I hope this article will be useful for someone who finds themselves in a similar situation. The location was an abandoned house in a “remote area.” In the script (The film is “Family Vanished”) the windows are covered with newspaper so no one can see inside. This is “the bad guys hideout.” We were shooting in December and the last day of our shoot was the shortest day of the year. So we had just two 12 hour days of Day/Interior. There was not enough daylight to do all of the work. I told the UPM and Director Rob Malenfant: “I think I have a solution.”
The scenes were at the end of the film and were action filled. So we had to be able to look everywhere, including the newspaper covered windows. I asked the Art Department to leave about 8” uncovered at the top of the window. This allowed me to push hard HMI light thru the opening. This source bounced off the white ceiling and lit the interior in a natural way. We had use of the entire floor space free of stands, lights, c-stands, cables, etc. This was appropriate for the action scenes to be shot in the house.
Operator Ferguson Sauve-Rogan did a great job using the Sony FS5 and the MOVI system. When we looked toward the window the newspaper covered area was lit by the HMI, often the same unit used to create the bounce inside.