Lighting a Talk Show Studio - Any thoughts?

M

mctoom

Member
I know this forum is usually discussing lighting solutions for low budget films, but it's the only forum I can trust so I'll give it a shot.

We're planning to create a talk show soon, something similar to Jon Stewart. We have a reasonable budget. In our city it's hard to find a proper studio available for this task. We got the best available studio and it's alright I guess. But that's the thing! I'm not sure whether the available lighting in the studio is sufficient and appropriate for the show or not. There are BUNCH of lighting units up there, like 50 units. But there is no lighting designers available! only technicians who are repeating the same lighting setup for every show they host.

Is there any references we can get, any tips.. anything useful basically about lighting a talk show set?
 
I do some shooting for The Daily Show. What kind of exact set-up are you looking for. THe show you name as reference is as much about lighting as about art direction - that would have a HUGE impact on how to light it. OR are you going for simple Charle Rose black BG?
 
By the way, do you know by any chance what type are the screens behind Jon Stewart? or they are projections?
 
If you are using a studio with a proper crew, then surely it would be better to simply bring in a proper LD, to design in properly? Would you risk your production on an unproven cameraman?
 
If we can hire one I wouldn't be asking for guidelines. The country I'm in is still amateur in this field but we are very excited to do the best we can within our limited resources.
 
Usually studio TV shows are lit high key, meaning very little contrast across faces -- no shadows. That's done with a lot of fixtures spread across a grid left to right and front to back. They used to be hard -- fresnels or PAR cans. Now they are more likely to be soft with diffusion and softboxes. Depends on the look you want.

For a talk show you might actually like a few shadows to make the frame look less flat, like you might do in lighting for a movie. You achieve that with fewer lights turned on in the grid so you can have key and fill lights instead of a "wall" of light.

You might want to use what are called back cross keys, which just means lights high and behind each person of the two who are facing each other conversing. You point one light from above and behind the person on the left at the face of the person on the right. Some of the light is a backlight for the person on the left falling on their hair and shoulders. Similarly, you put a back cross key on the right aimed at the person on the left. Common and works great. I do it often when lighting an interview where both subject and interviewer are going to be shot.

And almost for sure you want some lights in the frame. You can use panels of translucent plastic and put gelled lights behind them for the colors you want and you should use ropes of LEDs or any other way to work lights into the frame that give texture and interest. You are going for visual appeal, not realism.
 
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Thank you so much slondon. That was really helpful and enlightening. I'm grateful!

slondon said:
Usually studio TV shows are lit high key, meaning very little contrast across faces -- no shadows. That's done with a lot of fixtures spread across a grid left to right and front to back. They used to be hard -- fresnels or PAR cans. Now they are more likely to be soft with diffusion and softboxes. Depends on the look you want.

For a talk show you might actually like a few shadows to make the frame look less flat, like you might do in lighting for a movie. You achieve that with fewer lights turned on in the grid so you can have key and fill lights instead of a "wall" of light.

You might want to use what are called back cross keys, which just means lights high and behind each person of the two who are facing each other conversing. You point one light from above and behind the person on the left at the face of the person on the right. Some of the light is a backlight for the person on the left falling on their hair and shoulders. Similarly, you put a back cross key on the right aimed at the person on the left. Common and works great. I do it often when lighting an interview where both subject and interviewer are going to be shot.

And almost for sure you want some lights in the frame. You can use panels of translucent plastic and put gelled lights behind them for the colors you want and you should use ropes of LEDs or any other way to work lights into the frame that give texture and interest. You are going for visual appeal, not realism.
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