David Speace
Forum Replies Created
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Dennis, I just wanted to mention that I heard that you will be doing the lighting for ABC’s coverage of “the marriage of the century”! All I need is a little budget and we can do a behind the scenes video of the coverage for you…lol!
I was intending to put a picture up of the modification I did to the small LTM projector so I can mount it on a 500w Strand Bambino…for a lot more punch. I will be doing this soon. For many of the shoots I have been doing for WPHL17 in — Better Philly and Phillies coverage, all seem to be run and gun shoots… very little lighting, maybe just a camera light for standup interviews…however, on Monday I am one of the shooters for 6ABC’s “Best of Class” program and I will be doing interviews of these top high school seniors… and I will be lighting w LED lights, tungsten fresnels for back and background lighting w/gobos… I will take some pictures and post on this thread.
For those that are interested, this is the LED light I designed that I will be using…
https://cgi.ebay.com/Grip-LED-led-light-DZP-Video-/290551364698?pt=Camcorders_Professional_Video_Cameras&hash=item43a635fc5aDave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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Nobody has really mentioned whether shooting with the F3 is really a suitable camera for shooting run and gun “reality” style television considering the camera comes with 3 prime lenses and a zoom lens is not available yet, (or you could use any prime photography/film lenses you may already have). If you are going to put a zoom lens on this camera like a Zeiss or Schneider zoom… this will be very expensive not to mention the zoom motor you will have to add. Although, I guess you could zoom manually. My experience with shooting reality tv is that you will not have time to change lenses or pull focus. I can see it now the camera operator has the 35mm lens on the camera and the chef pours the final ingredient into the pot… and the director says get a tight shot of that…and the camop says wait a minute I gotta change the lens… and after he gets the tight shot the director says…. okay lets do the wide shot again! Of course, Sony will probably have a zoom lens for this camera…soon(?), considering there are zoom controls already built into the camera!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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Bob,
Light from above which casts the shadows down….nose, eyes, and chin…this is what helps create a 3D look to the subjects face. Remember this is a 2D medium. Lighting a face so that it appears shadowless makes the face look flat and even sunken… to me, a very unflattering look. It is okay for lighting models, products and anything glamorous in an advertising sense, but for a news person doing an interview…nada. In this day and age of high-def tv… the on camera people need really good makeup and lighting that is soft, flattering and directed from above!
Another explanation of 3D in a 2D medium…. look at your computer programs and the “buttons” that we click on! When the button appears to be raised… the shadow is below and to one side of the button… when you mouse over it… the shadow switches to the top of the button and the other side… the button looks depressed or sunken below the screen surface!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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Dennis,
Somewhere along the way I picked up the idea that a cookie was a pattern that you could punch light through, whether it was a small metal disk or big wooden frame… anyway I think I will just go with the flow… gobo it is! I agree the 200w Pepper w/ projector isn’t as bright as other lights, but it has worked for me… like I said before… I tend to use lower wattage lights… Rifas w/ egg crates that help keep the light off the background… so the pattern will have enough punch for me in most of my setups. What’s nice about my lights is that I can put the projector on a Strand 500w Bambino. There are 2 different size flanges/adapters. I should take a picture…for all to see. I also have a couple of Stand Mizers, also 200w, that do a pretty good job with this projector. The Strand Mizers I picked up on ebay for about $70 apiece… they hung in a studio at Paramount… they were painted gold at one point and then repainted black… when I opened the light to check the bulb and the condition of the inside of these Mizers… I found the insides were brand new… they had never been turned on! I had 2 Arri 150s that kind of wore out on me… I had to rewire the insides a couple of times… so I sold them on ebay… replaced them with the Mizers… and pocketed the difference!
