MUSIC VIDEO

[J Costantini]

Hi, I'm shooting a music video, basically night exterior and interior.

 

One "set" is a bridge. a real one, like the golden gate bridge. we'll shoot at night and they will set up a small stage for the band. it doesn't matter that the bridge will be all dark (in fact, it will not, because the cars will be passing by and the bridge has its own lights...)... but the stage needs to be lit and the director wants lights that come from below... like they were put on the floor by the musicians themselves... sort of an improvised show...

there won't be an audience, they will be playing by them selves... at some point, the beginning of the music video actually, there will be an aerial shot with a helicopter that will show both the city lights, the bridge and the stage lights will turn on. the stage will not have a ceiling and we'll see the band directly and the lights.

 

questions:

 

1) what kind of light could I use taking into consideration that we will see them from the aerial shot and that he wants them to be on the ground of the stage? I thought about kinos, but they may look professional and industrial...

 

2) at ISO500 and T2.0 how do city lights behave in general??... I know there's a difference between shooting Las Vegas at night from above and Mexico city... but let's think about an avarage city at night, not too high... should I push the film 1 stop to ISO1000 and still use T2.0?

 

3) any suggestions for lighting this situation when I go for the regular shots, close-ups, etc... I thought that maybe I could throw some backlight and make it look like it's coming from the bridge lights... it will be a simple lighting coming mostly from below them.

 

Thank you

Edited June 20, 2006 by nillo

[Ram Shani]

hi

 

for lighting the stage you can use orion or iris lights that are made by strand or dissti. it will do the job perfect

 

if you whant somthing less pro you can by the simpel quarz light that in the metel box in home depo.

 

 

and when you shot the stage if you use the orions or the iris you can put diffusen on them and move them a littel bit far so thay are still from low angel but in a more complementry then maby add same fill to the eyes

 

here in tel aviv 500asa and T2 work great.

 

if you shoot 16mm pushing 1 stop make it a bit grainy so if i push i will overexpused the neg by at list 1/2 a stop

 

mybe try to light the backgruond to add some depth to the frame you can you par64 spot its light very powerfull and only 1kw

Edited June 20, 2006 by ram shani

[Michael Nash]

If you want the stage lights to look sort of homemade, you could use simple par cans (1K or 650), on dimmers to help balance with the city light exposure. You could also try Halogen work lights, probably the 300W or 500W kind (enough of them will get the exposure up a little). If you "ring" the stage with lights around the edge, you will naturally have edge, back, side, and front lights.

 

In my experience an average urban night exterior is T1.4 at 640 ASA, depending on the light sources of course. So a 1/2 stop push of 500 ASA at T 2.0 is not far off.

[J Costantini]

In my experience an average urban night exterior is T1.4 at 640 ASA, depending on the light sources of course. So a 1/2 stop push of 500 ASA at T 2.0 is not far off.

 

The idea was to push it 1 full stop to 1000 ASA and use T2.0.

(I mean use T2.0 and overdevelop 1 stop - just for the aerial shot)

 

Could it look too grainy?? It's the 7218 and going for telecine... anyway, it's a music video and this part will definately have an "acid, bleach by pass look", so I believe that some grain wouldn't hurt.

Edited June 21, 2006 by nillo

[Michael Nash]

The idea was to push it 1 full stop to 1000 ASA and use T2.0.

(I mean use T2.0 and overdevelop 1 stop - just for the aerial shot)

 

Could it look too grainy?? It's the 7218 and going for telecine... anyway, it's a music video and this part will definately have an "acid, bleach by pass look", so I believe that some grain wouldn't hurt.

 

You'll just have to watch out for the increase in contrast you can get from pushing the neg. In a worst case scenario you end up with blown-out looking highlights and crushed-looking blacks, with not enough properly-exposed detail in between, with a night exterior. I don't think 7218 pushed one stop should be too bad though, but it will look a little different from "normally" exposed '18. You really should test it to see if it suits the look you want, and if the exposure is adequate for your location.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

2) at ISO500 and T2.0 how do city lights behave in general??... I know there's a difference between shooting Las Vegas at night from above and Mexico city... but let's think about an avarage city at night, not too high... should I push the film 1 stop to ISO1000 and still use T2.0?

 

I find in general that the more exposure you can get out of the ambience at night in a city, the better. But to give you a reference, included is a couple of stills from a video I shot beginning of this year. It was shot wide open at T1.3 on Fuji's Eterna 500T and then pushed one stop to 1000ASA.

 

But you don't have to go that far in most cases - and neither did I actually in hindsight, since highlights out of focus become bigger an "occupy" more of the frame anyway - but I wanted to have the nights really juicy. Depends on what, and how you shoot. I would not push 16mm one stop, for instance. And if you plan to use more close-ups it's less necessary to boost the ambience night.