Light Rays Advice

[GianniRanzuglia]

Hi All,

I’m gaffing a short film and I’m trying to create light rays coming in from a window through shutters. We’re trying to replicate an early morning sunrise, but the window we’re shooting towards isn’t facing in the right direction for sunrise or sunset.

I’ve attached images below for the type of rays and intensity we’re trying to achieve. Our strongest light is a 2k fresnel and I’m wondering if that’s strong enough to create such an effect? We also have a 6foot frame of full diffusion to spread out the source if need be.  If I had to resort to renting out lights, what lights would I need to consider and/or other lighting equipment.

Thank you all for your time!

Topic

[Stip]

Can’t comment on the lights but you’ll want a decent hazer for this effect.

[GianniRanzuglia]

Hi Stip,

Yes I forgot to mention that, but we have already tested a hazer and are happy with it.

Thanks for mentioning it!

[Roger Deakins]

I can’t imagine a 2K being effective. It also seems you might need to control the natural light so that it does not overwhelm any source you use. I would expect to use an Arri Max for this kind of effect or, at least a powerful HMI Par.

[GianniRanzuglia]

Roger Deakins wrote:

I can’t imagine a 2K being effective. It also seems you might need to control the natural light so that it does not overwhelm any source you use. I would expect to use an Arri Max for this kind of effect or, at least a powerful HMI Par.

Thank you for your reply Sir!

I’ll keep those lights in mind when we do a prelight day.

Thanks for your time.

[sharkbait93]

This may be a little on the late side and also possibly unhelpful. Below is a still taken for a ptc that I shot a little while back. We used haze and placed a daylight balanced 500w cob led fresnel fixture outside of the barn maxed out at 100% (you can see it pushing through the haze on the left of frame).

The reason that it might be vaguely helpful is that I believe this fixture is very roughly comparable to a 2k fresnel (the led may have a little bit more punch up it’s sleeve and is of course a different colour temp). The reasons that it may not be helpful are numerous but hopefully it can give a kind of guide as to what kind of output that fixture may be able to realise.

If you plan to shoot towards either end of the day when the ambient light levels are lower this will help your cause but I’m not sure that you’ll easily be able to get to the point of being able to use substantial diffusion with your fixture as well if only using a 2k. As has previously been mentioned, a fixture with more punch may well be the best way forward if you’re looking to create that much of an extreme effect.

I hope all goes well!

[TimoVanLierop]

I did a short promo video last year and my biggest lightsource back than was also a 2K Tungsten unit.

This is what we achieved with it. Was not really enough, but achieved the effect a bit.

[GianniRanzuglia]

Thank you for the great advice Sharkbait, and thank you for sending a great example TimoVanLierop!

We have already shot the scene weeks ago, but we changed the concept, and reduced the intensity of the light to match the new tone and emotion the director desired.

 

[Author]

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