Love Between Storeys

Modes & Moods: Emergency Light

The emergency light mode kicks in when the elevator goes from complete darkness into a power saver mode. The top light and ceiling spots are off and the only available light comes through the doors and the floor at this time. This was the most interesting sequence lightingwise for me (Nils-Erik) as I love dark and moody stuff.

Now, the floor light is not powerful enough to reach the actors faces when they’re standing, and that was a bit of a problem because obviously we want the audience to be able to see what the characters are feeling. We solved that problem simply by resting a tube lamp on a chair and placed it right below the frame to enhance the floor light. So, we faked the position of the lamp to give the actors light, when they wouldn’t actually get any from the floor.

In the frame above you can see that Adam has light on his face. In the movie you get the impression that the light on his face comes from the iPhone flashlight reflected off the metal surface of the emergency console outside the shot. Actually the light comes underneath the frame from a tube lamp.

Well, alright! We’re approaching the end of our Elevator Set series. On Friday we’ll wrap it all up nicely with one last post. Check back then for the final set of tips and some handy links.