More Words About Cities & Films

Last night I was a gaffer on a promo video for the Vela night club in downtown Seattle.  It was an intense experience with a packed crowd of intoxicated night clubbers who were that strange mix of people really happy to be on camera, and those really unhappy that we were there.  Fortunately we were shooting with a DSLR (the Canon 7D), and really it’s these kind of environments where a DSLR is a blessing as trying to get around with a bigger camera, perhaps even with a 35mm adapter mounted, would have been a chore.

From a lighting perspective I used two gelled lightpanels to create a strobe effect on the closer shots.  Lightpanels are small battery-powered lights that use LEDs, so you’re not going to burn anyone who touches them.  I also don’t have to tell you how helpful it was to not have to wrangle any cables behind me as well.

At the end of the night (morning?) the footage looked great, and part of that was thanks to the low-intrusion strategy we employed.

I did a shoot the other day for a financial group with headquarters in Seattle and New York.  It was your standard interview setup with a talking head looking slightly off camera and I was shooting it HD with my HVX and handled the lighting with my Arri kit and Cool Light.  The shoot was fairly quick, 5 interviews in 4 hours and moving them about and redressing a single room to look like 5 semi-different locations.

Everything went great, I was really happy with the footage, but, without naming names, this allows me to discuss a disturbing trend I’ve seen in some other corporate interview footage as of late.

It’s all about the shadows.  Shadows are great, they add dimension to a shot and help someone’s face look more like a round object instead of a flat board, but you’ve got to match the quality and degree of shadows to the material you’re shooting.  Too often lately I’ve seen corporate videos with a harsh side key and little to no fill light that sets the camera side of the subjects face in near completely darkness.

Now you want to be shooting the fill side of the face in an interview (that’s the side with the most complexity, and looks most dynamic), and I personally love the harsh side key/low fill light look…  but I love it in a horror film, or moody drama, perhaps for someone menacing or especially untrustworthy.  That’s not the mood you want to set for a corporate video where you want to foster a feeling of trust and everything being out in the open.

So take that harsh side light, move it around a little more on axis so you’re getting some of the light on the fill side (especially with women, it’s a lot more flattering).  Then add in a bit of fill light so your subject’s face doesn’t go completely into darkness.  Overall you’ll find it’s a prettier, more welcoming image that still maintains the complexity of the shot.

Remember great lighting is lighting that works with the tone of the material, not against it.