Ways to fill

[Zagorchinov]

I've just finished shooting a TV pilot, mostly location day interiors, very tight spaces.

My biggest problem is the fill light - most of the time I want it from the camera, very soft. But:
1. When the roof is low, the dolly grip or crew blocks the soft fill.
2. Bounced light takes a lot of space, Kino flo is better, but Kino flo is not as soft and strong as 3x3' bounced HMI light.

Please, share some ideas or proven ways for easy lighting for fill.

Thanks,
Dian
cinematographer

 

[Agenda Productions]

Hi,

If your kino is not soft enough i would just throw some diffusion over the doors.
Maybe you can off centre your fill to avoid the dolly grip or just raise the bounce and tilt it down a little.
If you have it just above the operator's head couldn't you just get the dolly grip to duck a little.

I seem to avoid a lot of fill from behind camera (especially in cramped locations). Seems to flatten it out a lot. I like to bounce a small eye light in there sometimes or wave a small kino/china ball to pick up the faces.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Sometimes in a cramped space where the dolly, camera crew, and dolly grip block most of the light behind camera, your choices (obviously) are to fill from somewhere else -- either a ceiling bounce for toppy fill, or a floor bounce. Sometimes I put a white card on the dolly under the lens and hit it with a light on the floor / primi stand / plate on a pancake, etc. I like to use Source-4's for that so that I don't have to worry so much about lens flare. Instead of a white card, maybe a lot of white bedsheets on the ground.

Or Kinos under the lens that the dolly moves behind, not in front of.

Another trick is to have some hot backlight (like for a day interior) and let it bounce off of tabletops or furniture back into the faces. Again, hiding some white cards or bedsheets below the frame can help.

 

[element80]

Also, if you've got the money to rent on, Kino makes a soft ring lite called the Kamio. It basically a kino tube that wraps around the outside of the lens, so it's be very hard for someone from your crew to block the fill w/o being completely in the shot.

 

[Olliwood]

You've probably already put the eggcrate off the kino flo to make the light even softer, right? If not - try it ...

 

[CinemaGadgets]

I sell the kinoflo ringlight and that is a pretty good long term solution/investment for this problem, heres another good alternative

http://www.cinemagadgets.com/litepanels-ringlite-mini-p-1497.html

yeah these lights are slightly pricy but to me they are really the easiest way to do what you want and not have to set stuff up. ect its just quick and easy. I like the litepanel one becuase it of course is dimable with no color temp loss.
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