How to Light Bar & Pub Scenes | 3 Narrative Setups

What's up guys, welcome to Forment of Film School, I'm Ted with the A-Team. Today I'm here with Andy Raczewski. Andy Raczewski is an amazing DP that has shot commercials for VISA, Episodic TV, tons of feature films. You name it, he's done it. Today we're going to go over how to shoot cinematic bar scenes. Our first setup at the bar is inspired by John Wick, which is a very saturated movie. Our key light was two lights. It was a 300D and a 120D. So we needed two lights because we put so much blue on it that really cuts down the light. They were going into a bounce just to spread the light nice and soft in sort of a general ambience. We also dialed our camera temperature down to 2500. So it really made that blue go crazy blue. So second light is where we start getting into the reds to contrast that blue. We had a 120D rigged to the ceiling and just hitting the back of our actors with a primary red. And it's blue everywhere, but there's floating red. So the next light was an LS1. We had rigged up on a C-stand again with red, but this one was moving. We had Trey, our gaffer, just kind of going back and forth really to make it feel like there's a club outside of this one frame. So the next light was our final light, which is a 120D in the background. And again, just an accent of red. Once you create a space that's blue, blue, blue, blue, then all these little accents pop a lot more. We just wanted everything blue, just a wash. And so then we just chose for the red accent in general as a backlight. We don't want it to wash the face out. Red is such a saturated color. If we had put it hitting them in the front, you'd lose detail in the actor's face. So you have to be very careful with a rich, rich red like that. So the next lighting setup was inspired by Don Jon. For that scene, they leaned into warm, but also soft, soft, soft, soft. We started with the 300D in the light dome. And so the light dome itself has two layers of diffusion. So there's one on the inside right next to the light itself, and then the exterior has a big diffusion on it. And then we wanted to go softer, and so we added highlight, which is a unique diffusion. It's really beautiful. It has this, it brings a glow to the skin. It wasn't soft enough. Added an unbleached muslin on a C-stand, lowered it so basically mid-torso is when it starts, because you want the eyes to be going here. So then we added one more layer of diffusion because it wasn't soft enough. And that was for her face specifically, and that was a full grid. So our next light was sort of a top back edge light. It was a 120D rigged up above her, and that had double muslin on it. So again, soft but pumped up and with amber on it. And it was hotter than our key light. Right on, that gives it a little bit of a halo effect, right? Exactly. Yeah, she's glowing. This is our angel. So the third light is a 120D, and it's really just for background, kicking into the brick wall in back with blue on it, 120D with blue. And then we just pointed it up so the bottom half of the wall goes dark. For our final lights, I noticed that you turned off the bar lights that came with the set. Yes, so those bar lights were very distracting. They draw the eye, and this is about her. We used our two M9s. We had a little blue on them, and we just put them behind a couple of the bottles so that we have some definition but calm. Nothing drawing the eye. It was all about her. So ultimately, the overall goal with this setup is to accentuate our main character's obsession with her. So then finally, we're moving on to our last setup. I know we did something a little bit different. What was that last thing? Yes, so that was Casablanca. So we dialed the saturation down in-camera so that nobody in post can decide, you know what? Like, let's leave a little color in. I like to make as many decisions in-camera as I can. So our first light, our key light, is a 300D dialed way down to the bottom. It had a layer of grid on it and then a layer of highlight off the unit. And then, very importantly, we had our one flag coming down and cutting the actor kind of in the middle of his face. It really almost feels like a soft spotlight on him. So the next light was an M9. It was an eye light and a bit of fill. It was just propped up in a cardboard cup holder. Very, very technical and important. Use what you gotta use! Yep. And that just had a bit of diffusion on it, and so we just wanted to fill in his other side just a little bit so you can see performance a bit more. So the next light was an LS1. Which was actually the bathroom. There was this frosted window there. Adding some depth there, we just kicked some light into the window so you just realize, oh, there's more happening here. It's also a focus on the architecture. So I think we had one more light in the background. What was that? Yeah, so that was an MX in the deep background, pointed away from our scene, and it really just, again, creating depth and making you realize you're in a space. You're in a bar, there's more happening here, but you don't want to draw the eye. So it just kind of was hitting beams in the background just so that you realize, oh, there's more happening. We don't care what it is, but we know that there is a world. So there you have it. There's the episode of Formative Film School on how to light cinematic bar scenes. This is Andy Rzewski. Make sure you find him on Instagram at FilmAndy. I am Ted from The A-Team. Leave a comment below with your favorite bar scene and maybe how you think they lit it. The best comment is going to get an Ameren MX, which is our new light. It is five times brighter than the M9, so make sure you think of something especially creative. Make sure you leave a comment below if there's any other episodes that you'd like to see from us. Make sure you find Aputure on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Subscribe to us, hit that notification bell, and we'll catch you guys next time.