Thursday, 2nd February 2023
LIGHTING BREAKDOWN - GRAY
Six different looks in one location
Gray was a short film I shot in February 2022. It was a 4-day shoot for Amazon Mini TV. We did almost 2 weeks of prep for this one, which is quite extensive for a short film. It was my first collaboration with the director, Sakshi Gurnani. This was day 4/4 of the shoot. This was our biggest day, as we had to shoot a major chunk of our story and we just had one day with Dia Mirza and a considerably expensive location. To give context, Dia Mirza is playing the character of a therapist, Dr. Noorani, and Shreya Dhanwanthary - Naina has a total of 6 sessions with her each month apart. The challenge was to show that this one location feels different every time we return to it in the film. Also in a way suggest what Shreya’s character was going through in her life around each session. The idea behind this blog is to take you through the prep as well as execution so that you get a comprehensive idea about how we approached the script and this particular location. Will also suggest that you watch the film first before reading further. It’s streaming on Amazon Mini TV. Link
In initial discussions with Sakshi, the director, we came up with an approach to visually show the different time periods. Idea was to keep it as simple as possible since we had a really tight schedule which wouldn’t allow for a lot of setup changes. So we came up with an arc - starting from a cold/desaturated look at the start to a warm evening sun as the character grows and gains a different perspective on her conflict.
Six Sessions -
First - Cool/Desaturated Daylight
Second - Warm Daylight
Third - Daylight with Practicals
Fourth - Afternoon Sun
Fifth - Evening Sun
Sixth - Late Evening Sun
Location
This location was situated on the first floor. It was a big hall and a half-octagon-shaped balcony. We wanted to use the full length of the hall for the wide shot, but the budget didn’t allow us to deck up the entire space. So we figured out an approximate position for the camera and the actors and chalked out how much of the frame would be seen across all the setups. Then only decided to use that much area instead of the whole hall.
One of the most important reasons we chose this location over others was the balcony. It immediately resonated with me and Sakshi and somehow felt a little fresher than all the other options we saw. Also, the garden in front allowed me enough space to light from and also accommodated a night-for-day look if we run out of light. The balcony did act as a window source throughout the hall and since it had such a big door, it allowed for light to fall really deep into the hall too.
What became clear after the recce was that we had to commit to using the natural light falling in the balcony and to some extent in the hall too. Because fighting it was a bigger problem to solve than working along with it.
Finally, we ended up with a U-shaped set with no 4th wall to give us access for the camera. Nida Diwan Shaikh our amazing Production Designer turned the space into a living breathing therapist’s office. I was quite worried about the background once we moved into the singles for each character as there were no windows or any other textures existing in the space to create a sense of depth. I did communicate this to Nida and she came up with really solid solutions for this. So whatever you see on screen is all credited to Nida. Some other discussions I had with Nida were about the placement of practicals and lastly the best tool for a DP - Sheer Curtains.
And to take advantage of the natural light, we figured we were getting good evening sunlight on the balcony around 3-5 pm in the afternoon. So we decided to schedule a crucial scene on the balcony around that time. It was quite a daring decision at that point because in my mind this could ruin the whole scene too. What if the light is too harsh? What if it doesn’t last as long as I need it to? More on this later.
Just an easter egg. You can guess the movie. It’s always fun to see how another DP approaches the same space that you once had to light.
Execution -
We had a total of 14 setups to pull off in a 12hr shift and all the scenes required daylight according to the script. Considering we started rolling at around 9 am that left us barely 8-9 hours of natural daylight. So we had to plan in advance for a Night for Day situation around the end of the day. Here’s what the call sheet and the light list for the day looked like.
We had most of the scenes blocked. But one crucial long scene on the balcony still had to be figured. A lot of it depended on the actors and their performances. So we had to wait till the very last moment. But that is also part of the joy I get while shooting fiction. So much of it is figured on set. It was daunting to start the day without having that scene figured out, but after a point, you also learn to trust your instincts and know that you will be able to do it when the time comes.
My plan with Upasana, the chief AD, was to figure out the scenes which can be shot night-for-day as it was clear that some scenes/shots will have to be cheated post-sunset. I chose one particular scene that didn’t have the balcony as the main axis and decided to push that to the very end. But at the same time, Sakshi wanted us to go chronologically as much as possible, to help the actors.
