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Lighting Question- Space Lights- Top Light


Corey Bringas

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Hey Everyone-

 

I'm shooting a music video in about a week and am trying to figure out my lighting setup. First I will describe the space and what we are looking to achieve. There are 3 black walls, and the band will be situated in the center of the room. There are overhead beams and I plan on rigging speed rail to add more lights. There are 4 band members. The director described the look he is looking for as "soft top light" He wants the light to fall off as it goes down their faces and create the "sunken eye sockets" type of look. The background also needs to fall to black. My initial thoughts were to create an overhead soft box of some sort, but then I thought that the over all ambient light would just wash out everything and make it too bright and too hard to control. My next thought was creating pools of light, via par cans punched through a silk. (I have a VERY VERY small budget). I have also thought of using Kinos or Image 80's for strips of light, as they will be moving.

 

My final solution is to use 2k Space lights, hung over each band member (So 4 2k space lights total). I think this will be the easiest rigging job, no big 20x silk to hang and should provide a proper pool of light. I've never used Space lights- will this achieve my look? The last kicker is that I'm shooting HVX + mini 35. Do you think the 2k space lights will be enough light? Or should I bump up to 4k's?

 

I appreciate your thoughts and help, and thanks for reading!

 

-Corey

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Its hard to know if 2k lights will be enough light, since we don't know what your rating your film stock/camera, or what stop your going for. The space lights should work, though I don't think they will be as soft as you think they will. The softness of space lights depends on how they are spread appart and how high up they are. With just 4 of them there might be too much separation, making the light hard and casting multiple shadows.

 

I know your not a fan of the 20x, but look into it a little deeper it might be what you need. A 20x bounce topper, maybe some source 4s on the floor. maybe even add smoke to the room and use the shafts of light from the s4 to break up the black background a bit. Don't know if that fits your budget or look, just throwin ideas out there.

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Michael-

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I forgot to add a picture of the space- http://coreybringas.com/location.JPG As you can see there are beams overhead. They are at the height of roughly 13' and about 21' apart. So the band will be spread over roughly 12-15' from drummer to lead singer back to front and roughly 12' right to left from bassist to guitarist. Do you think bounced light will be as easily controlled? I also think it will be best if the lights are rigged so we can shoot 180 degrees without seeing lamps. Also we would like the BG to fall to black..

 

 

Stop- The HVX is roughly rated @ 320 asa, with the adapter you loose roughly 2 stops and I will be shooting on super speeds (T 1.3). So roughly I'm looking for a shooting stop of T 2.8 with a rating of 320 asa ( & 180 degree shutter). I've shot with the HVX MANY times and the adapter MANY times as well, and each time I'm surprised by just how much light that dang adapter takes away! I would have the space lights with the full black skirt and some sort of diff could always be added to them if the light quality is too hard... Throw some more ideas at me! This is definitely helping..

 

Thanks,

Corey

Edited by Corey Bringas
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I'd suggest creating a separate soft-ish source for each band member and hang those from the beams. Maybe Kino's or Chimeras w/grids.

 

That allows you the flexibility to move each light independently to dial-in the raccoon eyes and achieve the stop you'll need for each band member. I don't think you'll have any problem not seeing the walls.

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