Three fingies of Drambu and Marasino cherry. Thanks, Kingdom. Three fingies? Usually you're at two fingies, kind of guy. Pause. Right now, this scene is completely raw and is only lit by the light coming from the windows. There's no additional lighting equipment being used. It shows what might happen if someone like me is an onset. My name's Andy and I'm a gaffer. Let's go in and see all the different techniques a gaffer might use to light a scene. Rewind. Let's start things off by firing up some lights. This is a very important thing to do. Let's start things off by firing up some lights. This is what we call flat lighting. It's when the main source of light in a scene called the key light comes from the same direction as the camera. This removes all shadow and definition from the subject, which seldom looks good. Three fingies of Drambu and Marasino cherry. Thanks, Kingdom. Three fingies. Usually you're at two fingies, kind of guy. Right now, we're using too many lights, which causes the scene to lose any sense of mood. Another day you're trying to forget. Another day I gotta remind myself not to repeat. Yes, these subjects are lit, but this lighting is too intense and there's no justification within the context of the bar for where these light sources are coming from. Let's take a look at this lighting setup and see what we can improve. There are a lot of lights here, especially for what's supposed to be a dark dingy dive bar. Let's turn some of these off. Since this is a bar interior in the late afternoon, less lights will feel more natural for our location, while also taking the time of day we're trying to replicate in the consideration. That's all right. The mysterious dancing lady over there said she'd take care of whoever comes in next. Shadows play a huge part in determining the mood of a scene. Adjusting the direction of where a key light is coming from, say, from the front of this mysterious woman to her side, can add shadows that make her appear even more mysterious. This liver is sunshine for your dim day, Donnie. Watch as the dancing lady moves into a poorly lit spot. This doesn't make sense of the lighting we've already established. Adding in small sources of light from the bar and the front of the establishment will tie everything together. However, a large light source creates softer shadows that are less defined and fade at the edges. We should probably go with a smaller source so we have harder, more defined shadows. That's better. The blue in cherry. That's been my drink says I was seven years old. Maybe we're cut from the same fabric. Like a rock wire layer on fire. In addition to our key light, fill lights and back lights are commonly used. Back lights help create a highlight which separates our subject from the background. Take a look here at how the lawyer pops more with the back light on. On the other hand, fill lights lighten shadows without noticeably affecting what's being lit by the key light. With the fill lights on, the shadows disappear from the lawyer's face, but preserve what has already lit. Wait, you're on peer-trace for tata, right? Is your last name really for tata? Let's wrap this up so my my feet that that can go back to her dancing. Now that we've set some of our lights, we may start running into other issues like double or triple shadows as seen here. We can often eliminate unwanted shadows by repositioning or adjusting the lights so the shadows move out of frame. Check out this shadow the key light is casting on the back wall. Trying to remove it with another light here looks unnatural and adds more unwanted shadows in new places. Instead, it's often smart to use a tool like this flag to control light sources field of play. Removing shadows without moving or losing any actual lights. Now, tell me, is the toast in your pocket? I'm sorry I don't follow. Toast in your pocket. Do we got our guy? Right now, the lawyer is being lit with a top light. In general, unless it's a creative choice, it's good to try and avoid doing this since it casts dramatic, unflattering shadows that highlight the nose and leave eyes darker. However, these hanging lights are what we call practical lights, or lights that appear on cameras part of the set design, and they motivate a top-down source. By pulling the top light forward a bit, we can avoid many of the unflattering shadows while still representing the practical lights. Oh, um, yeah, we got the toast and the honey to put on the toast. Do more fringes of dram, Donnie. The same goes for underlight. It's normal for light to be coming from the underside of a bar, but when it's this intense, it creates a creepy, unnatural structure on the human face. However, if we manage the intensity by diffusing the light with something like this bleach muslin, we can keep things looking natural while still accurately representing bar lighting. Sometimes these dramatic top and underlights can be used for effect. Let's turn on a light over the creepy guy to purposely give him unflattering shadows so it will make him look even more menacing. Now that the cat's out of the bag, how long do we get to the pony show? Can I leak this leak first? So we've positioned our lights, but they're all set at about the same intensity and it feels pretty boilerplate. A scene like this should be moodier, and simply tweaking our existing lights can help us achieve this. Let's see what we can do here. If we place a silk in front of our key light, it will diffuse it, reducing its intensity and softening it. Turning off our fill light will bring more shadows back, which well suits this shot. The top light is spilling onto the walls in our actors a bit too much, so we can put a grid on it to help with directionality, forcing the light to be more directly focused beneath it. Even with the silk, our key light still looks a bit too bright. Many lights have dimmers on them, and lowering the intensity of the light itself might be a good idea here. There we go, using our same lights as before, the scene feels much moodier. Let's see this part again now. Now that the cat's out of the bag, how long do we get to the pony show? I'm sorry. Can I leak the snake first? No. I want to know. Did he spill the beans? I want the whole enchilada. Another way to create a moodier atmosphere in a scene is to add what we literally call atmosphere. This is a hazer, which fills the room with a light fog. Watch and see how it can separate an actor from the environment. Creating a more volumetric lighting that makes our light sources glow. Did he spill the beans? I want the whole enchilada. In a bar, this kind of effect makes sense. Is this place safe? I mean, this could get me banned from the bar. You're sweating more than a chimping a cheesecake factory. You're getting a good slice here, honey. Everything we've done so far has created a nice mood and appropriate atmosphere. But there is something else we can do to make the scene really pop. Color can bring more personality to a scene. We're in a bar, so let's throw on these pink and blue lights to simulate glowing neon signs. Color can also be used to give us more information about a character. Adding red over our creepy guy can make him look even more sinister. We square honey. Square as the pyramid. Now, after taking all these lighting techniques into consideration, we've turned a boilerplate bar into something that better complements the mood of our script, is full of character, yet stays true to this type of location. I might have brought my rotwile into Joanne's fabric, and she might have destroyed 17 rolls of fabric, but I did not set that place on fire. But I did not set that place on fire. No matter the genre, having appropriate lighting can turn an average scene into a killer one. Sorry, I forgot to leak the snake. None of these are steadfast rules. They're all tools that help tell a story. While most of these choices are ultimately up to the director of photography and the director, the gaffer plays a critical role in executing these ideas. Not only must they be done smartly and efficiently, they must be done with the right intention.