19

Planning Essentials

19.1   Planning

The objective of planning is to gain all necessary information, identify and anticipate possible problems and evolve a strategy to cope with the production requirements. In all but the simplest of location problems a recce or reconnaissance is recommended to identify:

• the requirements of the production actually on-site
• the natural or artificial lighting conditions likely to occur, position of sun etc.
• the power available and its suitability
• problems requiring special lighting units
• problems requiring special rigging facilities
• the need for electricians
• the need for dimmers, plus their location on-site
• the need for a generator or an electrical ‘tie-in’ to the supply to derive a larger current feed than the available domestic feed
• the dimensions of the location – area and height
• any particular safety hazards and problems of access
• features of the location requiring special care, e.g. works of art, listed building, curtains which may be damaged by heat from luminaires too close.

Before making any decisions, there is a need to get as much information as possible:

• ‘acting area’, subject positions, eyelines, moves in-vision?
• camera positions, in-vision moves?
• shot sizes – dictate the area to be lit
• single-camera or multi-camera shooting?
• do the shots have to match with studio or other locations?
• explicit requirements – day, night, evening etc.
• implicit requirements – required mood – documentary, sit-coms, drama?
• any special lighting effects required?
• any special lighting level problems, i.e. use of range extenders?
• time of day for the shoot – where will the sun be at that time?
• timescale?
• budget for lighting?

The last two factors are interrelated, ‘time’ means ‘money’. There is an adage ‘Good, Fast and Cheap’ – take any two! You cannot have ‘Good, Fast and Cheap’ – it is an incompatible statement! When solving any lighting problem the solution will be linked by:

Technology

Technique

Time.

Clearly, any lighting solution will be influenced by the lighting equipment available, and one may have to adapt a particular technique if lighting equipment is limited. The second factor affecting technique is, of course, time (which means money). Again, there may be a need to compromise on technique if time is limited.

When several set-ups are required at the same location, it is an advantage to have enough facilities, equipment and electricians, so that each set-up can be pre-lit. This saves important time for the entire crew, i.e. no calls of ‘waiting for lighting’! Don’t forget to allow time for the de-rigging of each set-up.

Useful items at the recce include (see also Figure 19.1):

Figure 19.1 Decisions to be made at/following the 'reece'

• clipboard, notepad, pencil and eraser
• retractable metal tape measure – to measure height as well as area details
• digital stills camera to record location features for future reference
• exposure meter/spotmeter – to check possible lighting conditions
• small torch – to help in investigating mains supply connections in dark cupboards!
• small compass – useful in establishing position of the sun on overcast recce days.

On a major shoot it is useful to have electricians working in pairs, plus the gaffer to oversee the rigging and troubleshooting any problems as they arise.

19.2   Strategy, Lighting Kits and Timescales

Strategy

Its useful to adopt a strategy, such as below, when tackling lighting problems on location when proper planning/recce have not been possible:

• determine requirements from the director
• set up camera shot, determine shot limits
• review available lighting, at the desired lens aperture
• decide what to add or take away from existing lighting
• rig luminaires, set luminaires, add coloured filters as required
• determine lighting balance, add ND/scrims as required
• rehearse/record.

Lighting Kits

The technique adopted for solving any lighting problem will be affected by the technology and time available. Mention has already been made about a basic lighting kit (p. 166). However, cameramen will usually expand this basic kit to cope with the needs of more ambitious shoots. The alternative is to hire equipment as required, provided, of course, the budget includes sufficient electricians to cope with the equipment. The latter point is important, especially in areas where the general public have access. It is essential that each luminaire on a stand is properly supervised to ensure that it cannot be knocked over. Examples of expanded kits are given below.

Example: Lighting kit favoured by many experienced features cameramen – requiring to cope with many different situations, often with no electrician.

3 × 650 W ARRI open-faced luminaires

2 × 300 W ARRI junior Fresnel spotlights

2 × 650 W ARRI junior Fresnel spotlights

1 × Rifa light

1 × 2 kW Blonde

1 × Dedolight 4 lamphead kit (100 W) and projection lens

1 × Trace frame and diffusion

Stands, 2 magic arms and flags

Selection of colour temperature correction filters

Selection of assorted colour filters

0.3 ND and 0.6 D plus Rosco Scrim

Matt box with graduated ND and graduated colour filters

Polariser filter

Black nets

Collapsible reflectors with universal bracket

Mains tester

Spare lamps

RCDs and cables

Magic arm and super-clamps

(Hire additional filters as required)

(Hire additional lighting equipment as required, especially Dedolight 400 W MSR)

Another cameraman, using similar accessories operates with a smaller kit, but includes HMI/MSR luminaires, one battery operated, giving very good flexibility to his lighting facilities, i.e.

1 × 200 W HMI mains-operated light plus Chimera attachment

1 × 125W HMI battery-operated light

1 × Dedolight 4 lamphead kit (100 W) plus projection lens

1 × Camera headlamp kit tungsten/HMI.

Timescales

Usually the timescale is not open-ended for a video shoot, consequently there is a need to find out from the director the time available for rigging/setting the lighting equipment. An estimate of time required for lighting can be made based on:

• Tungsten sources on stands requiring minimum time.
• HMI/MSR luminaires rigged from ladders will take the longest time.

  Note: when working with ladders, use electricians in pairs to enable one to ‘foot’ the ladder, unless it can be ‘made fast’ at the top of the ladder.

• If dimmer packs are to be used, extra time will be required to make the mains connection – useful to get this done in advance so that no time is wasted waiting for the local electricity board to connect your circuit breaker plus tails to the supply.
• Cable runs, long or short? Will there be a need for cable ramps?
• Number of electricians available.

The lighting gaffer will be able to give a good indication of what might be possible within the available timescale using the resources of the lighting budget. Depending on the nature of the shoot and budget available, the option for extra electricians will help to achieve a short timescale.

Alternatively there may be a need to simplify the lighting set-up to meet budget constraints! On shoots using multi-set-ups at one location, pre-lighting of sets can save time where the electricians can be rigging the lighting of the next set-up whilst one set-up is being used. This will, of course, require extra equipment and probably more electricians.