Shooting Interviews Solo: Some Simple Lighting Examples

[Luis Caffesse]

I've been working on a project recently which, due to budget constraints, I am shooting alone. I wound up having to put together a lighting diagram for someone and figured some people here might find this useful.

These are basic midshot static interviews.
I'm not putting this forth as THE way to light interviews, but just to give you an idea.
Clearly others could have done better.

My main concern in these situations is to be able to get in and setup quickly, and breakdown and exit just as fast. I am working completely alone, so the amount of gear I take with me has to be minimal, and multifaceted. I should add that I never see the location until I get there - usually I'm shooting in people's homes or offices, and I'm lucky to get them to give me 30 minutes of their time in the first place.

Usually I'll try to work with the natural light as much as I can (as in the first example).
But sometimes it's just not possible (as in the second example), which is why it's always good to leave yourself options in your kit (ie. Either daylight and tungsten balanced bulbs, or the appropriate gels).


Here is a reference frame - keep in mind this is raw footage straight off the cards:

In this case I was able to use the bank of windows in the office to my advantage.
The rest was done with only two small lights:

EXAMPLE 2:

In this next example the room was lit with Flourescents in the ceiling, but also had a bank of windows along the wall. Unfortunately, when I turned off the flos in the ceiling, the daylight alone wasn't enough to really get me by - so I had to keep the flos, and try to shoot with a tungsten balance instead (trying in the meantime to keep as much daylight off the subject as possible).

Luckily I had tungsten balanced bulbs with me for the florescent light - so I switched them out and used a reflector very close to the talent (just outside of frame) to both bounce the tungstel light back at him, and block the daylight from hitting his face.

Like I said, these aren't necessarily the best lit interviews - but given that I only had about 20 minutes of setup time (which includes walking into the room and figuring out where to shoot), and was working alone, I think the results are passable.

Hopefully some of you find this information useful.
And if you see anything you think I could have done differently/better - feel free to chime in.

I'd be interested to hear from more people who do 'one man band' shooting.

 

[Simon Höfer]

thanks alot Luis! Great information! Always really helpful to see some real life lighting examples

 

[Jeff Anderson]

Luis I do alot of this one man band interview stuff and have been experimenting a bit myself with different methods depending on time and budget constraints. My usual goal is to find the darkest room I can and use small tungsten instruments. My latest favorite setup has been 1 lowel pro light with a bit of diffusion in front of it as a key, and then a zylight z90 as a background light and another as a rim light. I bring the key in front of the subject just enough the wrap around is enough where I dont need a fill source in my opinion. I'll try and post an example of this later tonight. I mistakenly squished my headroom but it still shows the lighting pretty well. Also have been wanting to try out some of Walter Graff's methodology using reflected light as the key. Perhaps this weekend I'll give it a test run.

Also have fallen in love with my road rags kit. For the one man band I can't reccomend it enough. Its pricey but worth it IMO. I've got the smaller one, but will probably get the bigger one soon. Makes controlling the light so much easier and they pack up nice and light/small.

 

[sydney_sam]

Luis, these frames look great. Particularly considering the time constraints you are under.

I've been doing heaps of single camera interview of late, I find the Lowell RIFA light gets me out of trouble most times with a Dedo working as a back light.

But can I ask you another question, how are you recording audio. Just off lapel mic, or are you also throwing a hardwire shotgun in there?

Looking forward to seeing Jeff's still shots, will post some from my next shoot

 

[Erik Olson]

Luis,

Those approximate what I try and do on my HD interviews. I recently did a solo for Discovery Studios where the producer called in by cell phone and interviewed the subject on speaker phone.

Had an hour to light, mic and set up the call. Used four Arri fixtures. The 650 1/2 CTB was talent left at 1/3 angle with a 2x2 Chimera softbox, backlight was a 300w with 1/2 CTB. Another 300w with 1/2 CTB was filling a daylight foyer behind her and the 150w at 1/2 CTB was punching a little light on a rather dark painting over her shoulder.

I always find the most color without busy-ness to place behind the subject - unless the subject matter demands something different.

Nice work!

e

 

[gco]

ok, this is definitely stickie material here.
Seeing the shot next to a setup graphic is incredibly helpful. Really helps to be able to look at a shot and try to visualize where the sources are---especially for a noob like me.
thanks for your effort on this Luis. :thumbup:
g

edit: looking at those graphics again, they really do kick butt.
edit#2: ditto Eric---looks really good and your graphic is fantastic!

 

[manglerBMX]

i'm a one man band videog for a newspaper and i'm almost always solo, definitely helpful, thanks a ton!

my lighting gear is 2 totas, 1 umbrella, some gels and then i have a lowel dp 1k. i'd really like to swap out those totas for some omnis.

 

[seunosewa]

You should really try getting some daylight-balanced bulbs fr your flo units.

 

[gco]

I just did, like an hour ago.
got new Osram 55w/954 off ebay for $15 each.
packaging was crap but nothing broken.

