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Hello everyone,

First, excuse me for the terrible English.

Well, I need a help.

I need design the light for recording in HD for a symphony orchestra and I have no experience with this type of situation.

Below the details:

The symphony orchestra has 35 musicians

The concert will be in an open area in a large garden with tall trees to the back of the orchestra.

The recording will be half in the evening and half the night.

Will be used 8 cameras, Sony Z1 half and half HVX 200.

The musicians will be dressed in white.

 

 

The questions are:

What kind of reflectors should I use?

What is the power of these reflectors?

What type of design of light should I do?

I appreciate the help.

Marcelo

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Hello everyone,

First, excuse me for the terrible English.

Well, I need a help.

I need design the light for recording in HD for a symphony orchestra and I have no experience with this type of situation.

Below the details:

The symphony orchestra has 35 musicians

The concert will be in an open area in a large garden with tall trees to the back of the orchestra.

The recording will be half in the evening and half the night.

Will be used 8 cameras, Sony Z1 half and half HVX 200.

The musicians will be dressed in white.

 

 

The questions are:

What kind of reflectors should I use?

What is the power of these reflectors?

What type of design of light should I do?

I appreciate the help.

Marcelo

 

 

I guess the question would be what is the application? Are you simply recording a TV-like performance, generally that lighting is pretty flat and concert-like. Is there a live audience, will they need to be lit during the performance, will the trees need something to kick them? Is there a name conductor, he may need some extra lighting, are there soloists? What ambient lighting does the venue have? Will you need to agument it? 8 cameras sounds almost like a multicam TV shoot, are you concerned about your operators blending in with the orchestra (typically camera operators are dressed like the orchestra if the stage is small - 35 piece orchestra is a small ensemble so technical personnel and camera equipment will stand out more than say a 90-piece Symphony).

 

What is the music style? Is it classical, or modernistic? Answer all those questions and you might have a better idea of how to approach the lighting design. I don't know that there are set rules for orchestra, it's project dependent. The major consideration is to make sure the performers are comfortable and can still read their music (they may need music stand lights). Obviously if you are using concert lighting (moving lights, strobes, etc) this will have an impact. Also you might have to look into some sort of truss rig to rig your lights if you need to do something more ostentatious with the lighting. The other thing to consider is that with 8 cameras you are most likely shooting in 360 degrees so keep that in mind especially in relation to where your large light sources are.

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Keep in mind that the Sony Z1 is rated as ISO 160-200.

Make calculations of how much light do you need for a decent stop (at full zoom you loose the widest aperture of the wide angle end).

See where you can put your lights, if you will use diffusion, etc. and use the photometric tables of the lamps to figure out wich ones.

Good luck!!

Alejnadro

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Really are many issues to consider.

Basically,

Among other issues, we have no public, will be recording to a DVD SHOW, I think it would be interesting to illuminate the background (trees), the soloist and the conductor will be lit separately, I believe that putting cameras in the middle of the orchestra is not really a good idea for cause the amount of musicians, the musical style is modern.

Initially I had thought about using a light flat, single-source attack with a powerful, single (HMI), diffuse, and compensate her. Simple as that.

All musicians will be dressed in white in nature, so I think the more the light is simply keeping with the naturalness of the picture.

 

Regarding the use of sources, I am not safe with respect to their choice (HMI).

Have to look on the Sony Z1, I do not know its limitations, this information from ISO is very important to me.

I still thank the help of colleagues.

Marcelo

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Since I am a musician, I thought I would comment. Usually, when shooting an orchestra, or anything on stage, the stage lighting present is (as I see it) geared towards giving the audience the best possible view.

 

When I have photographed things on stage, I did not get say in the lighting because there is a level that is good for the camera, and often times that level is not good for the performers. Orchestral musicians are picky. You may have to deal with a lighting level above what you need for a good shot because the musicians can't see. You may be surprised how quickly it gets dark in the very back of some stages.

 

Are the musicians playing live?

 

If they are, and they are very well rehearsed, this may not be such a big deal. Most very good orchestral musicians have a lot of the score memorized and only rely on the sheet music for cues and various notes they have written. Still tho, it could be hard to read all that if the lighting is not at a level that it suitable for them to do so.

 

 

Hope that helps.

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