Motion Picture and Video Lighting

Blain Brown was educated at C.W. Post College, MIT, and Harvard Graduate School of Design. He began in New York as a commercial still photographer before starting in the film business. After working as a gaffer, be became a cinematographer doing primarily commercials and music videos. After completing his first feature film, he moved to Los Angeles where he has been Director of Photography on 14 feature films as well as national commercials, promotional films, industrials, music videos, and documentaries. He has worked in many states in the U.S. as well as Mexico, Canada, India, Italy, France, the Philippines, and Jordan. His experience includes 35mm and 16mm projects, as well as 24P High Def, DigiBeta, BetaSP, and DV. He has completed projects as a director, editor and screenwriter; with three screenplays produced. He has also taught courses in storytelling and visual communication. As a Director of Photography specializing in features and commercials, he is now based in Los Angeles. His books include A Sense of Place; Cinematography; and The Filmmaker's Pocket Reference. His work can be seen at www.BlainBrown.com.

HISTORY OF LIGHTING

Controllable Light

Early Film Production

Introduction of Tungsten Lighting

The Technicolor Era

HMI, Xenon, Fluorescent, and LED Sources

Kino Flo

LEDs

LIGHTING SOURCES

Types of Lights

Fresnels

LEDs

Efficiency

LED Panels

LED Fresnels

Remote Phosphor LEDs

Tungsten Fresnels

The 10K and 20K/24K

The 5K

Juniors

1K

650, Betweenie, and InBetweenie

Inkie

HMI Units

12K and 18K

6K and 8K

2.5K and 4K

Smaller HMIs

When an HMI Fails to Fire

Care and Feeding of HMIs

Xenons

Open Face Lights

Skypan

2K Open Face

1000/600/650 Watt Open Face

Par 64

PAR Groups

Dino, Moleeno, and Wendy

Maxi-Brute

FAYs

HMI PARs

Soft Lights

Space Lights

Fluorescent Rigs

Color Correct Fluorescent Units

Color Correct Bulbs

Cycs, Strips, Nooks, and Broads

Plasma Lights

Other Types of Sources

Chinese Lanterns

Lekos

Crane Mounted Lights

Jokers

Dedolights

Balloon Lights

Barger Lights

LIGHTING BASICS

The Fundamentals of Lighting

The [Conceptual] Tools of Lighting

The Attributes of Light

What are the Goals of Good Lighting?

Full Range of Tones

Shape

Separation

Depth

Texture

Mood and Tone

Exposure and Lighting

Hard vs. Soft

Color Control and Color Balance

Some Lighting Terminology

Working With Hard Light And Soft Light

Hard Light

Soft Light

Direction

Avoiding Flat Front Lighting

Light from the Upstage Side

Backlight and Kicker

Intensity

Adding Texture in Lighting

Color

Lighting Techniques

Classical Hard Light

Ambient

Bringing it Through the Windows

Motivated Lighting And Practicals

Motivated Light

Lighting with Practicals

Available

Basic Principles of Lighting

Back Cross Keys

Ambient Plus Accents

Lighting Through the Windows

Available Light Windows

Day Exteriors

Open Shade and Garage Door Light

Sun As Backlight

Magic Hour

CONTROLLING LIGHT

Hard Light and Soft Light

Fill for Day Exteriors

Silks and Diffusion

Scrims and Barndoors

Flags, Solids, and Nets

Chimeras and Snoots

Softboxes

Eggcrates

The Window Problem

ND For Windows

Cookies, Celos, and Gobos

Dimmers

LED Dimmers

Hand Squeezers

SCENE LIGHTING

Lighting Plans

General Principals of Scene Lighting

Let’s Look at These One by One

Read the Script

Confer With the Director

Light the Scene, Not the Set

Insist on Seeing a Full Rehearsal

Insist on Having Lighting Stand-Ins

What Are the Opportunities?

The Set

The Action

Script Hints

Consider Your Resources

Lights

Power

The Location

The Director’s Concerns

The Plan

Lighting a Scene With Practicals

Lighting/Grip Order

LIGHT AS STORY

Storytelling With Light

Metaphor

Atmosphere

The Power of Darkness

Establish Character

COLOR

Color Terminology

Color Temperature: The Balances

Warm and Cool

Magenta vs. Green

The CIE Diagram

The Spectral Locus

The White Point

The Line of Purples

Color Balance with Gels and Filters

Conversion Gels

Light Balancing Gels

CTO

CTB

Color Correction Gels

Dealing with Fluorescent Light

Correcting Off-Color Lights

HMI

Industrial Lamps

Camera Filtration for Industrial Sources

Measuring Color

Color Meters

The Vectorscope

Calibration Test Charts

DSC Labs Test Charts

The One Shot

The X-Rite ColorChecker

Color as a Storytelling Tool

EXPOSURE

Exposure Theory

What Do We Want Exposure to Do for Us?

