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Hi everyone. I'm looking for advice on lighting interviews with a tiny crew (2-3 people) out at sea on a small 30-40ft boats. I'm frequently booked on these gigs but I find that 99% of the time I never dig the look of the interviews. It's always a matter of finding what looks the least bad. For most EXTs (on land) I'll backlight and try to shoot into a BG that's in the shadows...but of course on a boat there aren't any shadowed BG's, except maybe a tiny part of the deck. Most times we end up settling for front lighting the subject and holding a foldable silk to diffuse the light a bit, but even then the BG is well over key. At least that way the talent and BG are both reading okay to camera. It also doesn't help that typically the entire boat is painted a hot white and constantly rotating in relation to the sun because of heavy winds. Sometimes I shoot up in the pilothouse but that's proved the most difficult- even after ND'ing the windows I can't get nearly enough level on talent without blinding them. Are there any general best practices for this type of lighting?

I am visualising a concept for a short film, but I would like to have an underwater scene where I can actually see at least half the body of a person in the water, shooting from below. I have learnt that the fish tank methods are good enough for close ups. If I need half the body to be shot underwater, I will need a very huge tank to contain the actor. I am wondering if there could be more ways to do this provided that I could not really go underwater in the ocean or a pool. Thank you for incoming suggestions.

Hi, I'm currently planning a short that I am DP'ing by the end of the summer. As you might have expected, we are kind of on a limited budged, but we have enough to rent the equipment needed. I am planning to shoot on my own 7d. The director wants the entire short, which by the way is one scene only (about 3-4 minutes), to take place by the ocean, and it is raining throughout the entire scene. We went location scouting last week, and found the location we want. It is, however, not very close to any population. My plan is to bring a power supplier, so that I may not worry about batteries for all the equipment, our tiny video village, etc. (the sound guys will probably hate me, though). Anyway, the director has asked me to find a way to create the rain. I was thinking that since we're shooting right by the ocean, why not use that unlimited amount of water to do it? All I would need is some solution as to how I can bring the water up in the air. Something like the stuff the fire departments use to get water up from the fire plugs, or something like that. Now, for that part I have little experience. Any ideas or experiences that could help me? Thanks a lot!