Dramatic Lighting Livens up Videos (page 2)

• Motivated Lighting
  Motivated lighting simulates light that comes from sources established in a scene. Say you're shooting a scene in a living room at night. Your subjects are sitting on a couch looking into each other's eyes. At the camera-left end of the couch is an end table with a lit table lamp. A street light filters through the picture window behind the couple. To light this scene, you would need to duplicate the light coming from the table lamp and the streetlight coming through the picture window.
  You can duplicate the lamp by placing a soft light behind, slightly above and to the camera side of the lamp. Make sure that the shadow of the lamp itself is not cast on the actors. By putting a 15-watt bulb in the lamp, you'll still get a glow from the lamp but the real light from the scene will be coming from the soft light. To keep the lampshade from showing light on its outside, carefully flag the light so that only the lampshade is in shadow. For closeups of each of the subject's faces, use a bounce card to add a little reflected fill light from the lamp or streetlight.
  By placing an intense blue-gelled light outside the window and covering the window with sheer curtains, you can easily duplicate the effect of light coming from outdoors. By turning a red-gelled light focused on the window frame on and off, you can create a blinking neon sign effect. Adding partially opened blinds to the window will create a very dramatic effect if the outdoor light is focused to throw the striped shadows on the subjects' faces as they turn toward the window. By altering the position of the outdoor light, you can achieve the desired slant of the shadows. If you keep the indoor, lamp light fairly low, the window effect will be very dramatic.
• Nighttime Car Interior
  You can achieve dramatic and believable car interior lighting effect with a little gaffer's tape, two small cool-blue fluorescent lights, two or three small flashlights and some diffusion material. By taping the two fluorescent tubes under both the driver's and passenger's sides of the dashboard and covering them with diffusion material, you can create a believable lit car interior. The more diffusion material you use, the less intense the light. By rhythmically shining a spot of light across the hood of the car, you can duplicate the passing of streetlights. Passing two evenly spaced flashlights across the back of the car and into the rear-view mirror will duplicate the passing of another car. Supplement all of these techniques with some realistic sound effects and you can easily create a night driving scene.
• Colored Lights and Smoke
  Don't be afraid of using color gels and smoke to add a touch of drama to your scene. You can find relatively inexpensive heat-resistant lighting gels in some video stores and in most theatrical supply houses. Deep reds, blues and greens are the most effective colors. The darker the subject or surface, the more intense the color will be. Keep in mind that when you use colored gels, be sure to white balance your camera with the white light on your set, not the colored light.
  Smoke created by smoke machines, incense or cigarettes can add a dramatic touch to your lighting. To see the smoke, light it from behind. To see a beam of light, pass it through smoke from slightly behind. If you choose to go more high tech, smoke machines have come a long way. You can now rent smoke machines for a small fee and the chemical smoke they create is non-toxic and doesn't leave your cast and crew rushing for the door. For a more friendly work environment, cigarettes and incense are usually not suggested to create smoke unless needed as part of a scene.
  By combining the right lighting setup and a bit of colored light to a soft smoky atmosphere, you can increase the dramatic intensity of a scene tremendously.
  The secret to dramatic lighting is learning how to accentuate your subject with light and cloak the rest with shadow. It's the contrast between the light and dark that makes for a dramatic set. By experimenting and practicing with different techniques you can dramatically increase the quality of your video productions.