The next wide shot follows the same theme. Our two protagonists are in a terrible predicament, and the first thing I wanted to do was to put the camera up high in order to look down on them. By chance, there was a small staircase in the very corner where I wanted to frame up, so I was able to get the angle I wanted. I chose a 24mm lens in order to make the couple small in the frame. Once again, the M2's abilities are on display in this wide shot. Despite being on a 24 mm lens, the background is soft enough to isolate the actors.
In terms of lighting, I knew I didn't want too much heat on the actors and the goal was to keep the shot dark. One thing I definitely wanted was a hot spot somewhere in the frame. The obvious route to lighting this shot would have been to light the couple through the kitchen sink window behind them. They would be bathed in a strong backlight and I would get a hot spot right on the table. I chose not to do that however, because I wanted to keep the light off the couple as much as possible. Instead, I put a 575 HMI just outside frame left and pointed it across the room. You can see that the hot spot lands in the middle of the shot, on the wall behind them. To keep the right side of the frame dark, I had to flag off the ambient light coming in from the front hallway. I believe the combination of all these choices best represents the story, and the troubled state of the characters, in this one shot.
One note about the hot spot: HD's inability to handle overexposure has been well documented. It doesn't take much past a stop and a half to lose all information forever and this frame is a good example of that. There were concerns on set that the hot spot wasn't kosher for HD lighting and that it would be better to slow it down and come back within the normal range of overexposure. Andrew readily agreed with my point of view that the darkness of the shot and the isolated hot spot really set the mood for the scene and served the story well. We both felt that this shot was representative of the visual style we had established for the film, and that it worked in this context. In most other scenarios, I would agree that the overexposure was too much. In this case however, I felt that it was the right thing to do.
Hopefully I've been able to demonstrate that even on a microfilm, you can still achieve the look you want by choosing the right budget-friendly tools to work with. Also, I think it's clear from my lighting diagrams that my setups were pretty simple. I'm a strong believer in keeping my lighting setups as straightforward as possible every time I shoot, because I find they usually end up looking the best this way. I used to light scenes way more complex than they needed to be because I thought that was how a big budget production would do it. I've since learned that it's almost always best to keep it simple, and there's no better way to test that theory out than on a micro-budget film.
Illegal has since been accepted into the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, and was chosen to be screened in the Panasonic booth at this year's NAB in Las Vegas.
