This location was so awesome. Picture a basement, hidden underneath a prestigious school on the top of a hill. Actually, this property was used in the original Mad Max too! Mad!
When we first recce'd the spot with Lucas, Julie and the crew, I instantly fell in love with the walls, but more so what I could do with the lighting. There were two windows that had light streaming down from above, hitting the floor. I knew exactly what to do. Smash some HMI's down through the windows and try to use that as my main light source. I did end up bouncing it off reflectors laying on the ground, for some extra kick. In hindsight, I think I needed stronger HMI's (2.5K's) but hey, the 1.2's did okay :) I wanted to keep the place kinda dark anyway and I think it worked well.
Here's the breakdown:
With a fairly simply grade, the shot really comes alive! See below for a before and after. I was also experimenting with grading the 1080p ProRes file, instead of the original 4K R3D, just to see how far it could be pushed. It's definitely not as easy, but with a little time, it's no problem :) I graded this in EDIUS 7 Pro using 3 way, Curves, and a window.
For more lighting setups, check out the LIGHTING section at the top of this page :)
