Suggestions for lighting this coffee shop with mural

T

TecGumbo

Member
I want to interview a female, elderly professor for a promotional video in a university coffee shop (when it is closed) that has a great mural in it. She has black hair, and normally wears dark colored clothes. I scouted the location, took some pictures and I was wondering if I could get some suggestions on lighting?

First off, the equipment I have to work with:

Canon XL1s
1 Lowel omni 500w
1 Lowel tota 750w
1 Lowel pro 200w
1k dimmer
vivid colors gel pack
color correction gel’s
2 cookies that I made

The pictures:
http://www.technogumbo.net/forDVX/facing-exit.jpg
http://www.technogumbo.net/forDVX/IMG_0133.jpg
http://www.technogumbo.net/forDVX/IMG_0134.jpg
http://www.technogumbo.net/forDVX/IMG_0136.jpg
http://www.technogumbo.net/forDVX/IMG_0137.jpg

I will be doing the interviews when it is dark outside, so the light coming through the windows shouldn’t be a problem. I can also turn off all of the overhead lights.
I was planning on setting the subject up so the mural fills the most of the background. However, I think this would have the potential of looking very flat if not lit right.

Thanks in advance for any op’s.
 
It's a cool mural to be sure, but I wouldn't place her directly in front of it. It's a bit busy and would be distracting. One possibility would be to place her towards one side (using the rule of thirds) and far enough in front of it to have some depth in the shot. I think that would allow the mural in the shot as an interesting prop, but not have it scream for attention. Plus, that way you can light her and the mural separately.
 
I would personally use the mural as your other options are practically white walls whic just screams CRAP.

I would shoot at night; with the lights out or at least dimmed dramatically so as you can control the light. I would frame the entire mural as the background with your talent in a place whereas you have a nice shallow DOF.

I would light the talent traditionally from the sides and would have a key on the mural using a cukoloris of random patterns and a super soft rim of light on her hair.

Thats just me and as always IMHO
 
If I could I'd let the mural go out of focus, and use only your fixtures, the overheads won't do you any good...
 
I agree about shooting at night - the daylight would provide natural light, but it might vary too greatly over the course of a longer-form interview. Starting from the mural and working away from it, with the bank of windows stage left (interviewee's left side with back to mural):

Mural to interviewee position: 6 - 10' (the more distance you have, the easier DOF is going to be);

Interviewee to lens: 4 - 5' on a longer lens. Play with this until you strike a balance of having that busy mural fall apart focus-wise without losing it entirely;

The mural looks like it might give you some highlight problems, so you'll need to play with light positions and values until you're happy - I'd allow a good hour before talent arrives to set up your electrics!

Ideas to break up that location a bit:

- Shoot some hi-resolution clean plate digital stills of the mural. These can be dropped into a composite later.

- Consider shooting a bit of interview with the talent in front of a process screen. Again, this just gives you some flexibility for edits - though you must be careful about overtaxing or making the talent nervous with too much busy work. Having a private, quiet and safe space away from the set with some food and drink service might be all you need to keep your talent from getting nervous as you reset. Doing this more technical stuff at the end - after the primary interview has already been nailed is best!

- Grab two or three minutes of candid out of eyeline footage of the interviewee speaking or just hanging out. This can be MOS for cutaways and you can get dutch or overheads for some variety. A second camera can be locked-off for this purpose - without an operator if need be.

- If you do have a second camera or some downtime - go outside and shoot a minute of location establishing shot.
 
http://www.film-and-video.com/images/Back8.jpg

Three lights.

I bounced an open face 650 into a white reflector for a key light coming from the right side of the frame. The idea is to illuminate him but not make it look like a sharp half moon, rather create a more subtle effect while still having light fall off on the side of his face that is not lit. Lighting should never look like you lit someone as much as how you might expect them to look if you were talking to them without the camera. The reflector does that better than any other accessory, light box, etc. A 100 watt Fresnel on a dimmer is the rim light on his shoulder on the left side of the frame. The key is the dimmer that allows me to make it exactly what I want out of the intensity quickly. A 650 watt open face put through a piece of foamcore with various hand shaped cut outs also on a dimmer creates the light on the background mural and the cookie cutout creates subtle texture on the mural. It's all about balance. No light overpowers another, but rather compliments the scene. A few dimmers and a couple of lights is all you should need. If you don't have a dimmer and aren't to handy, I sell reasonably priced industrial dimmers. Other than that, maybe this will work as a reference for you. You've got the lights you need.
 
Looks good. Well, TecGumbo, you heard from the master. If you can get it to look as good as Walter, you will have succeeded. John is right too. I would def use the mural, slightly out of depth. I would bounce the tota from the white ceiling, and use the omni diffused off to the side, with a fill reflector. And probably use a cookie to throw some shadow and depth onto the mural. Good luck. Show us how it comes out.
 
Funny, so was I. In fact I called my wife over, described how I would shoot it, then showed her Walter's picture. She said "of course, of course you would want to shoot it that way....whether YOU could make it look that good is another story..." :)
 
This sort of sounds like a challenge. College kid that hasn’t had his first film class yet, see if you can make your interview look as good as Walter’s. I’m up for the challenge. I’ll post what I end up with. It should be 1-2 weeks. I really appreciate all of your input.
 
"I’ll post what I end up with. It should be 1-2 weeks."

It shouldn't take you that long to light it. If it does, then make sure to bring spares as you may blow a lamp in that time. :)
 
Things didn’t necessarily work out as I had hoped they would. The lady had to cancel about three times and the interview took place about a month later than originally scheduled. This meant that it got dark out a lot later than when we originally scheduled. If it were dark outside, then there wouldn’t have been natural light to deal with. Due to this, when we did the interview there was a bunch of light coming through two huge windows behind and to the right of the subject. We placed a blanket over part of the window closest to the mural, but it didn’t help much. Due to the natural light I wasn’t able to do much of anything to break up the mural. I attempted to create a contrast in the mural by making the left side a little darker than the right.

In any case, here is what it looks like. I think its decent, but not what I originally had in mind.

http://www.technogumbo.net/JOYCESAMPLE.jpg
http://www.technogumbo.net/JOYCE1.jpg
http://www.technogumbo.net/JOYCE2.jpg
 
Looks fine, good exposure and good color saturation. Is that rimlight screen left a window or a fixture you added?

e
 
Some thoughts. She's talking camera right so key should come from there to help make the head more 3d. ANd the rim light might look nicer coming from the opposite side as the key. You have both from the same side.
 
The rimlight is a slightly dimmed 200w light. The light from the huge window is mostly falling on the mural in the back.

Thank you for the info Walter. I didn't even think about that.
 
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