Motivated Daylight with LED Fixtures

[Corran Villalobos]

Hi Sir Roger,

Hope all is well with you and James!

On Empire of Light I read you used arrays of 5 or 6 Gemini LED panels to motivate daylight, specifically through the windows of the room in which Hilary and Michael care for the pigeon. I know on other films like Skyfall and Blade Runner 2049 you’d typically bounce HMIs off 20×20 ultrabounces to get a soft wash with the ultrabounce acting like a screen against the natural daylight. In the case of Empire of Light, it appears that technique wasn’t used. How did you go about balancing the punch of the LED fixtures with the natural light that came through the window? As seen in the stills attached below, we see an unobstructed view of the outside which leads me too believe the array of LEDs were strategically positioned to the left or right of the window frame or natural light was used instead. Was this the case? At any point did you tent the windows to allow the LEDs to play properly? How much of this scene was shot with natural light and how much of it was lit with Gemini array?

As always, thank you for your time, wisdom, and unwavering support.

Best,

Corran

Topic

[Roger Deakins]

That room was on an upper floor and access was very restricted. I would have liked to bounce an HMI off a large white reflector but it was just impossible to position two lifts in the necessary places. Besides, there was often a strong wind blowing in off the sea and sending up a large ‘sail’ would have been problematic. This forced me to opt for an array of LED panels with a light diffusion attached in front. The rig was always just above the frame line and we did shift it a little from side to side to reach into a face.

I must add that this was a really difficult space to work in and frustrating for everyone. It also faced south, which meant the daylight would shift dramatically if there were fast moving clouds. To control the direct sunlight we had to maneuver flags on ropes from the roof above, which was a real challenge. The LED panels were sometimes 60% of the overall light and at other times they added very little.

[Corran Villalobos]

I’ll be shooting in a similar situation in January next year. This is most helpful. Thank you again!

[rama lingam]

Do you remember which brand LED and how many numbers? Did you use fiilex

[Roger Deakins]

They may have been 2×1 Geminis. I know production would not sanction SkyPanels as they were too expensive. There would have been 8 lamps. Two horizontal rows of 4.

• This reply was modified 4 days, 14 hours ago by Roger Deakins.

[Author]

Replies