Waiting for No.4

Take yourself to a bus stop at dawn... where a sinister psychopath and a sleepy housewife have an unexpected encounter...

that's the setting of this short play, filmed by Sky Arts as part of their Bite Size Play series.

My brief (as lighting designer) was to give this one a "Film Noir" feel, so this is basically lit with one very big & bright light as far away as could get it in the small studio, and dedolights for the return. No budget and very intense short schedule, so couldn't bring in a lot of the atmosphere that a single-camera shoot could have done, but the atmosphere was still commented-on as being very good!

These photos were taken in a rush, so didn't get to meter properly and were somewhat overexposed! I've been returning over the past few weeks to see what can be done with them, and think I'm getting towards the sinister feel I was after. The broadcast version will look different, depending on what they decide to do (or not) in Post...but at least was properly exposed!










All shot handheld on Sigma 30/1.4 at F3.2 in RAW and rescued in Lightroom 3 beta.

The three shots are presented as a set, getting progressively closer and slowly losing colour - does this work?

Comments (as always!) invited as I'm still reluctant to send them to the client as they were so horribly overexposed originally, and can't be fully rescued!

Not sure when this one will be shown, but the others have been going out at 10pm weds on Sky Arts 2 (after the live play).

What's wrong with these, Flossie?

One needs to understand the circumstances under which they were taken. I really like the muted colour. That white coat fully lit would give any meter a problem especially when you consider the overall darkness of the stage set.

I'd be proud to have taken them.

I agree with Andrew, with an additional comment as requested re your processing, Flossie. There seems to be a big step between the 2nd and 3rd shots, that break any continuity as a series,. The last one is totally brown - the others BW. That said, your idea is fine!

Do you get the chance to have the actors pose for you or do you have to shoot in rehearsal or performance?

the over exposure was in the lighter coat I suppose?

Mike

Thanks all, I was quite nervous about posting these!

Considering the speed all this happened at and how many things I had to do in a short period of time with very limited resources, remarkable I got any photographs at all! Mikew - these were either shot in rehearsal or just before performance (not sure which) so semi-posed, I had a very narrow window to get in and do these.

The exposure issue was really (really) bad - for entirely understandable reasons - and center-weighted was a bad choice as well it seems at the time these were taken I didn't have my 758D meter, so have had to do a lot of work to even get to this point! The white coat is clipping on the back side, but that was going to happen whatever.

First shot, the OOF sign is annoying me, its worse at higher resolution but if cropped-out the picture loses some of its impact.

Second shot, the face on the left has gone muddy - I need to get better at doing dodge&burn, have had that happen before but it only shows-up when Exported which is puzzleing.

The 3rd image being brown isn't right as well when seen as a set, shall change that so it matches.

Shall see if can find a 4th image that works in between, although I'm more trying to find one good picture, the whole series of plays are very minimalist and short so the photographs should be the same.

The second shot comment that it only shows in export. I have had a similar experience, lots of PP which looks OK until save as JPEG or something then it goes 'funny'. I must get a good example and ask my mentors about this.

That lighting would be a huge challenge to anyone I'd have thought. I have wondered about asking my friend who does the lighting for a local amateur group if I could tag along and take some shots but I expect I'd be treading on someone's toes and they might expect me to do it well!

Well from my experience over the years mikew, its very difficult to light and take photographs at the same time! You're right, the biggest problem will be everyone will expect you to produce fantastic pictures!

Ah ha! Thankyou, I've learnt something already this morning!

I can't edit the first post, so here's a version with less muddy faces :




And the 3rd version in pure B&W, with brighter face & hands :

If anyone is interested, I've quickly done a (very) draft web gallery with these pics and more - will return to them and improve when I get back from holiday!