Lighting Setup

[Emre Tufekcioglu]

Referring to the example you posted:

This was probably shot in front of a green screen with heavy post work so you will find it very difficult to replicate what you see using practical lights/location.

A darkened studio is a good start but all the walls and floor will have to be black. You will probably need more them a 1K to light the subject, you might want to bounce a light (Maxi Brute?)off a white board or silk off the ceiling and then put another layer of diffusion between the subject (Lee 250 1/2 White Diff)to wrap the light around him.

Then you can use low power scrims (350W-650W) directly to create the streaming light effect but either way it will be challenging. A camera with very high dynamic range will help you with your desired effects.

Very nice piece.

[Todd Terry]

What Emre said…

One difference though… Emre might be right but it looks to me that this was shot in a practical location, not greenscreen. But it’s a really nice piece and a really sweet lighting job. Pretty hard to do, you need exactly the right environment and the right instruments.

The straight-down follow-spot key light on the dancer puzzled me a little bit. It seems very hard on him… but it doesn’t cast distinct hard shadows on the floor… the floor shadows are very soft. So either it’s a very soft hardlight, or a very hard softlight. Hmmm. It seems much more controlled than you can usually do with a big soft source, and creates such hard shadows on him…but the hardness falls off like crazy. I can’t quite explain that. Or maybe it all is composited, which could explain the shadow control.

On thing you said that confuses me a little…

[Paul Thomson] “…and then stop down like crazy…”

Stop down like crazy… why? Am I missing something?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Rick Wise]

I agree with Todd about the mystery of his shadow. The shadow really only shows when under his main body/feet. The arms make almost no shadow at all. I suspect a soft light coming through a circular gobo, both of which are not far above his head, but far enough so that there is not a huge drop-off of intensity between his shoulders and his thighs. In the wider shots the lighting rig is simply comped out. Note how from time to time there is a light lens flare.

Most likely shot on a real stage or location painted black all over. I am guessing the “smoke” effect is some NLE plug-in.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Emre Tufekcioglu]

So I did a little digging and found that the segment was created by a VFX company named Crush. They shot the segment with a Phantom in 8 second bursts in a green screen set. Post work was done using RealFlow, Maya, AfterEffects, Nuke, Cinema 4D, PF Track and Flame.

Amazing work, here is their site:
https://www.crushinc.com/

[Rick Wise]

Ha! I did some digging as well, but got nowhere. Bravo to you!

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Todd Terry]

Yeah, wow good call, Emre… I would have bet (at first) that was done practically… although I knew it was Phantom.

In my defense, I first viewed the video just on my phone. Now that I can see a high-res version on a real screen, it does look more like a composited scene, although I’ll freely concede a really flawless one.

Really, the only thing that makes me know it’s a composite is that the scene would just be so darn impossible to do practically.

That company does really outstanding work… it’s worth some time poking around their website.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Paul Thomson]

HI Guys,

Wow – I’m blown away by your helpful responses. I really was thinking too small. We have a ballet practice studio one day net week and the opportunity to black out the room along with a stage lighting rig across the ceiling to play with.

Emre, I like your thoughts on bouncing a stronger light with some diff. I have a test day in the studio next week and might drag along a 1k I have to test it on a smaller scale. I’ll try a couple of scrims too – I’m getting very excited just thinking about it. I am shooting with a very experienced owner/operator on an Epic so I’ll have some expert support and we should have plenty of dynamic range.

Rick, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one confused about the shadow! I can’t wait to show our team the Crush Inc video.

Todd, I shouldn’t write posts late at night after a studio visit – too much excitement and not enough thought. I should have just said “stop down a bit” as I was just thinking about keeping it nice and sharp.

Thanks again for all of the inspiration – I’ll let you know how our lighting test goes!

Cheers,

Paul

[Emre Tufekcioglu]

No problem, I am busy with a few days of filming but will follow up with lighting possibilities.