Sculpting the Soul (2025) - Gaffer
Sculpting the Soul is a Final year University student short film that I helped out. I was attached to this as a production assistant, as my brother was involved in the production and his friend was Directing, so I offered some of my time to assist on it.
Then two days before they started, their scheduled Gaffer became ill and I just stepped in to fill the role.
The project is a period piece, the staple of it is a shot near the end which is a recreation of a famous painting The Death of Marat. I discussed with the Director and DP about sticking to using single directional lights so the entire film can mimic the style of the painting and they were both on board with it.
DAY 1
The project was filmed at the Montsalvat Estate in Eltham (our final shoot day coincided with a shoot day for “Gnomes”) and we were situated near the back of the Estate. The first day we were in the student’s quarters.
The scene was set up around the table in the middle of the room. The Skylight was our directional anchor, all light had to appear that it was entering the room from this source. The key light was a Forza 300b and a GODOX FL150 helped to fill the table. An additional Amaran MC was used to create an edge light, simulating candlelight.
DAY 2
For day 2 we set up in and around the chapel. The chapel was built on a steep hill and we didn’t have a stable enough Combo stand to hold the lights up at 3.5m for the initial shot of entering the Chapel. I wish we had some gobo’s to simulate the church awnings so I could have rigged the lights inside instead.
The last setup for the day was confined into a small room at the back of the church. I was again stunted by the giant hill on one side, so we flipped the lighting direction and I was able to rig up a massive 2000w Blondie safely. This room also used a 300b as an additional light and a Pavotube 30c.
DAY 3
Day 3 had the hardest setup I’ve ever done. This was the day that had the mimicry of The Death of Marat painting.
The room we needed to set the light up in had no space for a stand on the correct side, so I ended up rigging a combo stand with a giant 3m carbon fibre VR pole that would extend across the entire length of the room. Then for support I placed the smallest stand I could against the rear wall so the pole didn’t sag when weight was put onto it. I used a 600w Tungsten redhead to get a lovely yellow light that mimicked the painting perfectly.
Behold, the behemoth.
For the next setup, I took the tungsten light away and instead fitted an Amaran 100d with a pavotube as a vertical fill light. I really love how this shot turned out, it’s a perfect amount of contrast in my opinion.
DAY 4
The last day on set, and an easy one. I set up two 600w redheads beaming in through some giant windows, a Forza 300b as a slight fill with a half tungsten gel on it and kept a roaming pavotube on standby for face fills.
