Lighting for short film competition

[Jody Arnott]

Hey guys,

I'm shooting a short film next weekend for a 48 Hour film competition. I've got everything organised except for lighting.

No one on the crew has lighting experience. I did one paper during my film/TV diploma which covered safety and interview lighting, but that's as far as it got.

So I guess I'm after some advice on what type of lights I should hire - will a couple of 800w redheads do the trick? I realise it's dependant on what we're shooting - but part of the competition is that we write the script during the 48 hour period, so I need to have the lights hired before it starts.

And any general lighting tips would be appreciated too!
Cheers.

[Chris Medico]

For sure have 2-3 Fresnel lights available. Have some colored gels too.

Use them much as you would do in an interview. A bit of rim lighting does wonders to make someone pop off the background and look more interesting. Use a cookie on a wall if the background is too stark. Shine one though a window to keep the affect of moving sun from being as noticeable.

It is totally worth the effort.

The biggest thing is to leave some shadow for depth and interest. Flat lighting sucks.