Lighting a music video with metal halide Lights

[John Sharaf]

Tom,

Wrong and wrong, unless you either want to arc weld your talent or spend more on strobe lights than the proper equipment.

The best gear for “lighting” in day exteriors is grip equipment; 12×12′(or larger) silks overhead and grifflins or silver lame to reflect light into your backlit subject.

This equipment needs to be operated by skilled grips for safety and you’ll need rope, spikes and sandbags galore in addition to high roller stands and therefore a truck to transport it all, but one can often get a good price on a proper grip truck package from an owner operator.

The alternative of using lights still requires a large crew for the cable and generator needed on location.

JS

[Dennis Size]

No…..
Unless you can shoot with the sun as your “key light”, you will need to stretch a very large silk, or hang several large butterflys that you’ve rigged with condors, to control the overpowering sun.
You will also need several 18kw HMI PARS as key lights and a few 12kw HMI’s to fill in.

DS

[Tom Smith]

good advice there is no cheap way out of this. I have access to large scrims and 12 x 20′ reflectors I’ll have to go with the scrim option because I live on a tiny island and don’t have access to 12kw HMI lights.

[Dennis Size]

Silks will service you far better than scrims.

DS

[John Sharaf]

Tom,

In places with out convention grip equipment support, you can often find a white silk parachute to use as an overhead.

JS

[Tom Smith]

yes I’m going to use silk. It’s a beach scene with two models and a male singer. The other shots will be done in studio and I should have enough power for that.

[Mark Suszko]

You say you’re on an island? Call the local marina, boatyard, yacht club, etc, and you might be able to score some sailcloth one way or another. Not as good as a pro silk, but better than nothing… You might be able to rent or borrow a spinnaker or a Genoa Jib. They already come with fittings on their corners to clip ropes to.