The boomed chinaball they're using for local fill/eyelight is filled with a coil of LED ribbon allowing them to dial in the color temp and dimming.

It's a short article, in the "Production Slate" section, but the Jan. 2014 issue of American Cinematographer discusses some of the techniques and equipment used. They kept it very simple, wanting mostly practical, motivated lighting (you can tell they juiced up what was in the practical fixtures). Notice in the BTS when you see a wide you're not looking at C-stands and cables everywhere or big movie lights but all the practical lights read as extra hot and too much for the documentary camera.

Most of the film was shot on a 24mm and they went with now discontinued (like so many) Fuji stocks because of what they did for color, particularly the fluorescents.

It's a good issue, with a very detailed article on the techniques used for the new Coen Bros. film.

Just saw it the other night. Great movie. Cool style, fantastic soundtrack. Good to great performances from everyone.

I saw this quote from IMDB on the acting/writing style:

"According to Christian Bale much of the movie was improvised. So, during the shooting of the film he noted to David O. Russell, "You realize that this is going to change the plot greatly down track." To which the director replied, "Christian, I hate plots. I am all about characters, that's it."

They augmented the practical lighting and would supplement light coming through windows with a bank of Kinos and used the big, movie lights outside blasting through windows, using bounce and the chinaball for fill when necessary.

A lot of the sets/locations needed to work from 360 degrees of viewing given it was pretty much entirely shot on steadicam using long takes. They used 18Ks and the like but these were often outside shining in. The lighting and pre-rigging that was done was to light the environments, setting a base exposure for the backgrounds and then the chinaball let them deal with when the actors themselves were too dark.

Contrived "beauty" lighting on actors is only one of many ways to light a film, 3-point being the most basic and self-conscious. It works for some but a well done, naturalistic film more in the '70s style was more appropriate here.

See To the Wonder and Tree of Life for breathtaking examples of movies shot with just available light and no movie lights.

It was. Of course, when you set out to make a film with that dogma, you don't get a film as beautiful as Malick unless you are as conscious of this decision with every other decision you make. Going available light dictated when and where they were shooting. Where the talent was facing, plane of action, camera angle and movement (unlike the Lars Von Trier dogme of "just shoot it, warts and all" anti-aesthetic from the '90s)

All locations were essentially pre-mapped during pre-production so that they knew how light was affecting them, down to which rooms in a house were on the sun side, what the sun did inside the rooms and (at least on To the Wonder) they had back-up lookalike rooms in entirely different houses if need be for unfortunate cloud cover, etc.

Company moves and the daily schedule was dictated by the direction and angle of the sun. Since they were only moving the camera and only a few pieces of gear this meant they were able to move a guerilla speeds. Of course, you also have to have on-screen talent that are going to be on board with the approach and non-diva. They have to be okay with being, by some interpretations, secondary to the photography of the film and can't feel threatened. I'm guessing the speed of setup and movement made that pill easier to swallow, since it ultimately feels less technical and intrusive to their craft, even if it's ultimately more dictatorial than over-lighting.

@vicharris Sure thing, the article said they used LiteRibbon:

http://www.litegear.com/product/led-literibbon/vho-pro-literibbon-led/

No, I haven't used any LED ribbons but it seems like, over the last year, they've become quite popular. I've seen quite a few DIY videos for use in fixtures like bowls and par cans, filling surface area to create something with a nice spread. This was the first time I read about them used inside a China Ball though and thought that was very cool.

Yep. I see some really cheap ones on Amazon I might buy just to see how well I can work with em. Sure the CRI sucks but for $12, it'll be worth a test :)

@BurnetRhoades, thanks again.

Do you have a link of these articles? Im surprised about 'Only god Forgives', this movie look like a very very costly work of lightnigs.

@vicharris I'll be interested in seeing the results of your budget LED chinaball. I've got few chinaballs that I use with spiral fluoros. Okay indoors with available AC but a 12volt LED version would be great. Keep us posted.

I must be the only one who did not "love" this movie. Yes, it was entertaining, but not entirely. Many times I felt like I was watching a poor-man's Scorsese rendition of this story. There were times I actually thought, "did Scorsese actually direct this?? If so, it's a shame...he's really lost his attention to the flow of the story."

One example, the scene where the female lead was having a "moment" in her house to the music...really not necessary, but if it actually was, then done totally wrong.

Overall, meh. If it were to come on tv, I would rather flip to see if Goodfellas, Casino or The Departed were on and if not, then just go to bed.

Ummm...