Another huge part of this collaboration was my 1st AC, Sridhar Kakileti. I’ve done 2 features with Sridhar and by now we have a really good understanding of how to work together. I feel he really understands my taste and more important than that he has really good taste himself. This makes him a valuable asset on set. It’s like another set of eyes who you can trust and rely on for opinion whenever you’re confused. More than execution I rely more on Sridhar for his creative judgments. As a DP you’re not always aware but there are literal wars that your team might be fighting behind you to execute the setups planned. And because of Sridhar it rarely reaches me. And I’m always grateful to him for this. Not forgetting the contribution of my Gaffer Sanju. From my experience of working on independent and low-budget features in the Indian industry, a gaffer rarely gets to get involved in the creative. Even if they do they’re not looked upon for input. This does create a huge information gap on set about what you want to achieve and what the team thinks you want. I really hope it changes someday, but on this one, Sanju had to work on very less input. He was coming on set without a tech recce with the main team. I would salute him to be able to pull this off on such less prep.
Lastly, before I get into it, I want to mention briefly the camera package. We were shooting on the Arri Alexa Mini and Zeiss Super Speeds MIII. These are really old lenses, and getting access to them was difficult. I had extensively discussed shooting on these with Sakshi and so it helped to be persistent from the very start. There’s something about these lenses that I just can’t get over. Since newer cameras with large format sensors and large format lenses are readily available in the market, it was difficult to convince producers to opt for this. Even my focus puller, Sonu, faced an issue adjusting to these but it was worth it. Sonu did a great job pulling focus on a complete handheld camera shooting at T1.3!
First Session
We started with the very first scene. This is the first session Naina has had with Doctor Noorani. Sakshi and I both felt this should be really moody and dark. Like a rainy-overcast day. Light wise it also made sense to start with this, because as the day progresses the sun starts shining on the foliage in front of the balcony. So we wanted to get the wide done asap. My idea was to balance all my lights to match the exposure and color outside. So I set the camera at the far end of the room, put the widest lens possible, and exposed it for the highlights outside the balcony.
We used two Skypanel S60s and placed them on the balcony, one on either side of the door - kind of cross-lighting each character. This helped just to give them that separation from the background. Additionally, there were two smaller lights, probably 2x1 Matte LEDs from the two windows just to give additional exposure to the side walls. Another Skypanel 120c on camera left bounced to the ceiling to lift up the ambiance. No particular reason to use the 120, could have gone for a smaller unit. It just happened to be idle at moment. (It was set at 1% :p)
Ungraded
Graded
It was very important to balance the lights according to the color temperature of the natural light coming in. Hence we ended up having them a little warm. When we moved to the close-ups, we just brought in some diffusion very close to the actors. I wanted the light to wrap around their faces ever so slightly. So spent some time adjusting the diffusion. Also adjusted the 120 to fine-tune the contrast on their faces.
Second Session -
According to the story, this had to be a step warmer than the previous scene. Naina has started to open up to Noorani, so wanted to introduce a hint of warmth throughout. We just had two Mid-Closes in this setup. It had to be a quick one because we were getting late for a very important scene. Though this turned out to be my favorite. There’s something about the way the light falls on Dia’s face that still amazes me. We kept the same setup for the Skypanels. Probably just increased them in intensity and lifted the ambiance too. I remember placing a Poly on the darker side of their faces to reduce the contrast slightly. What helped was that the natural light coming in had also become slightly warmer. The sofa position was also moved closer to the balcony to get a slightly different background. I don’t remember what was the exact reason, but we decided it was best to take Shreya’s shot on a slightly wider lens much closer to her face.
Third Session -
Although according to the script, this was the fourth session of Naina with Dr. Noorani, we decided to shoot it immediately after our second setup. The main reason being, this was the longest scene we had in terms of blocking and a lot of it had to be rehearsed with the actors. It had a lot of talking bits and intercuts at specific moments. Also, it was a very crucial scene for the Actors too. What we did have on paper were the first few shots. We knew that both of them will come near the balcony window and start talking and looking outside. But the rest had to be figured. They could be on the chairs after that, they could be standing and talking. We just weren’t sure.
We were starting this scene around 11 am. We had seen in the recce that around late afternoon 2.30 pm onwards we did get a good amount of natural sunlight in the balcony. But the problem with that is it’s not consistent and it didn’t fall deeper into the balcony. So we recreated that with two M90s placed on the lawn in front of the balcony. One was focused on the front window and the second was positioned to light the window on the left. The second M90 was placed in advance for a later part of the scene. Although I would’ve loved to have the M90s much higher than they were to replicate the angle of the sun, we were limited by the height of the stands. And the location didn’t allow us to use any Rostrum or Scaffolding on the lawn. The M90s were diffused with Opal Filter to reduce the harshness of the light. I used a Skypanel 120 on the right to have a softer wrap on their faces. We did place some leaves to create little breaks of light on their faces, but I guess it didn’t work as well as we thought. We had to black the ground as much as possible to cut the green spill. It was a lot. We finished the wide and two closes fairly quickly and the crew went for lunch.
