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70's lighting style

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Ramesh Jai

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I'll be filming a commercial which is set in the 70s. The locations are a bedroom and a living room. Was there a definite lighting style in the 70s? I'm trying to get the SHAFT / SUPER FLY look. Any pointers? Thanks.
 
the "look" will probably be more achievable in post (stock emulation, color, etc), but as far as your lighting, I'd say stick to only hard light. Blaxploitation films were shot quickly, using cheap lights on slow stock. Don't try too hard to hide your shadows ;)
 
Coral Filters offer some killer lens flares and a very 70's look.

I'd also find a great colorist or post house, we just did a 70's look on the Pablo, film scratches, grain and all.. shot on RED.

EDIT: Project is still under wraps, so I cant release images publicly yet.

cheers!
 
You're basically talking about:

35mm 100 ASA Tungsten color negative (5254 from 1968-mid 70's, then 5247 after that), often pushed one-stop for lower-light scenes, thus 200 ASA.

Small and sometimes large tungsten light fixtures, no HMI's, carbon arcs only used on big shows.

A mix of available light & fast lenses, and hard-ish tungsten spots, in low-light like night exteriors. Otherwise, Angenieux zooms were very popular and thus more hard lighting to get enough stop.

The popularity of "foggy" diffusion like Fog, Double-Fog, and Low-Con filters on some shows, though I don't recall many Blaxploitation movies using them.

The hair styles, wardrobe, furniture, etc. do a lot more to sell that 70's look than the photographic tricks.
 
Thank you all. Your input has really helped me be more clear about the kind of lights I'll need. We have got appropriate clothing, props and sets. Will post some pics after the shoot. Btw will be shooting with RED.
 
Ramesh Jai said:
Is shooting with everything in focus (as opposed to shallow DOF) also a '70s style? Thanks
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In my opinion, yes. Basically, quick, dirty and lazy. Hard shadows, blanket lighting, props/furniture slammed against the background and deep focus.

This is what screams 70s to me!
 
Need your views here- Would you still light the 70s style if the period was 2010 but only the character and his house were from the 70s? The concept is that our main character is stuck in the past because he hasn't been able to progress in life. Thanks once again.
 
Depends on how stylized the movie is -- it doesn't make sense for the lighting to be anachronistic if the overall movie is realistic in tone. But it can be a surreal comedy where even the lighting, editing, use of zooms, music score, etc. are obviously anachronistic.
 
Thanks, I'm glad someone finally noticed something about the photography of that show...

The idea there was that the house was stuck in the 1970's, design-wise, so to give it a timeless feeling, I basically lit it very warm, smoked the set, used a 1/4 Fog Filter on the camera, then pulled down the chroma and crushed the blacks a little to compensate for all the haze, giving the whole image a sepia feeling.

As that neighbor's house gets renovated during the season, the look changes, gets less mysterious & dark, less manipulated, though never completely normal, I still used the Fog Filter and some light smoke.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Depends on how stylized the movie is -- it doesn't make sense for the lighting to be anachronistic if the overall movie is realistic in tone. But it can be a surreal comedy where even the lighting, editing, use of zooms, music score, etc. are obviously anachronistic.
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Thanks David. I'll make it a surreal comedy then. Because we are in the character's world (which is the 70s) the viewer should also 'feel' the era he is stuck in.
 
Tim Whitcomb said:
Coral Filters offer some killer lens flares and a very 70's look.
Click to expand...

Coral filters aren't going to affect lens flares enough to make them anywhere near "killer," if at all. The choice of an old zoom over primes will have an order of magnitude more effect on lens flares than simply using a color correction filter.
 
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