Need suggestions on how to light this music video, please!

T

Tass

Active member
Hi!

I am going to shoot my first real music video, it's being done in this old house with only 6 ampere on each fuse... So we can't have too many lights with us. We're going to have three Red heads on 800w each, and two soft boxes (I think they're 250w each).

I would like to hear suggestions on how to use these lamps in order to get out as much as possible from them and make it look good, if possible... I have drawn how the room looks...

The black is the room itself...
The red rings are where the band members will be (singer, guitar, drums)
Blue cirkels on the right is two big windows (I'm thinking about using these to gain some extra light)
Grey square is where we will stand and shoot it from (will go closer in to get close shots)

So please, any suggestions on how to set up the lights to get a nice allround exposure would be appreciated! I was thinking about focusing the Red heads on the let side since the right has the windows... They would work as fill lightning.. Or maybe I'm totaly wrong here...


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Type of music? Theme for the clip? If you could provide some specifics it might make it easier for people to give some advice.
 
I say use the light in the room, and use a fill light to remove the shadows. Then spice it up in post. That's what I usually do. But, then again, I'm on a super low budget.
 
Sorry for not providing enough info, it's my first music video so I'm not not used to it...

6A is 1380W, so i don't see why you couldn't have one red head per fuse, even a softbox on the same fuse should work, sonofaresiii

Anyway, their music is very much like Coldplay, pop/soft rock... The castle where we are going to shoot it was built about three hundred years ago, so the room has some really nice old furniture and architecture, so it would be nice to show that of a bit.
We are planning to do something like they did it in "moves like jagger": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPTlhBmwRg&ob=av2n

But we wan't planning to make it more "serious" without the funky dancers and so on. One part of the music video will be in color in slow mo (speeding up the music to 200% and shooting it in 50p 1/100 shutter to get the smooth feeling).
The other part will be handheld in black and white with some film effect like dust / scratches.

For the slow motion parts, we're going to use a jib. It will be shot on a GH2 with a Tamron 17-50 2.8 and some Nikon primes (all F2.8). We wouldn't like to create any dramatic lightning but not flat either, maybe something in between.
My thoughts was to place both the softboxes behind them, one in each corner. Since the windows provides some light, two of the red heads would focus from the right side and one would be aimed from the left on the drummer since he's behind them all in the room...

Hope this explains it a bit more... Thank you!
 
You might want to consider that if you're using redheads and the windows, you'll need to gel the redheads with CTB to match the daylight colour temp. You will lose 50% o the light from each.
 
Are 6 amp circuits all you have? Are there no 15 amp circuits in the house? Depending on the voltage... At 110 volts, 800 watts = 7.27 amps. At 115 volts, 800 watts = 6.96 amps. At 120 volts, 800 watts = 6.67 amps. At 220 volts, 800 watts = 3.64 amps.
 
We have 230 voltage here, so we should be fine.. Yeah I was shocked when they said that the entire building only had 6A circuits (had to do something with old electrical wires and fire hazard...).. So the only choice I have is to connect each lamp to a separate fuse from different rooms. I will need like 100m cables just for that..
 
From your descriptions it seems that you want to copy a bit of this, a bit of that, slo-mo, etc. and will come up with a hodgepodge of shots that are extraneous to the mood of the set. The "Moves Like Jagger" video example is primarily lit as a theatrical stage set with a lot of front "flat" lighting on performance close ups, etc. With all of the lighting instruments you want to use you could end up with a lighting hodgepodge, along with a drain on the available power. (Don't forget any electrical requirements of the band.)
If you chose the location because of it character and atmosphere you shouldn't destroy this character by piling all of these broad light sources on, or by applying distractive gimmick visual effects.

i agree with TheMutualMatt. Simplify and go for minimal lighting. Don't upstage the music with cleaver visual effects, for effect's sake. Take (or supplement) the window light as your key light and only add small, soft fill for subtle detail and let the band and music be the focus of interest.
You might want to consider a barn-doored down red head for a gentle kicker or effect light, but not much more. Don't light up the room and kill its atmosphere.
Good luck,
Ken
 
kennedymax said:
From your descriptions it seems that you want to copy a bit of this, a bit of that, slo-mo, etc. and will come up with a hodgepodge of shots that are extraneous to the mood of the set. The "Moves Like Jagger" video example is primarily lit as a theatrical stage set with a lot of front "flat" lighting on performance close ups, etc. With all of the lighting instruments you want to use you could end up with a lighting hodgepodge, along with a drain on the available power. (Don't forget any electrical requirements of the band.)
If you chose the location because of it character and atmosphere you shouldn't destroy this character by piling all of these broad light sources on, or by applying distractive gimmick visual effects.

i agree with TheMutualMatt. Simplify and go for minimal lighting. Don't upstage the music with cleaver visual effects, for effect's sake. Take (or supplement) the window light as your key light and only add small, soft fill for subtle detail and let the band and music be the focus of interest.
You might want to consider a barn-doored down red head for a gentle kicker or effect light, but not much more. Don't light up the room and kill its atmosphere.
Good luck,
Ken
Click to expand...

Thanks for your honest input! The band had this idea that one part of the video should be black and white while the colors of their shirts are excluded from the black and white... And to this they would like to have one "normal part" without any effects... I also got this feeling that it probably would be too much going on. We will try it out, in the worst case, we will simply leave it as it is and just tweak the colors and skip the black and white stuff... Or just put it in a sec or two to the beat of the music, but definitly not let it dominate the rest of the video...
 
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I don't have a problem with fast cuts and effects if the mood of the piece and setting dictate it. It is important, however, to keep the visual with the presentation . . . not to distract from it or to obviously be an effects copycat. Many musicians feel that the more the better and may lose sight of the support that visuals can give their piece.
Be focused (not necessarily the camera), have fun and you'll be OK.
Ken
 
A few thumbnail ideas:
Back light- separates people from background important if room (castle?!) is dark, also can flare lens (good for music video)
Side light with hard source (red heads) fill w soft source (windows /softlights)

Take everyones suggestions and Try everything! It's a music video there are no rules! Experiment have fun and whatever doesn't work doesn't make the cut!
 
Thanks guys!

My initial plan is to use the windows as the key light, and from the other side I'll use 1-2 red heads to even it up and erase shadows... Behind the drummer (far back in the room) I'll place a softbox to separate them from the background, and maybe another softbox in one of the corners if we feel that it is being needed.

Lets just hope that the light from the windows stays the same (or changes as little as possible), otherwise we're going to have a huge PITA.
 
First thing I'd do is black out the windows. The light is going to change over the course of the shoot and you are introducing mixed color temp issues you'll have to gel the lights (or the window) to fix.
 
Tass said:
Sorry for not providing enough info, it's my first music video so I'm not not used to it...

6A is 1380W, so i don't see why you couldn't have one red head per fuse, even a softbox on the same fuse should work, sonofaresiii
Click to expand...

It wasn't 'clear' that you were from a place that has 230V power... hence your '6A -> 1380W'... Here in the US, where most posters seem to live... we have 120 so 6A -> 720W something less than 800W...

However, just on general principles... for me... 'old house'... means danger about assuming the wiring is good enough to carry the full power that one would calculate from general principles. So, I'd still keep the wattage per circuit to about 1/2 the calculated... or about 7-800W.
 
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