Now for the good part… I was impressed to see that you are the guy who did the lighting for Good Morning America… I had the opportunity while shooting for WPVI 6ABC’s local magazine shows to go up to New York to interview Robin Roberts on the Good Morning America set… we used the interview area upstairs. But before we did I shot some b-roll in the studio while the show was going on… total controlled chaos! What most people don’t realize is that the live audience in the studio stands all around watching the show… when a segment ends and they move from the cooking area to the couch… the floor managers herd the audience around… while the cameras and lights are being pushed to the next setup! Push lights you ask? This is the part that I found really interesting… for the women on the set… Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer… there is are 2 grips with an ellipsoidal spot light on a stand w/ wheels (not sure if they were Source4s… about eye level high and each is aimed at Diane and Robin…and the light hits them directly in the face… but the light has a piece of tough spun in the gate… it is already so bright in the studio… (your big 1K, 2K and 5K instruments really light up that studio) that the technician has to pull the tough spun out and drop it back in the light… he does this a couple of times to make sure the light is hitting Diane or Robin’s face! They have to position themselves between the cameras… it just seems a little much! But that’s what they do. The other thing that I noticed was the studio was equipped with HMI lights as well as tungsten… side by side… so I guess if it was really bright and sunny outside… they kid turn on the HMI’s to get a better indoor outdoor color balance. Of course, now they may have LED lights in that studio or not. The day we went up there was the same day the shooting happened a Virginia Tech… after the shoot we went to ABC World News to interview Bob Woodruff… he wasn’t there, his manager told him the interview was going to be in Connecticut… so we left… about half hour after we left I can imagine all hell broke loose at the network news desk… because of the Va Tech shooting… it would have been interesting to see that!
Lately, I have been using some LED lights for lighting my interviews. These are lights that I have designed and built myself. I found a supplier for the panel… 36 lensed LEDs… they put out about 400w…5500K I designed a frame for the panel and it uses a grip pin… so the light is designed to be used with grip equipment… grip heads, etc. I call the light the Grip-LED! I am selling it on ebay…check it out.
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290520383244&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
Thanks, this has been fun talking about all this stuff.
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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Here’s the third picture. Cookies!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
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I really enjoyed reading this post! For background lighting I have been using the small projector that LTM makes… I have 2 of them. They take 2 1/2″ inch cookies (cucaloris to be exact)and I use either an LTM 200w or Strand Mizer with these projectors. By the way… to be accurate gobos are not cookies! A gobo is an opaque flag used to cut, shape and/or block light. I am attaching a couple of photos so you can see this small projector. A comment about using a projector and cookie…it is desirable to project the cookie so that it is a little out of focus. I’ve been at venues where the lighting director projects all the cookies with a hard edge… and then if they are being controlled by techno beams… it’s a little much! The effect should be subtle and not draw attention to itself!
I am also a fan of tungsten lights, especially fresnels. You need to have 2 or 3 in your kit if you are doing interviews. My approach to using fresnels is to use lower wattages, like 150w, 200w, 500w. Today’s cameras a very sensitive vs what they were 10 years ago! I have 2 Strand Bambinos, which are 500w, but if I need more light I can bump them up to 650w by changing the bulb. I also use Lowel’s Rifa lights with egg crates, which is lowel’s version of a Chimera. The difference is that the Lowel Rifa pops open like an umbrella… you just put the diffusion on the front and your are ready to go. Very quick setup! The Chimera is more erector set like and you have to, with a little struggle, bend and stick the wire frames into the speed ring. I always feel like I am breaking my fingers when I am setting up a Chimera! Using egg crates in front of Rifa or Chimera softens the light even more… and will help hide shadows that may fall on the background!
I feel like I am writing a book… so bear with me! When I was in college in the 70s I had Gerald Millerson in my video production class. Some of you old timers might remember that Millerson was a BBC engineer who wrote about a dozen text books on tv production and lighting… Millerson’s approach was to light film style…he was a stickler for doing 3-point light correctly…key, fill and back light. For interviews the key light does not go where the camera is, but is determined by where the talent’s nose is pointing! So if you have a subject who is being interviewed looking off camera at the interviewer… then the key light is setup so that the interviewer is between the key light and the camera… this is so that the fat side of the subject’s face is towards the camera and the shadow that is created by the light is cast across the face… the key light should also be from “above” so that the key light casts the shadow down… this is what creates the 3d look that is needed in this 2-dimensional medium! It drives me crazy when dp’s and lighting directors put a light on the floor, and shine it up on the person’s face! This light flattens the image… in fact, it is a very unflattering light… think about when you where a kid on Halloween and shined a flashlight pointing up from your chin… casting the shadows on your face up… and scaring all your friends! I call this the Katie Couric light! Think about this…or try this…then next time you are lighting an interview… make the floor light the first light that you setup and turn on! Seat your talent down and take a look at what that light is doing. Then ask yourself this… are you turning on all the other lights… in order to create flattering light for your talent or are you turning them on just to overcome what the unflattering floor light has created? You’ve created flat lighting and a shadowless face! And of course, when Katie is asking questions and waving her hands around… oops look at all the shadows being cast on her face by the floor light… very annoying to say the least!
