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Music Video - What would the best light be?


Max Knight

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Hi!

 

I have to film a music video on friday for EMI and I have little experience in lighting as I usually do live music shoots.

 

I aim to have a shot at night time in a field, where the subject is illuminated by a single light so that she is perfectly visible, but her immediate surroundings are still dark.

 

How would you go about doing this? Some people have told me not to waste the budget on renting professional lighting and just to buy something from a Home Depot store. Although wouldn't you need barndoors to control the light properly?

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Max

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i think a lot of it depends on what format you're shooting and how much light you'll need. i did a similar thing on a video a couple of years ago for a sony artist named "sara overall". we shot super 35mm on 5229 pushed one stop and rated at 800 asa. you can check out the video on my website www.josephwhitedp.com - the song is "individual".

 

we used a truss for the stage lighting, but when the singer is wandering around the woods, we were on steadicam and i had my gaffer walk alongside flanking the operator holding a single HMI Sungun (i forget what wattage - it was battery powered though so i think it was a 400) and we had plenty and got what i thought was a lovely falloff (helped in part by the stop push). these lights are fairly inexpensive and available from most vendors - we never shot wide open either - i think at about 8 feet away we were shooting at a 2.8 on cooke s4's.

 

hope this was helpful - happy shooting!

 

-joe

Edited by Joseph White
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The video looks great!

 

Just the kind of effect I was going for.

 

I called my local rental shop and they only have the 250 watt HMI Sun Guns in stock for the 2 days I need them. Do you reckon this would be too low? Bearing in mind I am purposely shooting on DV for a less professional finish.

 

It doesn't need to be as illuminated as yours was, and I wouldn't mind less falloff.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Max

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