Drew Lahat

I was thinking about back-crossing... it will be a more interesting light and help with separation, but will it be unflattering to the 40yo female talent? I'm also in no position to use gel frames, only directly diff the lights. I wish it was a typical room with drop ceiling... it's actually almost twice as tall, which in many cases would be a blessing, but no scissor clamps here and even using the ceiling for a bounce would be challenging. To back-cross I still think I can use stands or clamp it to a decorative backdrop they may have. Yes there will be an audience but there's a specific production decision not to film them.

There's a plethora of resources on how to light interviews (and I've shot plenty of those), but I'm helping cover an event for a documentary, an on-stage male presenter interviewing a female guest talent. The room itself is a pretty ugly white rectangle with overhead fluorescents, I hope to kill most of them or leave just enough for ambient light. This is a documentary and at the "two DSLRs and a few bucks for G&E" level, so I'm not trying to reinvent or design the space, just mostly interested in making the subjects appealing. I looked at some TED talks for visual reference. There's no truss or budget for one. Ceiling is high and I expect to have to rely on stands. Hope I'll get 70-200mm zooms for the cameras. Quick sketch with some options: 1. When doing interviews, I'm used to rely on large (=soft) sources: bounce cards, softboxes etc., but unless you see otherwise, my keys/fills will have to be 20-25 feet away. What's the best approach in such a case? 2. My plan is very simple, (A+B) as either 36º Lekos or 1K fresnels, high enough to get out of the talent's eyeline and land the shadows on the smile line. They'd cross-key and also serve as an (intentionally) frontal fill. For backlight (D), I first thought about a 650 Tweenie, but is there a away to effectively backlight both talent with 1 point source? How about a 1x4ft (or 2x4ft) Kino? [C] Was just an optional idea, if you see any merit to it. I mostly think it would just annoy the talent. 3. Diffusion: 215/250/half grid? Same on both sides, or different strengths for the female talent? Leko+Heavier diffusion, or 1K + lighter diff? 4. My hunch told me I'd need way more light than that, but I ran the Arri photometrics calculator and a single 1K fresnel at medium spot from 25ft away should cover 13ft at 55fc, enough for f5.6 at 800ISO. Does it sound right? Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated. Thanks!

Bump?

I got my hands on a small DLP projector, but my available placement for it is too far for its capabilities - the projected image is too large and dim. Could I use a diopter as a tele adapter, or do I need a proper teleside converter? The projector's lens is built-in with no threading whatsoever, so I'm looking for a lightweight solution I could rig on the chassis' surface. Its focal length is 25.7-28.3mm and I'm looking to reduce the projected image size by about 25%. I've been doing some reading trying to understand the difference between a teleconverter, a high-power diopter, and a fixed-focus f/1 telephoto lens - brings back (vague) memories of high school physics... Thanks, Drew