Hello Ci-Lovers and welcome to this brand new episode of lighting breakdown. Today we are going to see two lighting setups from the cinematographer Bart Sienkiewicz. Without further ado, let’s begin:
SCENE N°01
Made with the Ci-Lovers Lighting Plan Assets
We start with this lighting setup from the movie ‘Solis’ Directed by Carl Strathie with, of course, Bart Sienkiewicz as cinematographer;
“’Solis’ follows a space engineer Troy, who after an explosion is trapped in an escape pod drifting towards the sun. Director Carl Strathie and I had a very practical approach to the shoot, trying to capture many of the elements in-camera and giving each part of the film a slightly different tone.” – Bart Sienkiewicz
“In this sequence Troy switches off the cooling system, triggering a slow rise of cabin temperature. The coolant chamber vent set was about 15 feet long – we had to be creative with the camera angles, we shot Troy moving through the same part of the set and used a very wide 25mm anamorphic lens for the wide rotating shots, to create the illusion of depth.”
“We used the Arri Alexa Mini with Cookeoptics Anamorphic/i lenses, working off the dolly/slider/3 axis remote head combo for the front/back/side shots. We wanted to pull back with Troy as he moved through the vent, but our crane was too bulky to fit in the narrow set. Our brilliant art & grip crew built and dressed a small dolly/track into the set, with a stripped-back head, camera, and lens attached to a pole which enabled us to create the movements as planned. Our actor Steven Ogg was floating in the air with the help of artem_sfx wire and body crane rigs.” – Bart Sienkiewicz
“For the cool interior look, Gaffer @runlight_film and his team rigged 5T Fluorescent 5600K tubes, 1K Atlas Heads with high sodium gel (for the orange pulsing fx) and 400D Led panels built into the set. We had a floating 41 Kino Flo daylight tube where needed. To achieve the cool and warm water/smoke effect, my brilliant Gaffer used the Mania DC1 light (which projects amazing decorative water effects) and we captured the color switch in the camera. We then changed the tone of the scene to warm to symbolize the immediate threat of the rise of temperature. The 5T Fluorescent lights were all re-gelled red and we added some 2K Fresnels with 1/2 CTB gels for some additional light streaks. You can find more breakdowns and video montages from ‘Solis earlier in my feed.”
Move on to the next scene:
SCENE N°02
Made with the Ci-Lovers Lighting Plan Assets
“This day interior scene was set in a classroom and due to the school’s schedule we were only allowed to shoot in the late afternoon, which in November meant shooting night-for-day” – Bart Sienkiewicz
“For daylight, Gaffer @runlight_film set up 2x 4K HMIs, the middle one lighting the talent went through a 12×12 Grid Cloth diffusion and the outer one (depending on the shooting direction) was on medium beam to create sharper shadow cuts on the walls (we did use a tree as a light gobo on the back wall). We brightened the outside space a bit, but apart from the very edges, we didn’t really show the windows in the shot. Inside we rigged 2x 44KinoFlos, one near the front of the classroom and one near the talent.”
“We mixed the bulbs half 5600K (to extend the ‘daylight’ from outside) and half 3200K (to create a bit of color contrast and mood). We added some negative fill to shape the window light and a bit of bounce for a backlight. We also had a LED panel on a boom above the door to extend the light from the practicals in the corridor. On reflection, I think the natural sun angle wouldn’t create hard light on both ends of the classroom, but I think having hard cuts on both sides helped to sell the sunny daylight illusion…” – Bart Sienkiewicz
That’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed this article. If you are a cinematographer and you want to showcase your work on our social media and on this website, please do not hesitate to send us your favorite shots by email to info@cilovers.com with the lighting plan with its full description and we will do the rest. We would like to showcase your artwork. It’s also an opportunity for you to be known, so what are you waiting for?
