Need low budget backlight advice

A

AAC

Member
I need advice on low budget video lighting for backlight and hairlight purpose. It's not for interview shooting but typical academic classroom presentation where speakers stand behind a podium. What budget light do you suggest ? Tota ? Omni ? or worklight from HomeDepot can work ?

I understand that I need to set the backlight pointing down to the speakcers' back from high position. Does it have to be 180 degree behind the speakers or 45 degree is fine too ?

How to avoid the strong light that upset students sitting in the classroom facing the podium for 3-4 hours ?

Many thanks.
 
What's the size of the room, approximately? How will people be sitting? Speakers on same level as students? What are the lighting conditions in the room (windows, ceiling lights, do you have control over the ceiling lights)? How much can you spend, or what do you have to work with?

I've lit a few similar set-ups and might be able to help a little, although I'm no serious expert. Addressing a lot of those questions though may help you figure it out.
 
mtd2007 said:
What's the size of the room, approximately? How will people be sitting? Speakers on same level as students? What are the lighting conditions in the room (windows, ceiling lights, do you have control over the ceiling lights)? How much can you spend, or what do you have to work with?

I've lit a few similar set-ups and might be able to help a little, although I'm no serious expert. Addressing a lot of those questions though may help you figure it out.
Click to expand...

It's a typical 400 sq ft hotel function room, tutor and students are on the same floor level. Ceiling flo tubes, no windows, will add two Kino 200 near podium pointing to tutors.
Spending ? between 150 - 200. Shooting for internal staff training.
 
That's fairly similar to my last shoot. Don't have a lot of experience working with florescents, so it might be better for someone else to chime in on the particulars, but for what it's worth...

If you already have the Kinos, and can get them close enough (I'm assuming you'll be placing them as keys on opposite sides of the tutors), 150-200 should be enough to rent a pair of kickers.

I'd stay away from Omnis, Totas or worklights, though, unless you have tungsten bulbs on the Kinos. And while the Omnis are slightly easier to control, depending on your accessories, and while you definitely could mess around with bouncing them for a more ambient sort of backlight...if what you're really looking for is some good definition with heads/hair/etc....you might want something with more control than what you'd get with that set.

Again...a more experienced gaffer may have more specific advice...but what has worked for me in a similar set-up was a pair of Arri 600s aimed at both sides (on a 45) as keys, and a pair of Arri 300s (on an almost 45, sort of off to the side, in the corner) as kickers.

So the 45 worked for me with the backlights but I also had to light a long line of people and didn't have much of a choice. Someone may have a reason for not doing this but I also kept my kickers low to the floor, pointing up at the shoulder of my panelists. This achieved the same basic effect I was going for with a backlight but also managed to keep the light out of the eyes of the people sitting across by beaming above them (that's why having a more controllably light helps in your situation too...lights with more throw and spill will be harder to keep away from a larger number of people in the audience).

You could probably achieve a similar effect with some lower wattage florourscent kickers, or if you have correction gels you could use something like an Arri, Mole, or etc.

Might also want to check out some books for diagrams of newsroom or interview set-ups.

Hope that helps at least a little!
 
I'd go for a Lowel Pro light with IP-20 barn doors. Globe it with a 250 and pick up a harbor freight dimmer (router speed control).
 
mtd2007 said:
.... but I also kept my kickers low to the floor, pointing up at the shoulder of my panelists. This achieved the same basic effect I was going for with a backlight but also managed to keep the light out of the eyes of the people sitting across by beaming above them (that's why having a more controllably light helps in your situation too...lights with more throw and spill will be harder to keep away from a larger number of people in the audience).
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot !
A few experienced guys suggested me to hang the backlight high above speakers' back, to provide backlight from head to shoulder. That's really confuse me becasue Power Point screen is behind the podium. The backlight up behind the speaker will upset people sitting in front rows. Also the still picture camera man will complain the backlight beam to ruin the picture when taking a wide angle shoot. May be keep backlight low to the floor is other option. What power (300w or 600w) do I need from backlight.
 
The power will depend slightly on distance, but for the few shoots I ran that were similar to yours, I used a wattage that was half the power of my key. On one shoot, though, even this ran a little too hot and I had to step it down a little bit with some diffusion material (doing something like this may also help soften the light, if you go with a tungsten fresnel, for instance).

Like I said I haven't worked much with anything like the Kino lights you have...but if you look in any manual (it's been a little while since I have lit anything, and I don't have my go-to guide handy at the moment) you can probably find some tips on choosing wattage, or specific guidelines on how many stops down your exposure should be on the backlight, vs. your key and fill.
 
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