[Dan Shaw]

Bill, Todd – You are right. My situation is a little tight as I am doing it in a spare room. But with my need to only light the upp half of me I should be ok. Thanks for all the great feedback and ill hopefully post an update with positive results! 🙂

[Dan Shaw]

Thanks for the feedback John. This project of mine is going to be ongoing and a consistant part of my business so renting is out of the question. I don’t have the cashflow to put down thousands of dollars right now so I am going to take a tip from Todd and try to make a DIY system work. Once I am on my feet and have some “swagger” then I can upgrade to the big boys. 🙂 But thank you for laying out the lights that would be needed. This will help a lot.

I also have a very basic question that I am embarrassed to ask. Is there a good way to calculate the overall wattage that is output by multiple fluorescent lights? The reason I ask is that the math is just not adding up for me. For example on the web I see this:

“2000 Watt Photography and Digital Video Continuous Lighting Kit”

-Includes Ten (10) 45 Watt 5000k Compact Fluorescent Daylight Balanced Photo Bulbs

But then I do the math and I don’t understand how they got 2000 Watt’s? 45 x 10 = 450.

Is there a conversion process I am missing?

[Dan Shaw]

Todd – Thank you! That was some great information. I agree that the video I gave an example of is not that great, I was more talking about the fact that it was white and also the cropping they were using. But yes, I hope mine will be better then that.

Also do you have any thoughts on muslin vs seamless paper?

Thanks Todd!

[Dan Shaw]

Thanks again Ty for those suggestions. I am looking at the Audio Technica mic you listed and see if I can find a place that rents one of those.

If you have a moment I would love to know your thoughts on the best way to capture the audio. I have a Zoom H4N and I will be shooting with a Canon 5D Mark ii. Some have mentioned the need for a Juiced Link pre amp, but do you think the audio technica going into the H4N would do justice?

[Dan Shaw]

Ty – Thanks for that video! I think I watched about 50 on youtube, and somehow missed yours. Fantastic job and it really gave me a good idea for the different types of mics.

I’ll be shooting this in a spare room so there most likely will be having some sound bounce off the walls. I’m starting to understand there there really isn’t just one mic the does it all. Too bad!

Looks like now I will do some research on hypercardioid mics. 🙂

[Dan Shaw]

Brian, Peter, Steve, thanks for chiming in. It sounds like a shotgun on a boom would work also and with my white background I could put it very close to me and even edit it out in post since I have a white background. I like that!

I was planning on running the mic into my Zoom H4N, but just started reading about low noise preamps (ex: Juiced Link) and how the H4N is not the best when it comes to noise. Should I be worrying about that or do you think the sound quality would be fine going from mic to H4N?

Any thoughts?

[Dan Shaw]

Thanks Dave. I was looking at the Sanken COS-11 lav and it sounds like that would be a better fit for my productions right now.

While I have your attention, I was planning on running the lav into my Zoom H4N, but just started reading about low noise preamps (ex: Juiced Link) and how the H4N is not the best when it comes to noise. Should I be worrying about that or do you think the sound quality would be fine going from lav to H4N?

[Dan Shaw]

Thanks Mark! This is exactly what I wanted!

Could I assume then that the rotation of the logo as it comes in at the beginning would best be done by adding various keyframes? Just wondering how to make it spin more then once.

Thanks Mark!

-Dan