I’ll be back tomorrow to add some more thoughts, especially about the Leko lights. I have shot video on the Good Morning America set… so I can tell you exactly what they do! I will also talk about LED lights… yes they are way over priced! Here are the pictures of the LTM projector.
Did the AF100 you purchased come with a lens? If not, do you know what lens they are offering?
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP VideoWindows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
Yes, this is the way it is supposed to work in CS5… I guess. If I open the SxS card in Sony’s ClipBrowser program it shows up as one file! I could then copy it to a directory and then open it up in CS5… however, I am skipping the ClipBrowser step because I can do the same thing in CS5’s Media Browser window!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP Video
Windows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800
Here’s an led light that I sell on ebay. https://cgi.ebay.com/Grip-LED-light-DZP-Video-/290497908641?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a3064fa1
It’s called Grip-LED and is designed to be used with grip equipment. It is 10 3/4″ x 10 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ and weighs 2lbs and can be easily hung from a drop ceiling with scissor pins. You need a knuckle or elbow to mount the light! I recently sold 2 of these to a high school for use in their tv studio to light their news set! Led lights are durable, don’t get hot, are daylight balanced but you can easily add CTO to change the color temperature to tungsten. My lights have slots for clothes pins so you can attach diffusion and or color gels. The light comes with 2 diffusion sheets… so you can easily get various levels of brightness and diffusion. It is a 40W light that puts out about the same amount of light as a 400W tungsten light. You can also see more pictures on my website https://www.dzpvideo.com
Also, I have a 3 light Rifa kit… 750, 500, and 250 watt size with egg crates for each. The Rifa light is a great light for interviews… the egg crates are a must in my opinion because they do a tremendous job in softening the light even more! But, they are kind of expensive. Also, the Rifa’s are large and would be kind of tight in a room with 8′ ceilings. I have been very happy with the Rifa light and have used them since the 1980’s! They are tremendous for interview. They pop open like an umbrella, so they are very quick to setup and strike. Compared to the Chimera… which is like using an erector set… the Rifa is a snap. The only complaint I have about the Rifa is that the reflector may need to be “sewn” occasionally… this has to do with the way it is constructed and attached to the wire frame. After awhile the diffusion will crack or split… depending on how your students will take care of the equipment… you may need to replace the diffusion occasionally. I would not buy the 1000W Rifa… I think it is too big. With the sensitivity of today’s cameras I think lower wattage is better! I would also mention that the newer Rifa’s can be purchased with an interchangeable socket so you can replace the tungsten bulbs with spiral florescent lights. This can give you a light kit that will be either tungsten or daylight balance.
And generally, I think that Lowel lights tend to be over designed… so small parts fall off or get broken easily! But, they have a huge parts list… and parts can be ordered online and they are not overpriced.
For back lights I would go with the Arri 150W light or an LTM 100 or 200w pepper light. These are small fresnel lights.
In today’s video world there is this huge trend towards led lights…which may be the way to go… however your decision should reflect this trend, because 2 or 3 years from now you may have a Rifa kit that no one is using, because they are using the led kit! Which is the case for me… the last 5 or 6 video shoots I have done have been with led lights… and the Rifas I have are just sitting in my equipment storage. I am contemplating getting the lights modified with the edison socket so I can use spiral florescent bulbs or led bulbs… yes they make led bulbs that go into the edison socket!
Hope some of this helps… it is Thanksgiving and my wife and daughter are visiting grad schools out west… so I am home alone with nothing else to do!
Dave Speace
Producer/Director/DP
DZP Video
Windows 7, 64 Bit, i7 8 Core, 16Gb Ram, GeForce 4800