TV debate lighting

DavidKlaus · January 7, 2016

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this forum and my first question will be about TV set lighting. I'll hope that's ok.

I've been asked by a local TV station to light several political debate that will take place in a mall. There will be two or three journalists and 6 candidates around the table. This will take place at night but the lights of the mall will still be on. That will give us an ambient lighting.

I designed two lighting plots. The first one is almost made only of fluos (kinoflos style).

I intend to use fluos for the key lights and a few tungsten fresnel for the backlights. I also added two sources for a bit of fill.

But i'm not sure the rental company we will work with has fluorescent lights. So i designed another plot with only tungsten lights.

It's pretty straightforward. Everyone has its own source. Every source for the candidates are used as a key and as a backlight for the person on the opposite.

But i'm full of doubts. If i need to go for the second solution i'm not sure what power i need to choose for the lights. I guess 750w each will be enough?

I need your opinions on those two diagrams. Are they correct or am i completely out of tune? Your advices would be very much appreciated.

Thank you everyone!

Cheers

David

P.S.: i come from Switzerland, hope my english is ok

David Mullen ASC · January 7, 2016

Both ideas would work, you just want to make sure the backlights on the journalists don't hit the two rows of debaters from their sides. My one concern with the hard light approach is whether the debaters spend most of their time looking forward at the opposite row or do they look to the sides at the journalists a lot? Because if you are shooting from over the journalists back onto the debaters, their backlights be almost side lights.

I'd consider softening the backlights in either version so that you don't get some harsh raking light across a cheek as they turn their heads. I'd even consider using fluorescents for the backlights in that first version.

A row of 2K zips (with just one globe on probably) with diffusion on the face might be a softer effect closer to fluorescents. Or put small Chimeras on all of the tungsten fixtures.

You can even consider a grid of paper lanterns in the center to act as everyone's key, the only downside is that a lot of the light will fall straight down into the empty center.

DavidKlaus · January 7, 2016

Thank you very much for your answer!

According to what i saw last year, the debaters sometimes turn their heads toward the journalists or in the direction of another debater in the opposite corner. So i was thinking maybe i could place the backlight sources a bit off axis the debaters. Like this

For now, i'm considering going with the full tungsten option. Not because i prefer that, i would really prefer working with fluos, but because the rental company we will work with is more specialised in concert/show lighting. But maybe they have some fluos too, i don't know.

If i have to go with the full tungsten options, what power do you recommend for each source? I was thinking 750w but i'm afraid it won't be enough.

Thank you again for your answer

Cheers

David Mullen ASC · January 7, 2016

The problem here is that the backlight is on the same side as the key, so the 1/4 shadow side of the debaters (when they look straight out) has no edge really. You'd be better off the first way with straight backs and keys.

Again, some of this would be alleviated if all of the tungsten lights were soft, not hard spots.

650w might work if they are all hard but if you were going to use any sort of small soft box attachment I'd bump everything up to 1K's. The back and keys for the journalists can be smaller units since they aren't so far way and don't have to serve as a back and a key for an opposite row. Of course, you could just scrim them.

Obviously your power requirements would be much lower with LED or fluorescent units.

You will want some half-scrims for the hard light to knock down the intensity at the bottom hitting the foreground row of the backs of heads. Some slight spotting in on the faces might help too.

Stuart Allman · January 7, 2016

David,

Bill Holshevnikoff came to town a gave a talk last year. He does a lot of work lighting news rooms. You might want to look him up and see his sample gallery. He has a few pictures of how he lit sets for news capture, which is the look I assume you're after. His live presentation had a lot of example pictures of nicely done news rooms.

Just has David M. pointed out, the news room samples I saw had a lot of large soft sources so people "of a professional age" look good. The examples Bill showed us used a lot of 4' kino's (fluorescent and LED), but a series of zip lights would have the same effect - albeit with a much larger power draw. You might want to consider how much power you'll have available in the mall.

Besides lights, you might want to consider how you are going to flag off the lamps so you don't create double shadows.

Stuart

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illuma.blogspot.com

DavidKlaus · January 7, 2016

Again, some of this would be alleviated if all of the tungsten lights were soft, not hard spots.

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I think, i'll stick with the second solution for now. I'm meeting the rental house guy next week, i'll know more then.

If i have to go tungsten, of course i'll soft everything (i forgot to add that of my lighting plot). But as you said 1k sources are the best if we soft everything. I'm not sure they will have enough power. Anyway, i'll wait until i'm fixed on the gear i can rent. Thank you a 1000 times, you've been really helpful.

Edited January 7, 2016 by DavidKlaus

DavidKlaus · January 7, 2016

David,

Bill Holshevnikoff came to town a gave a talk last year. He does a lot of work lighting news rooms. You might want to look him up and see his sample gallery. He has a few pictures of how he lit sets for news capture, which is the look I assume you're after. His live presentation had a lot of example pictures of nicely done news rooms.

Thank you Stuart, i'll have a look right now!

DavidKlaus · February 18, 2016

Hi everyone. I just wanted to say a big thank you to you guys. The project went great and the director of the channel was really happy with the lighting. I managed to get great back lights on everyone and key lights were really even.

I ended up with 1k arri fresnel for the key lights and 650w arri fresnel for the back lights. I used diffusion on the key lights. I also used 4 additional lights in the corners to add a bit of a fill.

The only problem I encountered is that I had to light in 3200k because the lights of the mall were artificial ones. So I had to match them. That gave us a blue tint on the TV screens behind the candidates but it was not a big issue.

Thanks again!