Cinematography Where to put the first light
You are the Director of Photography
You have read the script, consulted with all the Heads of Department…discussed the mood…look.. colour.and indeed every aspect of this very first scene with the Director and Producer…They have gone to a dark place to worry and you bravely enter the scene of battle..
The Big Black Hole.
The place where nightmares live and careers crash…
The unlit studio.
Three years studying film at college…a reasonable showreel, its the one that got you the job..and a few short visits to film sets….now its down to you
Where do you put the first bloody lamp.
It looked easy when you casually dropped in to a studio visit..along with the rest of the students in your class..the D.O.P just seemed to vaguely wave his hands occasionally and whisper in to his walkie talkie and things would change slightly. A lamp would be moved…switched on or off, a filter would be placed on a frame in front of it..the studio would get brighter or darker… Easy…
But where do you put the first lamp…and why.
I well recall the very first big commercial I had to light..There was serious money involved by way of my fee and it was a major break for me with a big commercials company.
The deal had been done on the phone and I had only seen some drawings of the set..or should I say sets..there were fourteen in all..stretched across two large ..very dark studios..it was a travel company commercial and the sets ranged from a bedroom to a hotel kitchen to a tropical island beach..a seaside bakery making pizzas.. with variations in between…you get the idea..
I had never shot a commercial in my life.I had recently been employed as a staff member of a large TV company.
Now I did not have my own ,very reliable crew, or my Gaffer Spark (Electrician). The crew had been booked by the production office and I had never talked to the Gaffer. This was a very scary situation
Off I wandered in the this dark cavern for a look around while everyone had their breakfast..Out of the shadows a small man began to follow me . He was still there after I had visited a couple of the dark sets. I turned on him and asked who he was.
“The Gaffer Sir” he said.
“Good” I said..”What is the biggest lamp we have in the studio”
“ We have five 12 Ks, five 6K’Ss, Ten 4K’s, Ten2.5’s assorted little fellas etc.
This was my moment of decision ..
“Put Point two on 2 X 12 Ks’ and we will start on the desert Island set”
Off he scurried.
Why did I make that choice..
The desert island set was at the far end of the studio from the lamp store and those lamps are big…it would take some time for them to be rigged…..precious time for me to try and work out where the rest of them would go.
There is no pattern and I hope that when you get to that positon that you are better prepared than I was but whatever you do…do it with utmost confidence..it filters down through the rest of the team.
The Commercial looked good and ran for a couple of years..
The meal I bought for the sparks at the end of the two day shoot nearly took care of the big fat fee I was paid but I did learn a lot from them and it was worth every penny
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