Any tips on the order you use to achieve the look you are after? Do you, for example, start with x number of lights and then play with or turn off one at a time, or do you add lights after setting up the key? I know there are no hard and fast rules but just trying to develop some basic practices. I often find less is more.
The number of lights we have depends on: the budget, the space(s) we are lighting, the look we are after. In general, I tell the gaffer the look I want, where the key should be, what kind of key (hard/soft/other) and then leave it to him/her to make it work. A good gaffer will set his crew to setting up multiple lights. Once the gaffer is mostly pleased I'll take a careful look and may make changes.
After finding the look you want are there any tricks to not having a boom pole kill your design? It’s not always easy to get the mike within 3 feet of the subject’s mouth and not have it throw an unwanted shadow, even with the talent as far as possible from the b.g. It’s sometimes easier to just go with a lav even if a hypercardoid has better sound. When you start adding flags do you find it changes your design dramatically or does hiding flaws get easier with experience?
I work closely with sound, and try to not trap them. A hard key from one side may work just fine if the boom person can come in from the other and miss that light, probably helped by a judicious flag or two set by the grips. Soft keys are easier to handle for boom shadow, though harder to flag correctly. Sometimes sound will have to work with radio lavs instead of a boom because the shot is so wide and high. Yes, placing flags effectively gets easier with experience, like everything else about lighting. Having a great, experienced crew is a joy for the DP.
When you are setting up, do you have more than one monitor in use so that the camera operator and crew member adjusting a light can see the results as they change its height, angle, distance?
How many monitors depends a lot on the budget and also the circumstances of the shoot. I try to get a color-critical monitor by the camera, another for the director, and then a separate video village for the DIT. Sometimes we have to make do with just one monitor shared by all. I also work at seeing by eye what the results are without looking at the monitor. Part of the fun.
Since all this takes time, do you find it easier to use stand-ins for your talent so they don’t get anxious? I think it would be better for the talent to come into a set that has been fixed and then only have to sit through slight adjustments and a mike check than all the experimenting it takes to get the lighting and camera angles correct. Also I don't always want the talent seeing themselves on the monitors and if the monitor is facing the lighting crew then talent can see them selves.
Another budget question. The more expensive the shoot, the more expensive the talent, the more likely production will provide stand ins. Of course it's easier to work with the real actors, but totally boring for them, so whenever possible I try to work with stand ins. As for the talent seeing themselves, I always place my monitor facing the camera, not the talent. The director's monitor will likely be also set where talent does not see itself.
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
