddenly I’ve got access to all the lighting I want – three lighting trucks showed up! We shot the whole thing on the Alexa Mini and were using huge HMI lights, 18Ks and 20Ks to give the forest this moody Friday the 13th look. The thing was though, it really made me keen to go back tomy indie roots next time around, as I think there can be somethingmore interesting when you’re forced to come up with solutions. The next film, Black Site , was all shot in an old nuclear base, and we had three miles of tunnels to light. We used a lot of
Light on cash Good lighting doesn’t need to cost a lot, even on a feature film, but its effect is priceless. As Tom explains, on his first two films, Pandorica and Redwood , “both those movies were shot at night and they have a unique lighting palette. We were trying to get a consistent look and feel for each film, but also trying to achieve a classic horror atmosphere. Though it did very well and ended up with a bit of a cult following, the first filmwas very low budget. We shot it in a paintball arena in Essex at night, at ISO 20,000 on Sony A7Ss. It was real grass roots indie filmmaking, but we knewwe had to give it this cinematic moonlit feel.” To get the look he wanted, Tomused “a 5K lamp to light the background and then pretty much the rest was lit with fire or with two 1K Rotolight LEDs on stands. We also had a big wedding balloon – basically a white reflective balloon filled with helium, which cost about £30 off Amazon, and we had the idea of bouncing the LED lights off
LEFT Tom Paton shooting in a stairwell, demonstrating that the life of a filmmaker isn’t all about glamour
ROTOLIGHT ANOVA PRO 2 BI COLOUR LED
KINO FLO DIVA-LITE 21
£1549/$1798 rotolight.com
£2415/$1976 kinoflo.com
With a lightweight design and full DMX remote functions, making it easy to rig and control, the Kino Flow Select 20 offers dial-in colour temperature control between 2700-6500K, and
A light and powerful LED model, at home in the studio or on location. This bi-colour model gives output between 3150 and 6300K, and delivers 10,700lux output at 3ft; 70%more power than its predecessor. Dimming is
an extended colour palette from 2500-9900K. There’s full RGB control with hue and saturation adjustment, and a series of creative effects. Light levels are flicker free and constant throughout the range, and it has a high colour rendering index of 95.
flicker free and colour reproduction is an excellent CRI >96, TLCI 91. Its 72W consumption makes it efficient on location, running off V-Lock batteries. For colour effects there are gels to add to the holder and Rotolight’s CineSFX Mode for effects like lightning, gunshot and police, all remote controllable.
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SUMMER 2019 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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