Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1952)

292 MOVIE MAKING INDOORS With reflector-flood lamps and ready-to-use units, indoor filming is easy and effective HARRIS B. TUTTLE, FACL THE amateur movie maker who makes movies only out of doors is like a person who plays the piano with one hand. When he learns to play chords with his left hand, or makes movies indoors with artificial light, he is getting sweet music out of his home movie equipment. In the early days of home movie making, films were slow and only lenses of moderate speed were available. Lighting equipment also was bulky and inefficient. Naturally, these limiting factors did make movie making indoors rather difficult. But today all this is changed. For in the past several years the introduction of photoflood and reflector flood lamps makes indoor lighting easy. In fact, with a high-speed film (such as Super XX) and the new fast //1.4 and f/1.6 lenses, it is now possible to make black and white movies indoors using ordinary home lighting fixtures. TYPES OF EQUIPMENT In the field of lighting equipment per se, there are two types available for amateur use. The first system employs lamps in metal reflectors which are mounted on stands to cover a fixed area or stage in which the action to be filmed must be confined. The second method is that of the lighting bar. Here, one or two lamps are placed at each end of a suitable metal bar with the camera mounted midway between them. This makes it possible to follow moving subjects like children who will not always stay within a fixed area. As the camera is moved to follow the subject, the lights move with the camera and thus supply a uni form lighting so long as the subject does not move closer to or farther from the camera. The lamps used in lighting bars are, for convenience, generally of the built-in reflector type. CONTRAST AND LIGHT PLACEMENT A good first step in lighting any subject is to consider the type of film being used and the contrast of the subject to be lighted. When using color film, the differences between colors provide color contrast; therefore, a generally flat or front lighting produces acceptable results. In black and white filming, all colors are recorded in monochrome. Certain shades of red, green and blue, if lighted with a flat lighting, might produce the same density in the black-to-white scale. Therefore, a more contrasty lighting usually is better for black and white work. This means simply having more light on one side of the subject than on the other. With the desired contrast range of our lighting determined upon, we are now ready for the actual placement of the lighting units. Usually one lamp is placed so that it bears on the subject at an angle of 45 degrees to the line of sight of the camera. On the other side of the camera and only slightly to one side of it, a second light is placed. As a general rule, the first lamp is closer to the subject and higher than the second lamp, thereby causing the subject to appear slightly brighter on that side. This light is often known therefore as the "key" or modeling light. The function of the second lamp is to fill in or TABLE l-INCIDENT LIGHT VALUES IN FOOT-CANDLES FOR CAMERAS HAVING 165° SHUTTERS AND SHUTTER SPEEDS OF 1/35 SECOND LENS OPENING f/1.4 f/1 .6 f/1. 9 f/2.8 F/4.0 F/5.6 CAMFRA S"EED 16 24 16 24 16 24 16 24 16 24 16 24 Cine Kodak Super-X 42 63 56 84 84 129 168 260 340 520 680 1040 Cine-Kodck Super-XX 14 21 19 28 28 42 56 84 112 168 224 336 Cine-Kodak Kodachrome, Type A 85 128 113 170 170 256 340 512 680 1024 1360 2048 FIG. 1: Basic lighting setup, left, shows the relative placement of key light (right) and fill light. FIG. 2: Tha Movie Kodaguide and newer Cine Photoguide compute exposures on lamp-to-subject basis.