Initial Lighting Research

One of my secondary roles for Cirque Du Creep is Lighting. There are two people on lighting because it will require a lot of thought and tests, especially with the car scene at the start and the studio scene at the end, which will have to match with the circus lighting otherwise the illusion is lost. It needs to be done right or the whole production will loose its value... No pressure. Here's a basic three point lighting tutorial just in case.




Cirque Du Freak

This is our main inspiration. The lighting is dark and moody (with a lot of red gels). Even though the film is mostly dark, the actors are always well lit, using three point lighting. Using a LED light on the eyes to make the actors have some life in them (making a light pin prick in the eyes) might also be a good idea (this can be seen in the gif below). I will further discuss with the director if they want this, and if they want three point lighting or more mysterious shadowed lighting.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8962.A_Living_Nightmare

Spotlight

For the big show at the end, the director wants the ringmaster in a spotlight in a circle on the floor. I'm pretty sure Submarine did this but I spent over an hour looking for the scene or any stills and couldn't find any (I didn't want to admit defeat), so I took this still from Black Swan as inspiration instead. This look should be doable in the location with the studio lights. I will need to do a few tests to see which lights need adjusting to get it just right.

https://jdanspsawyksui.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/black-swan.jpg