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Lighting a Press Conference with “tiny” budget
How do you light a press conference with really small budget? I’m thinking of a few red heads because those are what the client can afford. I might not be able to hire my D.O.P. who (usually lights my scenes for me) for this project because the client can’t afford him. There will be five guest speakers and an audience of about 20 people in front of them.
ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus
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16 Replies
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I do this about three times a week, been using the same Lowel Omni kit for this for 20 years. Basically two 1K omnis with diffusion frames, 45 degree angles to either side, just *behind* where the cameras are set up, adjust so the nose karet shadows look good and the body shadows are not too obvious. Flag them with the barn doors. If I need more light, I can double-up; the Omni’s have a built-in connector stud on them, so two or more Omni lights can stack together on one stand, yet each one is still independently steerable.
Is it artful? No. Does it work as basic news conference lighting? Yes. Is it what the news guys want and expect? Yup. No complaints yet. Some rooms, it may help to raise the overall room level with a ceiling bounce as well. I don’t rig backlighting for news conferences: in news situations, the cameras tend to go almost anywhere, shooting low and high angles for cut-aways, and you risk a head-on shot into the light at some point for somebody, if you place a backlight. Also, untrained people mill about at pressers, so the fewer stands you have, the fewer chances some bumbler will bump into one or trip over an untaped cable run.
Tape down EVERYTHING that can possibly be tripped over!
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Whatever you wind up doing, if at all possible try to get some backlighting in there.
The lack of backlighting is one of the main things that make the vast majority of news conferences look so horrible.
With most of these setups there is not a lot of room and the speakers end up closer to the backdrop or back wall than would be desired in an optimal situation… and with no backlighting the image gets even more “compressed”-looking with no separation, and the talent usually looks like they are crammed up flat against the wall. They might as well be holding up a sign with their name and inmate booking number on it.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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As I said in my post, backlighting would be nice, but in the most typical situations for in-the-field press conferences, a backlight is a luxury and usually impractical to put in for various reasons. I agree the lighting is flat, then again, artifice and drama, no matter the subtlety, should not be the focus of news shooting. I restrict my artifice to softening the lights enough that the shadows are not ugly, and the scene is adequately and evenly exposed, no racoon eyes, no ugly nose shadows, no 5 O’Clock shadows….
We have some press conference rooms that are permanent facilites, and these DO have backlighting, as well as built-in mult boxes for audio feeds. But news in the field is another animal. Trying to make it too much like the staged press conference room defeats the purpose of being at a location in the first place. Location brings context, when done properly. And a backlight only works from one narrow angle of view; elsewhere, it gets in the way of a wide shot with too much glare, unless you take a lot of time to mask it off. Pressers are set up and lit in 30 minutes or less; there just isn’t much time or need for “art”.
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Mark, don’t make me have to fight you, or call you a hurtful name.
Kidding.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I know you’ve got my back, Todd: just don’t try to light it:-)
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CAGE FIGHT!
CAGE FIGHT!
CAGE FIGHT!
CAGE FIGHT! -
Dennis is stirring the pot. He’s a pot-stirrer.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Duel.
Weapons will be un-screened 1k’s at three yards, at dawn.
Uncorrected!
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We haven’t had a good cage fight in the FORUM in a long time.
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Make it REALLY dangerous and a deadly duel to the finish!
Use open faced LOWEL’s
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