I am doing a short. The scenes that I will be shooting will be very atmospheric. I am looking for some suggestions on this one scene.

The scene takes place in a bedroom with 2 people talking. One is sitting on the edge of a bed and the other is in a chair. They are facing each other. The room will only be lit by the window that is behind the person on the chair.

I am looking for a sun rays streaming through window effect and the talent in the room will almost be siloutted. The camrea will start off with a medium-long shot of both people in the frame and zoom and pan very slowly to the person's stomache on the edge of the bed.

I will be using my GL2 for the shot and was looking for help on lighting and camera settings. Any ideas?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Joe

You might want to use a fog machine to send some particulates into the air to get the sunbeam effect. Also, something to break up the light from the window into rays (it's the shadows that create the effect of the rays).

Depending on the amount of time you think you might need to cover the shot, you may want to consider recreating the suns rays with a light so you don't end up with continuity problems later from the sun shifting, or clouds moving in and out. Or at least consider having them for a backup in case of weather not cooperating.

I'd also consider an extra light or two for highlighting the silhouettes, or other elements in the room (or maybe not - don't know what kind of mood you want to evoke).

Just some thoughts...

Instead of a fogger there are also "Hazers" that you can buy or rent. It give a more even effect not a cloudy - I haven't used one (only foggers), but it will probably work out better for the sun-ray effect you want to capture.

Also, you should consider using a window with open blinds (horozontal or virticle), which will let the rays shine through.

You may need some additional backlighting if you are not getting the silouette feel you are looking for.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Mark. The mood I was looking for was very desperate. The conversation is about the two women are having is about wether or not one should have an abortion.

Any other suggestion would be greatly accepted.

Thanks again,

Joe

In that case, you probably want to keep it pretty dark, but do some lighting to highlight the woman's belly, perhaps bringing the light up on it in synch with the pan and zoom.

If there is a lot of emotion in the faces, you may also want to light them softly so you pick up the emotion. Then again, a harsher light creating dramatic shadows on the face might emphasize the emotion more.