Revolutionizing Lighting: Julian White’s Journey with SUMOSKY on ‘The Boys In the Boat’ A story of success Julian White, a seasoned chief lighting designer, has had the experience of collaborating with SUMOSKY on numerous shoots, spanning both commercial projects and feature films. To him, SUMOSKY has proven to be an indispensable tool, not only for its efficiency in meeting time-sensitive demands but, most crucially, for its contribution to creative excellence. This cutting-edge technology played a pivotal role in overcoming significant challenges encountered during the production of The Boys In the Boat, a feature film directed by the illustrious George Clooney and masterfully lensed by Martin Ruhe, ASC. In an exclusive interview, Julian generously shared his invaluable experience harnessing the power of SUMOSKY to conquer daunting obstacles: “Capturing a night exterior shot on open water is a formidable task even in the best of circumstances, especially when the objective is to achieve close-up shots of the principal cast in an intimate setting. Managing multiple boats, camera cranes, and actors' stability presented a logistical and practical nightmare. The unpredictable weather, primarily the unrelenting wind, exacerbated the challenge. While we aimed to preserve some ambient light in the evening sky, we simply found ourselves running out of precious time,” Julian recollected. Faced with this predicament, the production team made a decisive move to relocate the close-up work to the indoor water tank at U-Stage, Pinewood. SUMOSKY, the interactive LED backdrop system, emerged as the solution that would enable them to craft an ideal filming environment. Both VFX supervisor Matt Kasmir and cinematographer Martin Ruhe, ASC, readily endorsed the utilization of SUMOSKY. Julian further explained, “Our collective confidence in the efficacy of SUMOSKY was well-founded. We sought a broad, soft light source with the capability for in-shot color gradation—a task traditionally accomplished using blue or green screens. However, these conventional approaches would have introduced complications related to water reflections and skin tones.” “The SUMOSKY, with its rapid rigging, unobtrusive profile, backlit design, and versatility in producing a spectrum of colors, seamlessly integrated into our requirements. It enabled us to recreate the essence of natural sky lighting, whether for day or night scenes, sunsets, or expansive sky domes on the stage. When combined with more conventional light sources, it facilitated the creation of dynamic lighting effects for our high-paced VFX work.” Julian elaborated on their innovative application of SUMOSKY: “We fashioned a horseshoe-shaped Rosco rear projection screen, backlit by the SUMOSKY, extending from the ceiling into the water. The VFX department crafted an image derived from our original footage, which was then transmitted as a digital file to the SUMOSKY software for 'projection' onto the screen. This technique enabled us to establish a meticulously graded wall of color, precisely tailored to the demands of our post-production work. Fine-tuning color values to achieve the perfect balance and exposure on camera took a matter of minutes.” “Furthermore,” Julian continued, “we harnessed SUMOSKY’s capabilities to generate edge lighting and employ it as a key light, all while adhering to traditional color temperatures. The intuitive interface allowed us to effortlessly select any area on the screen and introduce a 3-meter square of soft light at 5600K. In tandem with additional LED fixtures, we created clusters of light dots, artfully inspired by the tungsten practicals initially used on the lake shore.” SUMOSKY’s involvement empowered the production team to exercise greater command over the visual aesthetics of each scene. Julian emphasized the importance of subtlety when dealing with close-up shots of actors: “Achieving a night sky dome with a palpable color presence on the actors’ skin and reflections was paramount. SUMOSKY played an instrumental role in achieving this level of realism, and it worked exceptionally well.” In essence, SUMOSKY transcended the boundaries of conventional lighting techniques, elevating the art of filmmaking to new heights and enabling filmmakers to capture the essence of their vision with unparalleled precision and creativity. Julian White’s experience stands as a testament to the transformative impact of this IBL (Image Based Lighting) technology on the world of cinematography.
VFX shooting become faster-moving and more fluid so that's where the need of creating subtler, more reactive backdrops is coming from. Painted backdrops have never be a viable solution for projecting enough light, in the right color, and without any spill. Besides, achieving the desired results took weeks to rig, increased costs, time, materials and excessive studio space. That's why Sumolight developed SUMOSKY - a quickly riggable, slim, backlit, multicolored, and versatile system that can shift from neutral gray to green, blue, or any other color. This solution is capable of recreaing skylights, night lights, sunsets or sky domes for stages. When paired with harder sources it enables lighting effects for process work in vehicles or fast-paced VFX work. That’s a less expensive and simpler alternative comparing to a VP ledwall. The SUMOSKY also works well with traditional translight backdrops to enhance light or color changes, as well as Rosco Projection Screens and SoftDrops.
We are very happy to host Sumolight on showmug.com Sumolight is a very dynamic and succesful German company who produce innovative lighting solutions for Film and Broadcast productions. In this article we feature SUMOSKY, an ' interactive ' Large-Scale backdrop .
The SUMOSKY can be placed both vertically as a wall and horizontally as a ceiling light and Lightbox. It simply rolls out of a compact hard rolling case and can be hung in minutes with an easy setup, allowing you to create your own desired large-scale digital canvas, backdrop, greenscreen or bluescreen.
Other Amazing solutions by Sumolight: SUMOMAX
- Control settings and presets from the touch display. - Pixel mapping: Image Based Lighting ready with 19 pixels. Optics: Available Beam Shaping Plates in the three variations of 30°, 60° and the Standard Diffuser Plate with magnet fit.
Sumomax is an amazing High-output lighting solution ready for Image Based Lighting and virtual production. An interactive lighting tool, fully integrated into current control environments. A modular and versatile light that performs as a keylight, hardlight, punchlight, spacelight, or softlight.
SUMOSPACE+
The SUMOSPACE+ is the core of the SUMOSPACE modular system. Bright and lightweight, it outshines most fixtures in its class. Silent and passively cooled, it's efficient too. Simulating a 3k spacelight's output with LED-level power consumption, it's both powerful and economical. Its vibrant color rendition requires no adjustment, offering enhanced beam fields with four interchangeable optic system angles. From spacelight to soft light to high-density light, it transforms with light- shaping tools and lenses. With intensity and color temperature control (2800 to 6500 K), it stays flexible for any scenario – a perfect match for modern light- sensitive cameras.
Sumobean is a real revolution for Studio & Location Lighting. With genuine lasers. It's incredibly bright with extreme narrow beam. No diffusion. No falloff.
For more info visit Sumolight
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