Lighting for music video

Chris Dingley · November 27, 2006

Ok, I am filming a music video with an xl2 for my friend. The scene I need advice for is him sitting on a chair playing the guitar but the room needs to be flushed out with lighting to look like a white infinity sort of thing. I was thinking of using all florescent lighting to give ti that look. Is there any ideas anyone would be great.

thanks,

chris

Jonathan Bowerbank · November 27, 2006

I think we're needing some more info here if you're really needing advice on this.

Is he on a sound stage with a giant white backdrop (a la THX1138), or is he in a room where you totally want the background to simply be blown out/overexposed?

Fluorescent's aren't too strong and really probably won't give you a very blown out white look. Whatever else you have, a nook or a couple of powerful softboxes might be a good option if you're looking to get an even reading across the white backdrop.

But then again, more info is needed :)

Chris Dingley · November 29, 2006

Yea... I talked to DP Sol Negrin(superman, robocop) and he told me to look into a kinoflo or or some arri 650's

Matt Sandstrom · November 30, 2006

Yea... I talked to DP Sol Negrin(superman, robocop) and he told me to look into a kinoflo

for what? if you are indeed trying to light an entire white wall evenly and strongly that wouldn't be my choice. are you sure you can't/won't explain further?

/matt

Ken Minehan · November 30, 2006

Hi Matt, The shot you're trying to achieve sounds pretty cool, but in order to visualise what you're trying to do i need a little more information.

Are you using prime lenses with your XL2?

How wide is your shot?

Do you want the white background to be over exposed?

Are you tracking/moving camera?

Back when i was a student, i shot a shortfilm where a scene took place in Limbo (a place between heaven and hell). So we had a white studio that we overexposed by 2 stops. we wanted to blow out the back ground to create the infinity look (and also to hide the cracks in the wall). At that time, the biggest lights we had available was 2k blondies. We had 4 blondies hanging from a grid on full flood. Blondies have a pretty good spread.

The kino that you mentined as a good spread, but the light falls off quite fast. If it's a wide shot, you will have to get quite a few kinos. The 650 is a very versatile light, but the spread is not very wide. If you intend to use prime lenses, it will suck a lot of light too. Maybe you can get bigger lights with a soft box attached to it, to give you even lighting on the back wall and also enough light to over expose a bit. But i recommend you to not make the talent of the same exposure.

I hope this helps. Please reply with a bit more info so other guys can help you too.

good luck

Ken Minehan

Matt Sandstrom · November 30, 2006

Hi Matt, The shot you're trying to achieve sounds pretty cool, but in order to visualise what you're trying to do i need a little more information.

of course, i haven't given you any at all. as a matter of fact i haven't even mentioned any shot at all. how did you know? ;-)

/matt, not chris

Ken Minehan · December 1, 2006

HI matt. Sorry, my mistake, the questions were for Chris.

Haha

Ken Minehan

freddie bonfanti · December 1, 2006

hey

IF you are in a white room and you are only framing a small part of the wall behind him, say 2 square meters, it shouldnt be a problem to overexpose the background with a couple of 1ks. if you are planning to do a wide shot and if you are in an big white infinity room then i would say that the best bet is to try to rent a couple of space lights or skypans. you hang them overhead and its very effective, no shadows casted. i have used them in a music video recently and we were shooting in an infinity room as well.

bring along a spotmeter, too...its very useful and reliable to judge the overexposure of your background if you dont have a proper monitor.

all the best

Freddie