“Prisoners” church cellar scene

[LucaM]

Sorry for re-posting it, somehow the previous post was tagged as spam and disappeared from the forum!

In the church cellar scene of Prisoners Loki’s face gets in some frames a little brighter while he kneels to examinate what he finds there (no spoilers, ah ah!) and as viewers we assume it’s the bouncing of the torchlight,  but watching it more carefully it seems  a second light only on his face, is it correct? Did you realize it with some kind of flag of a light?

An amazing movie, by the way. I watched it a couple of days ago on TV and it got me completely hooked. But i was wondering if  that tree is a metaphory for… ah ah, just kidding!

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[Roger Deakins]

I seem to remember it was just the torchlight coming off a bounce card. The bounce may have been a 1′ x 1′ soft silver, which would have made teh light a little more directional.

The tree definitely is a metaphor for ……

[LucaM]

Thanks a lot! I was planning to use a wider shiny-ish  white surface for the same purpose,  but this seems a better solution to control where exactly the bounce goes!

[LucaM]

I did some tests and it works perfectly! It’s a bit too strong as reflection in the way i used but i think i’m close to the solution! Thanks for the tip, it simplified the entire scene!

[Roger Deakins]

You could add a black net over a silver stipple bounce and you would have something closer to your ideal. Remember, I am talking about silver stipple and not a mirror silver.

 

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 4 days ago by Roger Deakins.

[LucaM]

Thanks a lot Roger! The black net is another great tip!
I searched around and i found various silver surfaces that create interesting reflections, from the caustic of shiny surfaces to soft bounce light of  opaque silver.

This trick  simplified the entire scene, made the blocking way easier and gave me interesting ideas about the structure of the entire shot!

[Author]

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