The Funnel
Odd name for a blog posting but let me explain..............
A little while ago I shot a series of historical re-enactments of the life of Queen Elizabeth the first
We shot this in Penshurst Place
It seems like a dream assignment, indeed it was in many ways apart from one, yes you guessed it-budget!
By the time we had paid for all the locations, costume ,props, and crew we had not very much money left for talent
So, how does one make nine actors and a sparsely filled table seem like a full on Elizabethan banquet?
The Funnel
I first heard of it in relation to a critically acclaimed BBC docudrama called 'Culloden' by Peter Watkins made in 1964
Peter Watkins was faced with the same problem
Not enough talent and a HUGE area to fill
It simply means putting more talent at the front and filling in the gaps with talent progressively further off in the background
I used the same technique for my shoot
I used Elinchrom Rangers, with the main light in a Chimera Large Softbox on a Redwing boom(the Flash centre have one going second hand here!)
Shot on a Canon 1ds 28mm lens 1.3 sec at F14, a long exposure to pick the candles up, so VERY little ambient in the room which meant movement was not an issue
Note also that by shooting diagonally across the table I'm making it seem like there is much more food on it than there actually is.
All a case of making less seem like more
Something I have made a career out of...................