Fill Light

What this is about

Once the key is standing, the DP decides how deep the shadow side should go and expresses it as a ratio: roughly equal for a bright commercial look, two or three stops down for drama, no fill at all for a hard interrogation scene. The gaffer produces the level with a bounce board, a large soft source or a piece of white poly rather than a second lamp aimed at the face, because visible fill shadows destroy the geometry the key established.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Fill is expressed as a ratio to the key, for example two to one, rather than as an absolute lamp output.
• A bounce board is often the better fill than a lamp, because reflected light arrives large, soft and shadowless.
• If the fill throws a visible second shadow, it is too hard or too direct and needs diffusing or moving off axis.

With TillyGen

In TillyGen the lighting note per setup holds the intended ratio, so the gaffer rebuilds contrast from a number instead of from memory.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.