The Cine Technician (1939)

58 T IJ E (' I N E-TEC II NICI A X ! i fuly, i<)^7 Studio Lighting for Kinematography By BRYAN LANGLEY The following is a report of a lecture %iven by Mr. Langley to The Royal Photographic Society on December 8th, 1936, and is reprinted, by kind permission, from "The Photographic Journal." The meeting was held in connection with the Exhibition of Kinematography and was arranged by the Association of Cine-Technicians. INSTEAI ) of giving a collection of half-understood rules, which are, in this business, at least, only a collection of personal experiences (and, even so, one has the feeling that experience is simply plenty of mistakes that one has got away with), I am going to give a fairly detailed account of one particular sequence in a film which I have recently photographed. I believe that this should be more interesting to you, and far simpler for me, as it is about something that has actually happened. I have been lent a reel of film to illustrate this talk, so you can judge whether the methods I used were right or not. Kathleen Mavourneen This reel of film is from a picture entitled "Kathleen Mavourneen," starring Miss Sally O'Neil, Mr. Thomas Burke, and many other famous people. "Kathleen Mavourneen" was directed by Mr. Norman Tee and produced by Mr. John Argyle, to whom I am indebted for the kindness of lending me a reel of film. Co-operation like this between producers and technicians is a very good thing, and I for one do appreciate it. When Mr. Elvin (the Secretarv of the Association of fine-Technicians) rang me up to ask me to contribute this talk, I was somewhat puzzled what to do. Mr SIZ.E « ST'IJIP joo' * So tr f£«ce i Lighting Lay-Out. Key. ! 700 mm. arcs, 1M) amperes ■ ^ kilowatt spot lamps; set outline; "spot rail lay-out. Argyle, with many nice suggestions, soon put me on the right track. I'pon reading a script we find that in the forefront of each sequence is a description of the scenery and general atmosphere of that sequence. For example, a ballroom sequence would give descriptions of the rvpe of ballroom, magnificent or faded, local hop or Palais-de-Dance. A Tondon street scene would give descriptions of the type of street, time, crowds and that sort of thing. In our particular case it is a farmhouse, and I will read what the script savs : — 85 : The Farm. Exterior. Dav. The picturesque farm in Southern Ireland. It is a plain, two-storied lime-washed building, with a little porch over the front door, ivy jrowing round the windows and some geraniums in pots on the window-sills. The jaunting car drives up to the front door. Mary Ellen, followed by a dairymaid, comes rushing out of the house to greet them. Then comes dialogue and action of the following scenes. Xext we have details of the interior of the farmhouse. Scene 89 : Interior Farmhouse. Day. The large oak-beamed kitchen, living-room of the farm. In the spacious fireplace a crane is holding a skillett (threelegged pot) over the fire. It is steaming. Sides of bacon are suspended from the ceiling. I am going to add that upon reading this I had visions of going to Southern Ireland and having a good time — plentv of fishing when it rained, and I am told that it rains every third day in Ireland — a nice holiday in fact ! But this Utopian dream was not to be. One dav, while shooting, my chief electrician came to me and said : "Seen the set next door ? " I said : "No ! What is it ? ' "The Farmvard" I was told. "They are having real pigs and real chickens. Mr. Argyle believes in the proper thing. Will you come and light it ? I was staggered, but followed him in. There were masses of carpenters rushing about, the Master Carpenter leaning against a "No Smoking" sign looking as though he were puffing an imaginarv gasper — perhaps he would have been but for Mr. Argyle and the pigs and chickens, etc. At 4 p.m. the set was in this crude state. My job was to tell the chief electrician where I wanted my lights and necessary spot-rails and gantries. Suggesting Sunlight Now I always endeavour to reproduce Nature in its most attractive form and when reproducing sunlight with lamps the obvious course to take is to place the lamp at an angle such as the sun might make to the set. Consequently, the lamps must be as high as possible from the ground, so I had a hanging bridge constructed down the centre of the set. I'pon this \ ordered four 700 mm. sun arcs interspaced with 3 kos. each side of the bridge. These sun arcs are of a type which allows a ground glass diffuser to be placed in front to soften the light. The 3 kos. were for picking out details. Of course, the arc lamps generate a very blue raw which compared to the yellow ray of the inky lights is not nearlj so effectb e to panchromatic emulsion. Looking at the ground plan I could see that the house was admirably built for relief lighting, so I ordered a KMK) mm. sun in the far corner of the studio. This was