[Rick Wise]

What is the existing light in the environment(s) where you will be shooting? Outdoors, indoors with window light? Indoors with overhead fluorescents? Etc.

If you are outdoors, these lights will do nothing for you other than possibly add a dot of light in the eye. If you are indoors with windows and/or overhead DAYLIGHT fluorescents, and IF they are balanced for daylight, then they will possibly add some fill. They are too weak, however, for a reliable unit to take into any existing environment. You could possibly make them work by placing them close to the subject, which is usually not a great way to go. And if you need to add some minus green and some diffusion, your light level will drop too low for much use.

Basically you want at least one unit you can use to key in a variety of lighting conditions. These do not seem to provide that option.

A more expensive but ultimately more satisfactory solution is one 4×4 KinoFlo with both tungsten and daylight tubes; and two 2 x 2 kinos with both types of bulbs. Also, c-stands for the kinos. Then some diffusion, some plus 1/4 green, sand bags, etc. Some people like the KinoFlo Divas. Lowell makes a Caselight that is similar.

Or, you could get a medium Chimera for one of your Reds.

If you want to travel with next to nothing, you can make pretty good images with available light and just an eye light. Your cheap unit might work for that. But then you have to be able to move people to where the light is good, and block off light you don’t want. You must understand color temperature and CC filters. If you are just starting out, you will not yet have the eye to pull off this kind of opportunity seizing.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

650 Lux is 1/3 stop under f/4 at ASA 250. But that means nothing. The light gives off 650 lux at what distance? 15′? 10′? 6′? etc. And, what Kelvin? And, how much green spike?

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

John is so right! The quickest, easiest solution is to use the same lamps on the floor as in the ceiling, and manually white balance. (If the resulting image looks too cool, white balance again, but this time place 1/8 CTB in front of the lens as you do. The camera will add warmth to compensate for the blue. Remove the blue once the white balance is done, and there are you with a warmer image.)

You don’t say if your overheads are cool or warm fluorescents. Most likely they are cool, or roughly daylight balanced (with a green spike your eye can’t see but the camera can.) That means that if you add any of your tungsten units to supplement the floor kinos with the same bulbs as the overheads, you will need to add to these tungsten units: probably 1/4 plus green and also 1/2 blue. White balance without these tungsten units turned on. Then turn them on, and correct the gelling as your eye sees fit. Be sure to have on hand some sheets of 1/8 and 1/4 plus green; 1/8 and 1/4 and 1/2 CTB.

The best way to scout would be to take along a 3-color meter and measure the amount of green/blue/orange in the existing fluorescents. Whatever the meter tells you you need to add to your tungsten units, do 1/2 that strength.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Much of the look involves post manipulation. After Effects is just one solution. There are others. It may be the camera was color-balanced warm or cool (depending on the scene) to help the process, but I would guess the heavy lifting happened in post. Think bleach-bypass, remove all colors except the desired one, play with gamma, etc.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Thanks, Ron.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Oops! names at the end of the clip! My bad.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

And the filmmaker is?

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Great, except you still have not told us what units are in your Lowel kit. I’m going to guess 2 Lowel Omnis and 2 Lowel totas, plus 4 stands. If there are 2 totas, maybe you also have 2 umbrellas, one for each?

I presume you want the fireplace to be lit and burning between/behind them. That means you don’t want a huge amount of light so that you can shoot fairly open iris. The suggestion above of making one key be the fill for the other should work.

I’d place each speaker on either side of the fireplace and at least 6′ in front, maybe more like 8′-10′. A shot that includes both speakers would be in the background filled with the fireplace. In other words, how far apart they guys are depends on the size of the fireplace.

Then I’d key the one on camera right with a Tota placed camera left. If you were to sit in the screen-right speaker’s chair, and look directly into the camera, then swing your gaze about 45º to your right (camera left) and 45º up from horizontal, that is where I’d place the first Tota. I would twist the Tota so that only a very small portion of the light hits the speaker on the left. (Better would be to scrim the light striking the screen-left speaker with a grip double on a c-stand, but you probably won’t have that option.)

Then I’d do the same for the screen-left speaker, but reverse the process so his/her light is camera right, at an equal distance, etc.

Then you have to look at the actual speakers in their chairs. Maybe they have very round faces, and the lights would look better on their faces 55-55º off camera axis. Maybe they have deep-set eyes and 45º above horizontal is too high and possibly 45º off axis from the camera is too much. You always have to look at what you actually have in front of you.

Finally, I’d take the two onmnis and gel them with some orange (CTO) or red-orange gel. I’d place one way back along the wall screen left of the left speaker, aimed so it puts a warm glow on the speaker screen right, and do the same for the screen-left speaker with the other omni, placing this one way over to the right.

You may well want to add a single or double scrim on the omnis to reduce their intensity. You just want a hint of colored light, not a blast. Dose to your eye.

The rental house should have gels to sell you. If you have to use all hard lights (no umbrellas) then use the omni or D-heads and put 1/2 grid on the barn doors to soften them and use them as the keys as described above. Use the raw totas as the back rims with gel. Be sure to get the tota-gel holders.

Remember that if you move a light from 5′ to 10′ from the subject, the intensity drops by 2 whole stops. That means you can dose the intensity of the light on the speakers by moving lights a little closer or a little further away.

I am also presuming there is no daylight entering the room, and that you can turn off the house lights.

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

More questions:

–what are the lighting units you have?
–what is the space between the speakers and the fireplace
–is there any way to rig any lights from the ceiling? If so, how low can you get them?
–if your lights have to be on the floor, how far away must they be so as to not block audience view and be an irritant to the audience?

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Since you have only one camera, you are somewhat limited as to how you can place the two speakers. Is there an audience? Are the speakers conversing with each other in front of an audience, or is each one speaking in turn to an audience or to the camera? The answers to those questions dictate how you place and light your speakers.

Also, do you ever need to see the audience?

Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
and part-time instructor lighting and camera
grad school, SF Academy of Art University/Film and Video
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com