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INT – Two Person Interview – What do I buy?
I have a new job that requires new equipment.
I’m doing indoor two person interviews and sometimes the equipment will be moved to different int locations around the San Francisco and Bay Area, so we will be traveling once in awhile with the lights. We might also shoot with a “GREEN SCREEN” too.
Mainly what I “think” I want: florescent lighting (because I don’t always know where these babies will be plugged into, power can be and issue, plus less heat and duration of the life of the bulbs.
But this is not the most crucial thing.
I need quality, natural looking lights that will last us 5 years or more. I don’t want crap, but Arri might be out of our league since it is just for interviews for the WEB.
Budget should be around $1000 – $2000ish
To me soft boxes on the light is the way to go, but I’m not sure.
I should need no more than 3-4 lights.
I found this set… any objections or better solutions?
https://www.pclightingsystems.com/fl/3200%20kit.html
https://www.pclightingsystems.com/tungsten/2650.htmlThanks guys!
Download my latest House music DJ mixes at
http://www.mixdepot.net/thedirtyduo -
3 Replies
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The only comment I might have is that 2650 watts will probably blow the circuit of wherever you’re shooting.
You might have to have some long extension cords to plug into another room with a different circuit.
Check with Videomaker.com and DigitalJuice.com for some tutorials.
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Good fluorescents can be more expensive for each fixture(Kino, etc.) than an entire Arrilite kit, which is what I would recommend. The cheap ones will cast weird shadows, or most of the time be too dim for most camcorders once you put a softbox on them (read gain and heavy grain, not a good combination, especially for internet compression).
I am not familiar with the kit you linked to, so I would comment on it. Just beware of the wattage convertion used by fluorescent manufacturers, they are sometimes heavily inflated, These are still 55w bulbs (or less).
I know you are shooting for the web, but a good quality is actually more important since you have to compensate in quality for heavy compression, and I’m sure you’ll want to use the lights after that project.
It also happens that I feel a good interview lighting should have some shadows, some may disagree, but flat is just boring. It’s often lazy lighting “IN MY OPINION”, unless it has a purpose.
Green screen may require flat lighting on the talent if you are putting white behind, or an overcast outdoor shot for example.
Either way, good softboxes with a least a grid will keep the light off the background which can be very important. For the green screen, the cheapest way to go would be cyc lights, those start at $150.00 each for 1K fixtures. Again, I can’t say it enough, don’t use cheap fluorescents for green screen, unless you want to spend hours fixing your composite in post.
You could also go the rental route. Near the city, the best company around for video/film lighting rental are probably these guys: https://www.dtcgrip.com/
Very affordable, and they’ll have anything you need, could be useful even if you buy most of what you need.
This is what I would buy at the minimum. 2 Arrilite 1K, 1 300 or 650 Arri fresnel. 2 small or medium Chimeras with 40 deg grids. 2 cyc lights (I use Thomas 1 K with great success)
That should do for a one camera interview. Add at least one more 1K openface for 2 cameras. BTW, that means at least 3 15 amps circuits for each location. I would personally cut corners on a camera before I cut corners on lights.
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Vince
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Thanks. I did go and buy the Arri Kit, with two 650’s and two 300’s and two Med. soft boxes for the 650’s. I will be using these Nov 1 & 2nd and will see what we come up with and will refer back to this post if the lighting doesn’t come out just right!
Download my latest House music DJ mixes at
http://www.mixdepot.net/thedirtyduo
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