Hanging lights for one on one interviews

T

The Fog

Member
What are some of the ways you guys rig lights for those one on one, face to face interviews? Do you use boom arms or rig up something with pipes?
 
Light stands? Why would you need boom arms or speed rail? Are you trying to place your lights in unusual places?
 
I assume he means those 60-minutes-style interviews that are shot on several cameras where the interviewer and interviewee both have their own shots and lights are usually put above/behind their heads just above frame to get even, near-on-the-nose lighting on both subjects and sometimes doubling as backlights but the lights are tilted down to keep them off the background.

Like this?
http://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/...339f74adbafcfead118d41/dsc09698-1600x1600.jpg
 
Ahh, that makes more sense, standard cross key setup. I usually use a 9' matte boom pole on a combo or three riser stand for each key as to keep the stand out of the opposing camera's image. Speed rail can work too but that's a bigger, heavier setup that takes more gear and more crew to set up and break down. A lot of it is dictated also by if you are rolling just two or if you are rolling three or four cameras.
 
I used to hang a couple of arris 650's with soft boxes on heavily weighted down c-stands. Once, I even used all litepanels, due to quick striking. I have been thinking about the use of speed rails lately. It seems a whole lot safer and more flexible.
 
I hate the wide, side two shot, because so many guys don't fly their lights when they need to and they just key from the wrong side.

But if you're just cross shooting a standard two-cam interview(one cam on subject, reversal/cross shot on reporter), there shouldn't really be a need to fly anything except the hair lights, and normal C-stands should work fine for those under most normal situations.
 
Ha, ha, I work with a few grips who will give me endless shite if they see a light on a C-stand. I do it all of the time when working solo but many grips hate putting lights on a C-stand because it isn't a light stand. Easy rule to enforce when you have a 5 ton or 10 ton parked outside ;-)
 
Ah ok I guess I was confused because I don't really usually arm anything out on a talking head setup. I probably only even use a backlight less than half the time and if I do it usually doesn't need an arm especially since it's usually something like long diffused kino 4x4 with only one bulb on for a subtle effect since half the unit can end up over the frame anyway due to its length, but a couple of times it has needed an arm due to needing an especially wide shot or slider shot and then I suppose my gaffer will usually just throw it on a c-stand arm, commonly due to tight spaces etc or having a smaller package where c-stands tend to do everything.
 
puredrifting said:
Ha, ha, I work with a few grips who will give me endless shite if they see a light on a C-stand. I do it all of the time when working solo but many grips hate putting lights on a C-stand because it isn't a light stand. Easy rule to enforce when you have a 5 ton or 10 ton parked outside ;-)
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If I have grips and a gaffer doing it all for me, they can rig them any way they want! Lol.
 
The Fog said:
What are some of the ways you guys rig lights for those one on one, face to face interviews? Do you use boom arms or rig up something with pipes?
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An overview of the options:


The best way to fly lights is either a true "menace arm" constructed out of speed rail -

View attachment 122816



or one of the pricey systems such as the $5,304 Matthews "Max stand" boom:

View attachment 122813

or the $1100 Matthews "Mini Max" boom:

View attachment 122815

Then there is the Chimera boom arm which is a parallelogram style boom:

View attachment 122814

I've never seen one of those ^^ in use. It looks too short to be of much good.


A mid-priced option is the Matthews Junior Boom ( "junior" referring to the 1-1/8" fitting )

Matthews_427803_Junior_Matth_Boom_33151.jpg



There is the Bogen Mega boom:

View attachment 122812

then the Matthews "baby boom":

View attachment 122817



But most of us use the Bogen mini-boom:


View attachment 122811

The mini-boom is a compromise. It isn't always long enough and it will bend under weight. But it is the most economical and the most practical means for most of us working with a small crew. Most of the time I am tasked with one of these cross-shooting / light flying setups I am working with a crew of 3. Myself, the other camera op, and the Sound Op. I am rarely afforded the luxury of a Grip and the necessary hardware to construct a Menace Arm.
 
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I am getting spoiled lately, the doc I just shot in Brazil, the producer gave me two gaffers and two grips plus sound mixer and a media wrangler. It was heaven. I don't mind doing more myself but it was nice to work more with the camera and just tell the crew what I wanted. We did a couple of setups in recording studios where I lit an entire six piece band in zones, each with a different color theme, ended up working about 25 instruments for that setup, it would have taken me alone all day to light that, with my crew, we had it ready to shoot in about 90 minutes. I getting spoiled, it's going to be tough to go back to one man banding it occasionally.
 
puredrifting said:
I am getting spoiled lately, the doc I just shot in Brazil, the producer gave me two gaffers and two grips plus sound mixer and a media wrangler. It was heaven. I don't mind doing more myself but it was nice to work more with the camera and just tell the crew what I wanted. We did a couple of setups in recording studios where I lit an entire six piece band in zones, each with a different color theme, ended up working about 25 instruments for that setup, it would have taken me alone all day to light that, with my crew, we had it ready to shoot in about 90 minutes. I getting spoiled, it's going to be tough to go back to one man banding it occasionally.
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And that is what a lot of producers don't see/understand, because theyre not the ones physically doing it. So many only see the cost of another body or two, not the efficiency and better end product. I've been on a few shoots the last 12 months where I was just shooting and we had grips and a gaffer. Besides only walking in with my camera and support and not having to unload a truck full of lighting and grip, it's so much better standing back at a monitor and having someone else tweak the light instead of running back and forth doing it yourself. It does spoil you very QUICKLY. Like flying on a private plane...
 
Run&Gun said:
it's so much better standing back at a monitor and having someone else tweak the light instead of running back and forth doing it yourself.
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Or just standing back at the camera and toggling the light's brightness, color temp, and possibly RGB colors via a cell phone ap without needing to take time to communicate with a gaffer. Of course the ap can't change the direction and focusing of the light.
 
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