Rome HBO series

[rkmvca1]

I would say also that in "Rome", as in just about every other pre-20th C. period piece, interior lighting is too bright, particularly at night. All they really had before the last century were candles, fireplaces, and oil lamps, and those were all expensive, hence use was minimized.

However, you really couldn't film interior shots if that's all you had, so considerable lighting is added. It would be interesting to hear from film professionals as to how much.

rkmvca/Rich Klein

[Tarbicus]

However, you really couldn't film interior shots if that's all you had, so considerable lighting is added. It would be interesting to hear from film professionals as to how much.

Actually you can, but it would take so much work and time to make sure it could be done the series wouldn't be made in the first place and they would have run out of money by the time Vorenus and Pullo had returned to Rome from Gaul.

The thing is it's all an illusion. The only thing that counts is what it looks like on the screen, including spraying black paint into corners that are too bright, and using clips and pegs on the off-camera side to make a suit better fitting. Probably the master of using natural available light is Clint Eastwood, which is how he normally (but not always) has his films lit - the good ones that is.

[Dardanus Lupus]

Only historical movie I know that was filmed without artificial lightning in candlelit scenes was Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon". The director - a notorious perfectionst - used a special lense built by Carl Zeiss company for NASA, a 50mm Zeiss lens modified with the Kollmorgen adaptor used in still cameras. Hence the soft, natural effect in those shots.

[Woadwarrior]

so the makeup, makes it looks more natural

[Tarbicus]

so the makeup, makes it looks more natural

Ironically, yes :? Lights and the camera are very unforgiving on natural skin.