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Camera Fill Lights
IN MOTION PICTURE photography, one of the most contro¬ versial lighting units is the camera fill light. This is a small incandescent unit mounted on the camera, either above or below the lens, for the purpose of supplying illumination of moderate intensity on players when making closeups or dolly shots.
Some cinematographers never use the lamp; others would never shoot a closeup without it. This is not to say that some comeramen are ignorant of the lamp's possibilities, but simply that it does not fit in with their particular style of lighting.
Use of the lamp originated about the time the camera dolly and the tracking shot came into general use. The moving camera limited the use of floor lamps immediately before it. It was logical as a result to hang a lighting fixture on the camera to supply fill light as it moved in on a closeup. To decrease the lamp's intensity as the camera moved toward the player, it was gradually shaded through use of a dimmer switch.
If you ask the average director of photography the name of this lighting unit (all set lighting units have a popular monicker) few will be able to answer other than a “filler light.” Many of them have forgotten two popular terms ap¬ plied to it years ago — “lupe" and “coed.” Carl Freund, A.S.C., is credited with naming the lamp a “lupe” after using it in photographing the late Lupe Velez. Once she saw the im¬ provement in her closeups use of the lamp wrought, she demanded it be used on all her closeups thereafter. It thus became common practice for Freund to call for a “lupe” whenever the camera moved in for a closeup of Miss Velez.
The same type lamp also acqquired another name — “coed” — at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. Who tacked this label on it, no one seems to remember; but the lamp is a popular item of lighting equipment with most all cameramen at that studio.
Over the years, the camera fill light has assumed a variety of shapes and sizes. Today most fillers are about the same size and design, and are usually made by each studio’s me¬ chanical department. Constructed of sheet metal, the lamp is box-like in shape — about 7 by 12 by 6 inches — and is
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Small lighting unit mounted on camera provides uniform illumi¬ nation on subject when filmed in closeup or dolly shot.
By FREDERICK FOSTER
AN ELABORATE fill light unit designed especially for color photo¬ graphy. Robert Surtees, A.S.C., standing left of actor Stewart Granger, used the light in filming closeups for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "The Wild North."
A VERY PRACTICAL use of camera fill lights is demonstrated here. Two units, mounted on brackets extending from either side of camera, supply adequate fill light on players as they descend stair, with cranemounted camera following the action.
MAURY GERTZSMAN, A.S.C., Universal-International cameraman, uses improved camera fill light which has switch controls for each lamp, side exhaust for lamp heat, and spun glass diffuser. Unit may be mounted above or below camera lens.
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American Cinematographer
September, 1952