The Bucket

Controlling Exposure

Change the Bucket

The Elements of Exposure

Light

F/Stops

The Response Curve

Underexposure

Overexposure

Correct Exposure

Higher Brightness Range in the Scene

Two Types of Exposure

The Bottom Line

Exposure in Shooting RAW Video

The Tools of Exposure

The Incident Meter

The Reflectance Meter

A Different World of Exposure

Setting Exposure with the Waveform Monitor

F/Stops on the Waveform

Exposure Indicators in the Camera

Zebras

Histogram

Traffic Lights and Goal Posts

Goal Posts

Traffic Lights

False Color Exposure Display

Red False Colors

Comparing Red Exposure Modes

Arri Alexa False Colors

Strategies of Exposure

Don’t Let It Clip, but Avoid the Noise

Texture & Detail

The Dilemma

Using Light Meters

Meter the Key

Using the Waveform Monitor

Placing Middle Gray

Start at the Bottom or Start at the Top

Expose to the Right

Zebras

The Monitor

Know Thyself and Know Thy Camera

ELECTRICITY & DISTRO

Measurement of Electricity

Potential

Paper Amps

Electrical Supply Systems

Single-phase

Three-phase

Power Sources

Stage Service

Generators

Large Generator Operation

Guidelines For Running Small Generators

Paralleling Small Generators

Does Paralleling Cause Damage to Generators?

Tie-ins

Tie-in Safety

Determining KVA

Wall Plugging

Load Calculations and Paper Amps

Ampacity

Color Coding

The Neutral

Distribution Equipment

Tie-in Clamps

Busbar Lugs

Connectors

Bull Switches

Feeder Cable

Wire Types

Wire Designation Codes

Distribution Boxes

Lunch Boxes, Snake Bites, and Gangboxes

Extensions (Stingers)

Zip Extensions

Planning a Distribution System

Balancing the Load

Working with DC

Calculating Voltage Drop

Electrical Safety

Wet Work

HMI Safety

Grounding Safety

GFCI

How Does a GFCI work?

GRIPOLOGY

Definitions

Light Controls

Reflectors

Operating Reflectors

Flags and Cutters

Flag Tricks

Nets

Net Tricks

Cuculoris (Cookies)

Grids and Eggcrates

Open Frames

Diffusers

Butterflies and Overheads

Overhead Rules

Griff

Holding

Grip Heads and C-Stands

C-Stand Rules

Highboys

Clamps

Studded C-Clamps

C-Clamp Tips

Bar Clamps

Pipe Clamps

Cardellini and Mafer Clamps

Quaker Clamp

Wall Plates, Baby Plates, and Pigeons

2K Receivers and Turtles

Side Arms and Offset Arms

Other Grip Gear

Sandbags

Apple boxes

Wedges

Candle Sticks

Studded Chain Vise Grips

SET OPERATIONS

The DP

The Team

Gaffer

Assistant Chief Lighting Technician

Third Electric and Electricians

Other Responsibilities

The Key Grip

Grips

Other Crews

Set Operations

Load-In

Staging

The Generator

Cabling

The Process

Rough-In

Blocking

Light

Rehearsal

Shooting

Procedures

Expendables

TECHNICAL ISSUES

Lighting for Greenscreen and Bluescreen

Greenscreen/Bluescreen Tips

Lighting for Process Photography

Flicker

The Power Supply

Flicker-Free HMIs

Dimmers

Dimmer Systems

DMX

Working with Strobes

Strobe Exposure

Lighting and Exposure for High Speed Photography

Exposure

Flicker in High-Speed Photography

Lighting With HMIs and High Speed

Tips for Lighting High-Speed with HMIs

Exposure for Macrophotography

Depth-of-Field in Close-up Work

Lighting for Extreme Close-up

Underwater Filming

Effects

Rain

Smoke

Fire

TV and Projector Effects

Day-for-Night

Moonlight Effect

Water Effects

Lightning

Using the Sun

APPENDIX

Typical Lighting Order For A Small Independent Film

Equipment Order List For a Large Studio Film

Order for a 2nd Unit Night Shoot—Big Budget Film

Light Loss For Common Diffusion Types

Effect Of Diffusion on Color Temp

Lamps and Sockets

Lighting Expendables Order Form

Building Your Own Hand Squeezer

A Typical 5-Ton Truck Package

INDEX