Please recommend Light for lighting backgrounds during interviews

[Steve Kownacki]

Along with adulterating cinefoil, take a sabre saw to some 1/4″ luan plywood and make some patterns on a 12×12″ piece, stick it on a c-stand 2′ in front of your 300 fresnel and play with the focus for different effects. If you’re in retail locations, I’ve lit backgrounds with the track lights already in place – you can get the cookie up there too. With a little effort you can make a cinefoil snoot on the 300; cut the customer logo out of cardboard and blast it on the background. If you have a projector & laptop, make up some patterns and shoot that on the back wall. Try small 150s uplighting from the floor, close to the wall. Gell ’em to the customers corporate colors and you’ll be a genius.

What type of background are you trying to light? Muslin, retail, office wall?

Steve

[Dennis Size]

I would hardly call a Source 4 Junior heavy. In terms of flexibility, if I only had one choice of instrument to take with me on a shoot — it would be a Source 4 Junior zoom.
If you want a lighter/smaller fixture to light your backgrounds however then buy a Dedo light with Projector lens.

DS

[Bill Davis]

Wow, I’m a bit confused by this approach.

These type of theatrical LEKOs are designed to throw a hard edge barn-doorable beam in a stage setting – yeah, often with a patterned GOBO which they excell at – but at distances from 15-30 feet. Which is pretty impractical for a video shoot where we seldom have distances like that to work with.

I think that’s a WHOLE LOT more light than you need, and I’ve actually never seen one of these on a video set I’ve ever worked on.

Heck, I have a little Altman Micro-Elipse that I use to throw LOGOS into interviews and I’ve carried it out in the field a couple of times – and every time it’s suffered. These are NOT designed as portable lights. At ALL.

I agree the the DEDO is a better choice – but it’s price point makes it something that only working pros can typically justify.

Ah, the endless world of lighting gear.

[John Sharaf]

Bill,

I use the Source Fours almost every time I do sit down interviews. To spread them large enough to cover the backgrounds at short distances I equip mine with 50 degree lenses and use a dimmer to control the brightness. It’s true that they are a little awkward to transport and case (although it can be done) so when I travel on airplanes I’ll take a kit of Dedo lights instead, but using them in a different way, usually to create several “splashes” of light or lit objects rather than a wide pattern which the S4 does.

JS

[Dennis Size]

Don’t be confused …be bold — and open to anything.
Most of my colleagues use Source 4’s just as extensively as I do. I must admit however, 30 years ago (when I started bringing such instrumentation into active video lighting) most of my colleagues scoffed just as you do.
As lighting designers we must be able to work with light in all forms; especially when we’re not always given the form we want. I successfully use ellipsoidals (especially the Source 4) for lighting faces at distances from 6 feet to 60 feet. There’s not a single video shoot I do — from a small hotel room interview with a Diane Sawyer, Joan Rivers, or Barbara Walters to a major studio shoot — where at least 50% of my fixtures aren’t Source 4 lekos. It’s my main choice of instrument for key lighting.
As for being my “weapon” of choice if I were only allowed one lighting instrument on a shoot, I leave you this thought — you can’t make a soft light hard …. but you can always make a hard light soft. The simple $300 Source 4 is much more versatle than any other instrument available.

DS

[Bill Davis]

OK.

I’m willing to learn.

I would LOVE to see a photo of how you pack and transport these puppies without the lamps getting knocked from the sockets and constantly bending those fragile leaf steel barn door controls? I’m dying to know. I tried to take my MicroElipse out a few times and even in a pick and pluck foam case, those controls come back bent EVERY TIME.

You’ve got to admit that Lekos were designed to hang on a grid in a theatrical setting. And while I don’t doubt for a second that they CAN be adapted to field production, I’d like to know how you’ve overcome all the little details. Particularly the PACKING and TRAVELING stuff.

A set of Arri Fresnels, for example, can go in and out of a foam Arri Case inset a thousand times and NOTHING about the design will compromise either the fixture, the powercord OR the attached light modifying equipment. Even the “twist lock” lamp holder is immune from disengagement.

I took an elipsoidal on a shoot once after trying to pack it as carefully as possible. And it took me a while return with a pair of needle nose pliers to get it’s exterior beam shaping leaf controls straightened out.

And the power cords were always having to be re-worked since it appeared that they weren’t designed for coiling and travel as, for example the Arri designs.

