Advice on lighting a board meeting

[Salvador M. Rodrigues]

Hi everyone,

 

Another "beginner" question:

 

I'm shooting a small promo with no budget on saturday. One of the scenes consists of children having a board meeting. I'm not really a DOP, but when there is no budget to hire one, I have to do it myself. And lighting this room, specially for an establishing shot is picking my brains. The shoot is not so much of a big deal, but I like to see it as a good exercise for me. I might not have budget, but I have time to setup.

 

What I have considered doing, is just use china balls and line them up hanging from the ceiling (just outside the frame). Problem with this, is that I still haven't found either daylight balanced or tungsten balanced fluorescent bulbs. But for this work, I think it doesn't really matter and I can always adjust the white balance for more warmth/cold.

 

What you should know:

 

• The room has no windows, has the usual long table and hard fixed lights coming from the ceiling.

 

• The table is colour of light wood. Birch maybe

 

• No decoration, just white walls (even more challenge) and a screen for projections on one of the rear ends.

 

• there is no budget to rent anything for this. But I have access to stands and fresnels, ranging from 350w to 2.5kw.

 

• I also have the usual DOP paraphernalia of foam cores, reflectors, silks, etc...

 

Thanks for any help in advance !

[Ronald Gerald Smith]

The chinaballs will definitely work and give you proper exposure. It's easy to find 3200 watt household bulbs here in the US, but the 2800 ones aren't bad too, just need to white balance for it like you said. I would definitely have a couple smaller fresnels like 200-650 watt to add little accents here and there, or put a blue gel on it to motivate the light from the projection. Also for medium and closer shots, you might not want the deep shadows in the eyes so a good bounce board will be good. Just to match closer with the china balls if you are using warmer bulbs, bring some 1/8 or 1/4 cto gels to match the fresnels with the china balls.

 

Or instead of china balls you can bounce like a couple fresnels on the ceiling or one of those white walls for your main source. If you don't need 360 degree coverage, might save you a little time rigging up those china balls.

Edited February 25, 2011 by Ronald Gerald Smith