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One Lamp per Step
The Empire · 2021 · Dir. Mitakshara Kumar · Disney+ Hotstar
Breakdown · Lighting · by Yiannis Manolopoulos, Director of Photography
An evening scene, set in an ancient step well with the impressive repetitive architecture of its maze-like steps.
We wanted to feature the geometrical elements of the location and chose to place one oil lamp on each of the steps, using them to graph out the lines of the steps in the background of our shots. We spent about an hour setting all the lamps as the sun was going down, so we could have a twilight sky with enough detail in the establishing wide setup.
Medium two-shot. The characters are front-cross-lit by two ARRI SkyPanel S60s on a fire effect, imitating the shifting intensity and colour of the practical fire bowls in the scene. There is also a 4K HMI coming through a big silk frame placed at the top of the step well across from them, top of frame.
Over-the-shoulder medium to close-up push. The practical oil lamps in the background create some bokeh geometry that shimmers when you watch the scene in motion, the light on the actors' faces subtly undulates from the SkyPanel effect, and the camera slowly pushes in. Together these elements give quite a bit of movement and energy to a static discussion.
Reverse. We kept the moonlight from the diffused HMI quite subtle, with just a very light blue tone.
Adding a bit more energy, we introduce the scene with a lateral track following the female character. She passes the practical tiered oil lamp that facilitates some of the scene's lighting but also creates a focal point for the setup.
The practical fire bowl that motivates the SkyPanels is seen in the background of this frame, as the character is left alone to ponder at the end of the scene.
The beautiful ancient step well during the recce.
Lighting diagram for the scene.
The wide setup is complete and the lighting team is rigging the silk frame and HMI for the remaining setups. Some of the beautiful reflections of the lamps can be seen in the water — we unfortunately didn't get to include them in any of the shots. The initial plan was to open with a swooping jib shot rising from the water reflections to our male character standing and pondering, before introducing the female character, but the shot was dropped for time.
Recce, standing in for our initial two-shot plan. As the scene includes an argument, the first idea was to separate the characters visually, placing them on either side of the column. The blocking on the day revealed that both standing under one arch felt more natural — and allowed more of the impressive oil-lamp pattern to be visible in the background.