Masaki Kobayashi’s J-Horror masterpiece ‘Kwaidan (1964)’ with cinematographer Yoshio Miyajima whose meticulous attention to detail is spellbinding with a filmography : Hara-kiri (1962), Empire of Passion (1978), The Fall Of Ako Castle (1978) and with ‘Kwaidan (1964)’ which is in part four different segments or stories, each its own masterpiece .
The second story of Kwaidan got my most attention and would always be an influence to me on lighting ‘night scenes’ in ‘closed spaces’ as similarly done so on ‘Unscripted’; Rachel Morrison the first woman to ever have been recognized by The Academy for her work on cinematography for the film ‘Mud bound’ by Dee Rees also employed the same and simple technique during her night shots. In an interview she mentions her views on lighting certain scenes which have been a mixture of the old and the new, having hinted that nothing would beat filmstock during the daytime and it would be most effective to use digital during the night. Although we never have used filmstock but what she mentions in this interview about lighting at night was truly practical and she mentions that digital cameras with a base ISO of 800 should be raised to 1280 or up to 1600 while keeping the lighting soft and simple to showcase that the light that bounces of the floors and to the walls would be from the moon. Miyajima used the same technique but with filmstock which resulted in more grain.
Shots on ‘Unscripted’ involving the night scenes were done the same way as seen on Mud bound and on Kwaidan’s moonlit night shots .This was achieved through diffusing 4 Banks(2) on Tungsten at various lengths and points to give an illusion that the bounced light is not of staged lighting but from the moonlight passing through the window panes .
sachins^love:_forfilm_<3 