Lighting Shafts of Light Like "Northfork" on Super 16

[visualart010]

Hello,

I am about to embark on a thesis film in a month and have a question about achieving a certain style. It's a Super 16 short and I know it will be Vision 3 7219 stock.

I like how Northfork has the shafts of light coming through windows, etc. I want to try to replicate this for particular scenes. Here's a reference;

I was figuring the best way to achieve this was using 3 4k xenons through 3 separate windows with smoke to create the shaft (my space is significantly smaller).

I was thinking of letting the light go 2 stops over, is this enough to receive that look (I want to retain some detail as they walk in and out of the light)? Or should I overexpose it more? Also what should I use for fill? Will the xenons fall off provide adequate ambiance? Are there other units that may work better? I'm between using xenons or Par.

Thank You

 

[David Mullen ASC]

How much fill you need is partly dependent on how bright the shafts are, because the more you overexpose them, the more you expose for the shadows and the ambience. So you might not need fill, or only a very small amount, like from a big bounce.

Yes, the light hitting the subject should be at least two over if not three over.

Basically with an even amount of haze, how prominent the shaft becomes is a combination of the thickness of the haze + how bright the beam is. The brighter the beam, the less haze you need to use.

You could try taking a digital still photo as a way of previewing the exposure and fill.