A shot on a speed boat, an interior image with high contrast and soft light, and a car shot with natural lighting. That’s all we’ll see in this new episode of Lighting Breakdown. So sit back, put aside all distractions, and let’s focus on this exclusive episode:

SCENE N°01

I love the contracts in these shots. Here we have a reasonably basic composition—the rule of third parties. The actors are placed in the center of the frame. Then, since the two actors are near a window, we have here what is called Side Lighting. Thus lighting the actors from the side as the name suggests. For you, I did my research, and I managed to find the official lighting setup here:

Made With The Ci-Lovers’ Lighting Diagram Toolkit

On each window, there are two Skypanels; Arri S360-C. For those who don’t know yet, the Arri S360-C is one of the most versatile LED fixtures on the market. With a light aperture and lens diameter of 1280×870 mm. Soft lights are all about size; the more significant the aperture, the better, and the S360-C length is not compromised. And it was about $30,000… Imagine there are more than ten windows, and on every ten windows, there are two S360-Cs. Big budget, isn’t it? Let me know in the comments what you think about it. I’m curious to know. Now let’s move on to a much more low-cost scene;

SCENE N°02

Ah, here’s a scene you can easily recreate. We will analyze it carefully.

When we look at this shot, the first thing that jumps out at us is the intense brightness emitted by the sun (daylight) coming from the right side of the screen. This kind of shot requires good timing and placement because, as we all know, the earth rotates, and so does the sunlight. Then, marked here in green, we have the fill light that completes the Key Light, the sunlight. To have more control, they placed a reflective surface on the left and two light sources on top of the car. The two sources are directed at the reflector, and the reflector reflects the lights onto the actor’s face. Let’s see it all on a diagram:

Made with the Ci-Lovers’ Lighting Diagram Toolkit

Moving on to the next shot

Here is a scene that requires good timing and good placement as well.

Here marked in orange, we have direct sunlight. Adding texture to the shot just brightens everything up in general. For the fill light, they placed a bounce board on the right side of the screen to reflect the sunlight onto the actor’s face. I didn’t do a lighting plan, but on the other hand, I have a behind-the-scenes photo.

You can have good results with little material. The sun with some pieces of reflective surface, creativity, and it’s all good.

So, among these three shots, which do you find the easiest to execute and why?
Let me know in the comments your views and opinions, and I will be curious to read them.

Feel free to share this article with your cinematographer friends so they can learn too.
This was Marco Robinson for Ci-Lovers. See you soon for a new episode.