lighting a Black Room

[houseofwolves]

I'm reposting this here, since this project is for my cinematography class and it might receive more hits.

Hi, new here. Small intro - I'm a film student aspiring to be a writer/director.

I'm going to be shooting a 4 min short this weekend. I will be using my room as the principle set. Now, I will be painting my room entirely FLAT BLACK for purpose of the script.

I have access to different kelving Kino FLO's and HMI (might be using for a particular shot ^_^ in my room..maybe not) Anyhow, I want very low lighting. This is for my cinematography class, and this will be shot on 16mm film using the Arriflex SR2. My main goal here is to immitate ONE fan light coming from the ceiling. Now, should I just maybe use a chinese lantern to diffuse a 200k or something? Should I just ignore using the kinoFLO's considering their shape? (2ft 4bank, 4ft 4bank) I know telecine can help out on dimming the light if the light is provided, but I don't want to blast too much light. I only have one actor, the room will be almost empty with the exception of the bed. My focuse is lighting the actors face with plenty of contrast in shadow.

I will also be going to the beach to light a sunset scene. What would be the best method here? Should I just flag off light here and there? Thanks, any suggestions apprecated.

edit: almost forgot about the HMI. Now, in the same black room, I wanted a scene where there is a strong light presence (supernatural almost) where the character's skin almost blends in with the light, with the exception of shadows in his eyes, and few other facial/body parts. Should I even consider using an HMI for this, or should I use regular hard lights? I know HMI's produce a lot of heat, but maybe if I diffuse it, it won't be so rought on my actor since it's a short scene?

edit (again): forgot to mention the film stock I'll be using. Probably 500.

 

[janusz]

light in black room

light in black room

... you can go about this many different ways...
your decision should be determined by you knowing exactly what kind of effect you want.
If it is to look like the light is coming from the top then this is where you should place your light. Then you need to refer to your imagination and see what is the light quality that you see... this will determine if you should go soft or hard.... China lantern, kino, HMI are all different qualities of light causing different effects in terms of how does contrast look... so you need to "see it" first and decide... HMI is a good choice if you want a hard and contrasty light.
janusz