Advice for talk show set build

tony240sx

tony240sx

Well-known member
I am working on a shoot this summer where we will be building a set in a large conference room. Most likely a 3 wall set with a window on one side. The room has 15 foot ceilings and a good amount of space. It will be a one on one talk show at a table. We will need the space built for about a week with shows every day. I would like to have the front of the set as open as possible for the day to day of guests and talent coming through and our 3 cameras. As for the look and feel we want to keep it natural and soft. The talent and guest should pop but I don't want to go for a harsh studio look. Soft key and subtle edge while working the levels to get a nice ratio with the background.

My initial thoughts are to possibly bring in a truss for some rear cross key lighting. Pushing a large source through the window for soft daylight feel to the background. In addition to those key elements, bring in some fixtures, possibly lekos, over the walls to hit pops of light to the background elements. I’d love to get some soft ambient fill into the space from the front. I am thinking if the space will allow just some large soft sources from the front corners. I don't want to bring in a ton of rigging since we don’t have a huge budget and crew on hand.

I would love to hear any suggestion on lighting and rigging for a situation like this since I have not done a ton of this kind of thing. It would be great to have at least the fixtures on the truss with some sort of control as well. DMX or if there is a better solution I’d love to hear all thoughts.
I have a scout next week to check out the space and get specifics and will be meeting with the set designer as well to start getting a game plan together.
Any thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Not having seen the location my initial reaction is to black out the window so you can control lighting. I'm not sure if it's east/west facing and will effect your ambient light levels.

I 100% support your idea of running truss in the b/g and I'd recommend going with truss or some sort of goal post up front as well so you get all your lamps off the floor. This will provide the cleanest work environment in my opinion. No cables to trip over, etc. In essence you're making your own grid. Key lights can be a simple as a bunch of Image80's with diffusion and egg crates on them so the frontal light can be soft yet contained from spilling on the walls. Then you can address those seperately. Back light can be any soft source on DMX so you can dial it in to taste. Leko or LED Detos will be great for accent lights. If you're not able to use DMX you can just get a bunch of Kino fatboys and gang all the ballasts together so you can communicate to you're gaffer which laps to bringup/shut off easily to achieve the level you want.

Depending on what the set looks like you may consider up lighting some walls for accents with something like an LED color blast, and you may want units in frame as well for some "pop". If using S35 sensors I'd light to a T4 so you don't blow focus as guests enter/exit frame and lean in/out as they speak with the host. Hopefully there's some distance between foreground/background so you can have some focus fall off.

I'd also recommend tripod dolly's if you're not using Ped's. This way your cameras can float into multiple positions.
 
I think you'll want a truss more for a means of hanging a key light or key lights than for any rear cross-lighting. Usually you can get away with having the backlighting mounted to the top of the set walls or mounted on stands positioned behind the set walls.

What sort of ceiling is it? If it is a drop ceiling, you have many options. Scissor clamps or short-arms mounted to clamps that grab something up inside the drop ceiling.
 
Thoughts.... As Bill touched on, think about what T-stop you will be lighting to. I would then use that info in calculating set depth to give some separation from your subjects and the back wall.

Also as Bill mentioned, when using ped's or tripod dolly's consider your subjects seating in relation to your camera height. You want your camera operators in a non-cramped position, and to avoid weird shooting angles. So you may need to consider a riser as part of the set design.

Best!

Dave
 
Thanks for the input guys.
I wasn't clear in the initial post but there are no actual windows in the room. We are having the set designer build a window in one of the walls so I will be pushing a source through that to create daylight feel. Not sure what yet since I have not seen the space or the dimensions on the room or set walls.
I will most likely light to around an f/4 as you suggested. I want softness to the background but don't want to be focus hunting. It's a podcast type setup so they will be basically stationary at the table and microphones. Two locked off cameras on the talent and a wide shot on a dana dolly or second shooter setup.
 
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