Clearly you’ve overcome these issues which is excellent. Care to share any secrets?

BTW, it’s probably an aprocryphyl story – but I was once told by a NYC old-timer that Ms. Walters contract SPECIFIED the sizes of the soft boxes that were to be used on her key lights as she grew older.

Even a 55degree leko is going to have trouble filling the front of a 3×4 Chimera from the distance of a common speed ring, isn’t it? How do you get it to fill the front silk? Honestly. At least one enquiring mind in Arizona is definitely open to the possibilities, but I’m having trouble with the concepts.

[John Sharaf]

Maybe Dennis will chime in here too, but having worked on lighting BW on the West Coast many times over the years for 20/20 and the Oscar Specials, I can tell you that we never lit her with softboxes as keys. Always a spot fresnel with a showcard snoot (black and white – with white side out) was used, with a little white diffusion clipped inside the doors near the lens. A 2K zip was most often the fill light coming from below and on the other side.

We varied from this only occasionally when there was overwhelming daylight in the room, usually because of ceiling high windows in every direction. In this case we’d use an 800 or 1200 HMI in a similar configuration.

In all other cases I will use a small chimera as the key, and actually have taken to using two lately, both a small and right next to it a xs, which effectively wraps one light source (and one specular in the eyes) around the female subject in a very glamorous hi-key way. I was always annoyed by the hard chin shadow and occasional hand shadows created my the hard light technique, but who was I to say anything? In addition, more and more the divas are demanding a Dedo or other little spot light just off camera on the key side as a “clean-up”, whereas my inclination is to keep it simple and single source, but somehow nowadays, we’re using six (or more) lights on a high end head shot (that’s counting three backlights).

JS

JS

[Dennis Size]

For many years, I lit 20/20 in New York, along with dozens and dozens of Barbara’s specials — in addtion to consulting on THE VIEW when it went on air. She was almost always lit with a soft chimera surround (large lightbanks, with 5kw fresnels as the source), and a single hard key at the camera (usually a 19 or 26 degree ellipsoidal on a stand slightly softened with a light diffusion) plus a 1kw fresnel diffused floor light (much like John described) to fill in the shadows from below. The relatively large “firepower” was necessary because the set was so large and distance from camera lens to home base talent was about 10 feet, or more. When lighting in a smaller space the same exact “design” was used … just with lower wattages and smaller fixtures (such as a 650w baby soft or 1 x 1 light panel from below and a 36 degree Jr as a main key, and small chimeras or Kino diva’s as fill).
Don’t believe everything you hear some star said or specified, as apocryphy runs rampant in our industry. Years ago, when chimeras were starting to become popular, I latched onto them for all my
shows, but not because Barbara Walters demanded them (as an early Chimera catalogue once said in describing my work and use of chimeras). The 4kw and 8kw softlights we previously used as the standard “weapon” were ridiculously heavy and hard to control without wasting an unbelievable amount of time flagging. A lightbank with a 30 or 60 degree honeycomb provided a soft beam of light with extremely good control — without spending a lot of time shaping the beam and flagging it off other talent, walls, and projection screens (which started to become very popular).
Regarding the fragile nature of ellipsoidals (specifically Source 4 “lekos”) ….. if they weren’t able to travel well, they wouldn’t be the standard instrument of choice for dozens upon dozens of theatrical productions collectively using thousands upon thousands of fixtures touring in trucks all over the world. A standard stage production will travel with a few hundred lekos mounted on pipes or truss and not in cases at all. When I do shows they are sent from shop to site and back, thrown in hampers or road boxes — with minimal padding. I have seen a lot of ENG shooters (who work hard for the money to buy their one or two fixtures) successfully create cases for them, using a variety of materials from bubble wrap, to sonex, to carved foam, and simply funiture pads.
One comment I will make regarding the problem you’re having with the shutters (the “fragile leaf steel barn door controls”), don’t leave them pulled out. The shutters should always be pushed inward. The 4 shutters will make contact with each other internally and provide a lot of rigid support for protection.

[Anderson Black]

My internet was down for a few days, glad to see more input.

Steve, I don’t have a specific project at the moment. I’m putting together equipment so I can start experimenting and be ready to roll once I land a gig.

[Anderson Black]

From what I’m reading here it seems like a lot of you pros are not using LEDs. Are there too many disadvantages and what are they from your experiences?