Lighting, shooting a fire performer

A

aaandre

Member
This February I will be shooting a firedance performance.

I feel stuck because such a shoot calls for seemingly contradicting elements:
- fire must be visible => low light or complete darkness
- fast movement which I'd like to capture (and not have it be too blurred) => shutter = at least 30
- I want to see the body of the performer => some lighting

See some images of what I'd like to do at his web site:
http://fyregod.com/fg_images/fg_images.htm

Lights I own:
- 2 lowell omni lights with barn doors

My thoughts so far:
- put orange/red gel on one of the lights and position it behind and to the right of the performer, just above head level.
- position 2nd light low, behind performer, in such a way that the light doesn't hit the camera
- have him move parallel to the camera so I don't have to rely on autofocus
- have him prepare a routine with mimimal movement through space.

setting as I see it right now:
[pre]

L2(blue gel)


L1(red gel)
<----P------->



C(amera)


P=performer
[/pre]

However, I think the photos were made without artificial light and I am afraid my dvx100a won't let me do this.

I need your advice on:
- best camera settings (I will use manual focus/shutter/iris and will do at least one 24p or 30p take)
- lighting suggestions (I have very little experience)

Once I do the shoot I will post a clip and a description of the set up.

Thank you!
-- Andre
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

Is this guy the Beast Masta?

I would use 3 lights (Hate to have a traditional take on this) two of which you have already illustrated. A third I would add for fill.

I would bring the KEY in front of performer.
I would splash the BLUE for background. (Question: What will the background be? Will it be cave like as in images?)


L2(blue gel)

<----P------->

L1(red gel)
L3(Fill)

C(amera)


Why not shoot shutter off 1/48th or no higher than 1/120

Other settings I think depend on actually testing them. I prefer IRE of 7.5
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

don't light him at all.. half the performance from a fire performer is the self flagging/lighting  the performer gives to himself. The contrast is part of the performance. The only light I would possible put is a hair light above or below to give a little outline.

And keep setup at 0, dealing with a slow shutter and a 7.5 setup will kill the very aparent blacks.

I would be more focused on finding the shutter speed you want then the lighting.
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

Thats a good point Jarred. I forgot it wouyld already be CONTRASTY and BLACK and probally no need to further crush! See, J's the man.
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

thanks guys.

Background: black space. I will shoot at night and will make sure there is enough open space behind him so nothing reflects the lights and nothing is in focus.

His name is Karl Wood and his performances kick ass (I've seen 4 so far).

I will try with no light first, then add a high positioned back light and take it from there.

My experience is that if no light is present, sometimes it becomes too dark to see what's going on with his body, especially when he spins fireballs on chains and extends the chains.
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

I am a huge fan of using light, even if the illusion is for darkness.
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

yes it all depends the look you want.. if you want to see him light him up.. but it it very dramatic to just be able to see him when the fire lights him up.. if you look at the movie clip on that page you can get a rough idea what Im talking about.

http://www.fyregod.com/fyregod_long.mov
 
Re: Lighting, shooting a fire performer

I think the no lighting idea will work well for this guy. Sometimes when you're shooting fire, you want to add some light so you can stop down a bit so the fire has some color (In Backdraft, they had to shoot with tons of light so the fire would be orange, instead of white), but in this instance, I think that exposing for the glow on his body, and letting the fire go white will work. If anything, I'd put a hard blue backlight on him.
 
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