 

[capitanfracassa]

very nice shots, thanks! But I doubt you really used a 250K Tungsten light. Unless you intended to instantly cook your talent.

 

[Jeff Anderson]

When using that much light as a key I routinely use a 250w pro-light for a hair light. I've also used a 250w key and an LED (100w equivalent?) as a hair light. Its all about the ratios and how close you can or cant get the lights.

- and I really will post some of my interview stuff, it just keeps getting busy everytime I'm near that computer (home).

 

[gco]

back to the top.
too good to let this get buried.

 

[Tim Joy]

This post really helped me the other day on my first lighting gig, which was with a US senator. I can't believe I talked my way into that one...! Eventhough it was only for web brodcast I still wanted it to look as pro as possible, and was a little nervous about it. I found this post and practiced a little at home and it worked out well. Thanks Luis!

 

[pmark23]

Some of my best-looking solo interviews were done with the subject next to a window with a bounce on the other side for fill. It usually required moving of some furniture and a plant to get a nice background, but it was still better than lugging lights.

 

[7/24]

I think the shots look great for going solo. The wrap of the key is nice. My personal preference is a little less fill. If needed use a solid on the down side for negative fill.

Keep up the nice work!

 

[hennbot]

After looking at a few of these interview diagrams I had to chime in. In 18 years of lighting interviews I have NEVER put the key on the opposite side of the interviewer! Camera should be shooting into what I call the fill side of the face with the key positioned just on the other side of the interviewer. All rules are made to be broken but I can't think of a single face which doesn't benefit from this key placement. Next time you watch a high end interview driven show, Frontline, 60 Mins etc. take note of where the key is.

 

[Drew Ott]

After looking at a few of these interview diagrams I had to chime in. In 18 years of lighting interviews I have NEVER put the key on the opposite side of the interviewer! Camera should be shooting into what I call the fill side of the face with the key positioned just on the other side of the interviewer. All rules are made to be broken but I can't think of a single face which doesn't benefit from this key placement. Next time you watch a high end interview driven show, Frontline, 60 Mins etc. take note of where the key is.

Luis only used a front-side key on the female interviewee.

 

[Luis Caffesse]

I hadn't noticed this thread had so many responses -

But can I ask you another question, how are you recording audio. Just off lapel mic, or are you also throwing a hardwire shotgun in there?

In this case it was just a lapel mic, mostly due to time contraints.
Not that setting up a shotgun would take all that long - but it's another stand, cable and piece of gear that I would have to take with me and setup, and I was pretty pressed on these as it was.

I ran a hardwired lav mic to the HVX, recording one channel a few dB lower than the other. Not my ideal scenario - but it's easy and it works.

very nice shots, thanks! But I doubt you really used a 250K Tungsten light. Unless you intended to instantly cook your talent.

Hahahahahha
Whoops.
Yeah, I should probably fix that graphic when I get a chance.

This post really helped me the other day on my first lighting gig, which was with a US senator. I can't believe I talked my way into that one...! Eventhough it was only for web brodcast I still wanted it to look as pro as possible, and was a little nervous about it. I found this post and practiced a little at home and it worked out well. Thanks Luis!

Glad it helped.
That's what this site is all about.

After looking at a few of these interview diagrams I had to chime in. In 18 years of lighting interviews I have NEVER put the key on the opposite side of the interviewer! Camera should be shooting into what I call the fill side of the face with the key positioned just on the other side of the interviewer. All rules are made to be broken but I can't think of a single face which doesn't benefit from this key placement. Next time you watch a high end interview driven show, Frontline, 60 Mins etc. take note of where the key is.

That's a good point - and I'm glad you mentioned it.
The interview with the woman was shot that way due to the location layout.
I had no choice but to use the wall of windows as my key light because I didn't have any way to overpower it - and having her seated that way gave me the best frame I could get compositionwise (at least that's what my thinking was at the time).
But you're right about key placement - and I probably should have given it more thought when I made that call.

Luis only used a front-side key on the female interviewee.

True - but even looking at the second interview the fill seems a bit much (or the key not enough). I probably would have been better off getting that key in closer and stopping down a bit to try to get a bit more contrast on him.

But like I mentioned - these weren't intended to be a 'THE' way to light interviews.
Just the way I did some one man crew shooting in a very run and gun way.
I'm glad some discussion has come out of it - hopefully my next round will look much better because of some of these comments.

Erik - that's a great example by the way.
Thanks for posting that.
:thumbsup:

 

[mcvideo]

good information

 

[Erik Olson]

After looking at a few of these interview diagrams I had to chime in. In 18 years of lighting interviews I have NEVER put the key on the opposite side of the interviewer! Camera should be shooting into what I call the fill side of the face with the key positioned just on the other side of the interviewer. All rules are made to be broken but I can't think of a single face which doesn't benefit from this key placement. Next time you watch a high end interview driven show, Frontline, 60 Mins etc. take note of where the key is.

It should be noted that in my interview the subject was instructed to talk directly into the lens as you would in a confessional-cam situation. That lighting guideline is generally a good one though.

e