BUILDING an INDIE FILM BAR part 2

Ok so one of the reasons I am building the bar for my little indie short film is so I could have time to tinker with it. The kind of time I definitely wouldn't have in a real bar. This is really important when it comes to figuring out my camera movements and lighting placement for certain effects that I want with smoke and mood. Here's a shot of half the bar at this point. I don't have a woodshop at my disposal so I like to use PVC from the plumbing section of any hardware store. I use a hacksaw to cut it and the joints are easily used to get the box shapes I need. I used this similar type of structure a few years ago to make a riser for a dolly that I had an actress stand on when I wanted her to float (ghost) really close to the ceiling. PVC is strong but not always unflexible. So I added some nearby heavy furniture to keep it from swaying. This is really budget thinking.lol

My producer, Amy, lives in Utah and was able to find some amazing prices on antique bottles. Since this is a noir film I wanted to have a bunch of older pieces in it to hold on to the flavor of the old times. Not that we are absolutely true to the 1940's. I added these little push on lights to the bottles behind my show bottles to get an inner light. otherwise we'd never really see them.

We got these selzer bottles at Pasadena's flea market. A flourescent light sits behind them.

Here is an old light that was used to spray light up on a wall and ceiling. I've always like the feel it gives a room. The top picture shows what it does in to the little cubicle. not much. so I put a reflector on the ceiling of the cubicle so the light could fill the space better. I buy a lot of poster board reflectors at film tools in burbank. $5 for a 30x40 sheet.

This is a cheap little flourescent I keep around for small jobs like lighting a face. You can see in the test shot at the bottom how my face has some light. this is the source.

for now this is where I'm at. It looks much less like my living room and more like a bar. I still have much more to do. Including extending the bar to the length of the room and removing my television and the couch etc. so I have room for camera and actor's movement. In the bottom shot you can see i've added candles to the top of the bar piece. eventually this room will be filled with smoky haze.