I just finished shooting my second short film for $100. The place where I shot didn't have the best light sources and I didn't have the money to afford professional lighting equipment. Anybody have any tips for what I could have done better? Short Film: https://youtu.be/fVPMT2s0G-I
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On the practical side, and low budget side - you could use China balls, these are the paper lanterns (come in different sizes), and use diffused bulbs (aka: soft light bulbs) - you can plug them in and use them off camera to help boost the light in the room, or on the talent. In post production most editing programs allow you to fix exposure and use power masks to re-light parts of your shots.
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Hey Jack! Congrats on the film. It was fun to watch. It's hard to do a film on a type budget. I would say the biggest thing I am seeing here that could help would be to have some direction on the lighting to give it some shape. The Flex fill is a great tool to use on a tiny budget. If you had a couple of those you could use one to reflect more light onto the subject from one side and then use another one on the other side for some negative fill. That combo would help with the lighting. Lindberg's suggestion to use a China Ball is a great idea. Those are cheap to get as well.
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Jack Murphy First off, congratulations on making your short. Good on ya for actually doing it and now wanting to learn and get better.
Scenes where you are trying to maintain a dark feel to enhance mystery, threats, danger, or an unknown all play well with lots of dark areas and deep shadows. The overarching problem I see in your piece is that the dark shadowed feel of the opening shot was not maintained through the picture. There are a number of places where, I’m guessing because of the actual light in the cafe and that coming through the window, you ended up with quite fully illuminated shots. The shot of the 2 men by the fireplace is an example. The fully lit walls and actors have almost no deeply shadowed areas. It is a jarring cut back to a more shadowed shot, almost looking like it is not in the same location. That area seems to be lit by both the interior lights of the cafe and light coming in through the window. I can see what you are fighting particularly without a lot of equipment.
With the idea that you want a lot of deep shadows and dark areas remember that you can take light out of a scene as well as put it in. Partly blocking some of the light coming in the window would be a start. Some dark plastic garbage bags and a little tape could solve that. Unscrewing some wall lights or using aluminum foil around the bulbs to allow light out only where you want it would work well. If you don’t have lighting fixtures, improvise. A table lamp with no shade and a bright LED bulb in it will give off a reasonable amount of light and then using aluminum foil, since it doesn’t burn, to direct the light to where you wish it to be is very workable. When lighting faces for these types of shots keep the actors key lights on the opposite side of the 180˚ line so that the side of the actors face toward camera is in shadow. You can use a white reflector to fill the shadow to bring out the amount of detail in the face you feel is appropriate. The reflector can easily be made with sheets of white printer paper taped to a piece of cardboard leaning against something or being held by someone. This would keep your actors lit in a fashion consistent with the look and feel you want and with a darker background with fewer bright areas (you need some) the scenes will look much better when cut together.
Maintaining consistency in the look of your picture is kinda critical.
Great first job.
You don't need high end gear to achieve a desirable look. Just get creative with what you have. Few tips for your next project. Your images would benefit with some depth. Isolate your subjects from the backgrounds with wide apertures. Watch your focus. And break things up. In other words, lots of talking head shots get boring to watch after a while.
Best wishes on your next project! :)