Post lunch, once the actors got on set we rehearsed the next part of the scene. This is when we actually figured out the blocking. We quickly adjusted the lights for these positions and started shooting. The setup remained the same, with 2 M90s hitting the balcony from the left and a 120 for some fill from the right. I did place an extra Skypanel inside for fill but didn’t end up using it. By now we also had the sun hitting the balcony, so helped a little with the ambiance. What I noticed as we went along was that I wasn’t lighting specifically for the characters. The lights were lighting up the space in general. And this helped us tremendously as we could keep shooting with minimal changes in setup.
Fourth Session -
This was another session we had to shoot on the balcony. Naina reads out a letter to Dr. Noorani that she’s written for her younger self. It’s a very cathartic moment for the character and Sakshi was very keen on getting it in one long track shot. Another early idea was to have a light flare right behind Naina’s face somewhere in the scene. When we arrived on set for this shot we quickly decided where the characters will be seated and how the track should be placed. This also allowed us to end on a Close or Mid-Close of Shreya and we could have a light flare the lens there towards the end. Also, this was around 3.30-4ish when I was getting a good wash of sun throughout the balcony. So the idea was to use the natural sunlight combined with the M90s in the approximate same direction.
One M90 was just being used as a backlight for Shreya and for the flare toward the end of the track shot. We had to remove all diffusion frames from this light as the light itself was going to be on camera. We just used some CTO on the body directly with the barn doors. The other M90 was hitting at a more frontal 45-ish angle. This was diffused well and provided a good ambiance for the room as well as a key for Shreya. I was worried that this crosslight along with the actual sun will be a horrible situation with the shadows. But the moment the lights went on, I knew it would work. From then on we just kept building the frame by eye. Over time I’ve realized to trust my onboard monitor and have adjusted my eye to light according to that. This is a huge confidence boost when you know something is going to work and you do it and it does look good. We knew this was the last setup that we can pull with natural light, so Sridhar was already working on a Night for Day plan that we had prepared earlier.
We quickly did Shreya’s shot and shifted the track to shoot Dia’s angle. By this time we had lost the natural sun. So had to rely completely on the M90s. We just readjusted the angle of the lights. The backlight on Shreya now became key for Dia and the key earlier became a back/side light for Dia. I loved how the frills in the sheer curtain created good breaks in the light in the room and made it feel very organic.
Fifth Session -
For this setup, we had to move inside the hall again. We planned this towards the end as this was one of the scenes where we could manage without showing the balcony. This was one of the intermediate sessions. It was a short scene but we still had to show progression in the character’s journey. So our idea was to use daylight with practicals.
The balcony windows were covered with chimera cloth and the M90s were moved back to create a soft but punchy daylight look inside. The sheer curtains were also closed inside to sell the night-for-day look. I think I did add a Skypanel S60 from inside the balcony just to increase the levels of the key for Dia. For the warm practicals, a Soonwell 4x2 with Softbox was rigged in the middle of the room on a pole. This was used for both angles just by varying the intensity and diffusion. I realized a smaller unit would have worked better for this as the light was used at 1% and still felt a little brighter to me. I generally don’t like a practical switched-on during the day. It’s a very illogical concept for me but has been used extensively in commercials. But in this case, I did want it to feel organic, so just went with a subtle hint of warmth. Further, a Skypanel was bounced inside the room to the ceiling just to raise the ambiance a little bit.
Sixth Session -
This had to be a really quick setup as we were running out of time for our shift and the LPs were already quite restless. Since we already knew this needed to have a late evening sun, Sridhar had already managed to place a tungsten unit on the balcony before we started. I think it was a 2kw fresnel with Opal. Just used the shape of the window which cast a really good light on the wall. The bounce from this wall also worked as a key for the characters. We used a white poly to enhance this bounce on their faces. The Skypanel S60 in the balcony earlier was used again as a soft backlight for both characters. This light was allowed to spread across the room because one of the characters walked across. I remember also placing an RGB tube bounced to the ceiling on their left for a fill. We also used a couple of Soonwell LEDs from the balcony to lift up the ambiance in the room and also to make the ambient light warmer.
I really hope reading about our process here helped to gain additional insight into the making of this film or just inspiration for something else you had in mind. Will try to make a detailed post about the other setups from the film very soon. Do leave your feedback for this one so that I can improve on further posts.