Set question

[CyrusIgnatius]

Mr. Mullen-

I have a question concerning a certain set I've been asked to design. The film is supposed to be set in a series of pitch black hallways. Now it is impossible to shoot a film with only one source of light (which is a lighter) , and I have heard about being able to shoot a film in daylight but edit it to look like night or darkness.

If I were to attempt this:

Should the set walls be painted black or dark grey matte?

Would artifical or natural light be better?

And if an artifical light source is used how high should it's power be?


If you have any other suggestions to problems I could possible run into off the top of your head, their answers would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, one question is whether than can be any "moonlit ambience" to augment the scene besides the lighter.

I'd definitely avoid black walls or else you might as well not bother building anything, just have the actor stand against a black curtain. Dark to medium gray (like 18%) would be better, and a little gloss actually would help pick up any glancing or raking light you may throw on the walls.

One option is to hide a tiny light behind the lighter, if possible, maybe a Kino Microflo or a tiny LED or tiny tungsten bulb.

Otherwise, besides shooting with just a real lighter and using push-processed 500T stock and the new T/1.3 Zeiss Master Primes wide-open, your other option may be that you have to float a light alongside the actor -- some people would use a small Chinese Lantern on a boom pole (just don't let the lighter flame get too close...) even though that's a soft light, whereas the light from a real lighter is a point source.