The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

May-June, 1953 .THE CINE-TECHNICIAN 69 ful, although such efforts have been generally accepted. But the use of strong lights on the floor, even when diffused, simply cannot give the desired illusion of daylight. A multiplicity of light units on the floor throw a multitude of shadows which are almost impossible to conceal entirely. Moreover, floor lamps mean a troublesome web of cables on the floor, and this condition on the huge " Caesar " sets would have greatly hindered our camera work. Our aim, then, was to place all our lighting units overhead, first to produce a quality of daylight coming from the only logical direction — the sky — and to give us a relatively clear floor on which to work. There were other considerations, too — most important perhaps was the fact we required enough light volume at all times to enable us to stop down the lens and thus obtain a maximum of depth of focus. The typical pattern of lighting for the "Caesar" sets consisted of six to eight Skylights suspended high above each set, with arcs rigged high and ringing the set to supply the strong directional illumination of sunlight. In the photographic result, the illusion of real daylight is admittedly far superior to anything accomplished to date by other lighting methods. People in groups are not lost in heavy shadows — the Skylight illumination takes care of this; and the directional lighting from the arcs gives the outdoor scenes additional authenticity. Now this is not to say that no lights ever were used from floor level. Occasionally I used a Senior on a parallel for close-ups, where strong directional sunlight effect was desired, and invariably there was a Coed fill light on front of the camera also for close-ups. In "Julius Caesar" we had a wide range of time to portray through lighting, from early morning dawn to evening dusk. In lighting sets for an early morning scene or a foggy, overcast day, diffused light is normally used to provide the major portion of set illumination. From this the Skylights were ideal. We photographed a great many " mob " scenes in which hundreds of people appeared on the sets. Here, the soft, shadowless illumination from the overhead Skylights plus the directional light from the arcs gave us a most realistic effect of natural daylight. To have lit these scenes from the floor with the great number of arcs and other units that would have been necessary would not have produced the light quality we desired, and would have involved a great deal of time and effort in placing and adjusting filters and scrims on the lamps in an effort to reduce shadows to a minimum. With six or eight Skylights suspended from the catwalks overhead, the sets were as bright as day, and the illumination was perhaps as close to real daylight in quality as it is possible to get with any known set lighting equipment. The effect recalled the days when we used to light motion picture sets with banks of the old CooperHewitt mercury lamps; but Skylight illumination far surpasses anything achieved in the old days with Cooper-Hewitts. Noteworthy, too, is the fact fewer changes in lighting were required whenever we moved the camera from a long shot position to one for a medium or close-up shot. For dolly shots, Skylight illumination is the answer to a cameraman's prayer. We can move about the set and need worry hardly at all about annoying shadows that so often plague us when executing similar shots with other types of lighting. I would estimate that as a result of using the Skylights, the nearly fifty per cent production time normally spent in lighting a set was substantially reduced, and at the same time our overall picture quality was vastly improved. Besides improving the general quality of lighting for the " Julius Caesar " sets, the Skylights proved cheaper to operate and less costly to rig than many of the conventional and heavier single lamps normally used for set lighting. The great amount of scrimming and goboing ordinarily required was eliminated almost entirely. The Skylight units are pictured in use in the accompanying photographs, which were made during the filming of " Julius Caesar." The unit, made of corrugated aluminium, consists of a rectangular hood or box-shaped reflector about 4ft. x 6ft. in size, which has a depth of about 20 inches at the crown. Each unit has ten 1,000-watt silver bowl incandescent lamps arranged in two rows. Each lamp, which has a rated life of 1,000 hours, can be individually controlled from the switching panel on the floor. Usually, however, they are controlled in pairs. Thus, the light level of each Skylight can be controlled from the set, without need for a gaffer to service it overhead. In addition to the range of lighting afforded by this control of the lamps, we are able to gain additional range and flexibility of the illumination by raising or lowering the Skylights. Following the success achieved with overhead illumination on this production, I am now preparing to make extensive tests in which all scenes will be photographed with Skylight illumination alone, and without any supplementary lighting from the floor. I think there is an opportunity to develop an entirely new and pleasing pictorial quality in photography, now that we have a thoroughly proven source of " shadowless " light in the new Skylight units.