In terms of the production, the video was pretty straightforward.  We did one day of filming interviews at Rosie’s Place. and I decided ahead of time to shoot on a seamless backdrop with the (likely) intention of making the interviews black and white.  We shot with 2 Panasonic AF100s, so we could have a second angle (this has pretty much become the norm for me for shooting interviews now).  They gave me a lot of photos and some archive footage of Kip that I could use as well.  I decided that in lieu of the normal “pan and scan” approach to moving on the photos in post, I would film the photos instead.  I often see this approach on ESPN and in some documentaries, and I think it’s a nice visual change from the “Ken Burns” effect.  I really liked it at first after shooting and editing the pictures in.  Then I didn’t like it so much.  Then (I think) I liked it again.  Ultimately the client was very happy with it, so I guess it worked.

Normally I HATE choosing music for my videos because I find it to be so painstakingly difficult, but I actually really enjoyed it this time.  I found a couple tracks right away that I thought worked perfectly (I think it was the first 2 tracks in the video) and that got me on a roll to find the others.  In the end, it’s a fairly simple piece, but I was quite happy with how it turned out.  I was told that it was the highlight of their fundraising event, at which they raised $450,000.

Enjoy!

When I was starting out, and my lighting kit was all tungsten (3200K) fixtures, the normal procedure was to walk into a room, close any blinds or window coverings, turn off all existing lights, and start from scratch.  The darker the room, the better, as I felt there was nothing to “contaminate” our lighting. That’s changed a bit, since LED and fluorescent lights have gotten better and more affordable, and I’ve become less concerned with daylight creeping into the scene (obviously gelling tungsten lights is an option, but it can be a pain in the butt, so I typically avoid that when I can).  Working with cameras with bigger sensors has also helped, as it’s easier to throw the background out of focus, instead of having to create the separation through lighting (although that’s still important).

I often find that I go through stages of how I light things, and recently I’ve been on a kick of using little to no additional lighting for interior, day-lit interviews.  I do really enjoy figuring out the best lighting options and like the look of “lit” interviews, but sometimes the setting and mother nature work to allow you to leave all the lights in the car.  The upside is that, when it works, there is a very natural look, but the downside is that you have somewhat less control.  Here are some frame grabs from 2 recent projects, where each setup was all natural lighting, with only bounce (I think in one shot) or negative fill added.  Then I’ll get into some things to keep in mind if you’re going to setup for day-lit interiors.

The first issue if you want to shoot with all daylight inside, is to make sure that the light is going to stay pretty much the same throughout the interview, scene, etc.  Completely overcast days work well, and so do cloudless days.  In the bottom image, that day started clear blue, but about halfway through the interview, clouds started to go in front of the sun, so the light level in the room changed drastically.  This is my usual reason for closing all window blinds, so that any daylight shifts don’t effect the scene.  But, if the weather works out, then it’s easy to pull these off, or if what you need to shoot is very brief, you can hopefully pull it off during breaks in cloud coverage.

The second issue is positioning the subject.  I am very persnickity about the direction of the key light, and also somewhat nudgey about how the room “leans” in the shot, and when you don’t have control over where the key light (windows) are placed, you need to figure out your subjects position related to that.  The third shot is a good example of the room “leaning” in (what I consider) the right direction related to their position, and we are keying from the correct side in reference to the direction they are looking.  Anytime you have a long wall of windows, that type of shot is fairly effective and easy to achieve.

I found the setup for the fourth shot interesting because we had the wooden venetian blinds in the window to the subject’s right completely closed, and the only light was the sun hitting the white, wooden window sill, and bouncing onto the subject’s face.  Paired with a pretty fast lens, I think that shot worked out pretty well and is one of my favorites, because from looking in the room it seemed like there was no way there was enough light in the room.

There are definitely times when this type of look/setup is not appropriate or possible, but when it works out, it can not only lead to quick setups, but also yield pleasing, natural looking interviews.

(Some technical specs: These were all shot with the Panasonic AF-1oo with the Olympus 35-100 f2 lens.)

]]> http://benjamineckstein.com/2011/05/lighting/feed/ 3 http://benjamineckstein.com/2009/09/interview-demo/ http://benjamineckstein.com/2009/09/interview-demo/#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:28:25 +0000 Benjamin http://benjamineckstein.com/?p=296

Click here to view the embedded video.

I often get asked when applying for shooting gigs if I can shoot and light interviews, so I decided to put together a demo reel for this purpose. I have filmed literally hundreds of interviews, and it is an important skill for most shooters.  All the samples here were shot with an EX-1 and about a quarter of them had the Letus Extreme adapter.  I use anywhere from 0 to 5 lights, and my kit includes Arri, Kino, Zylight, and Lowel lights.

Thanks for watching!

I think the samples in this video show a range of looks and lighting techniques.  In some cases I try to work with existing lighting (natural or artificial) and either supplement with my own lights or reflectors, or just use ONLY existing light.  Other times I will only use my lights, blocking windows or shutting off existing lights, so that I have the most amount of control over the look.  The shots in my demo range from using no lights up to five lights.  My lighting kit includes an Arri Softbank kit, a Kino Flo Diva (which I think is an ESSENTIAL piece of gear), a Zylight LED light (a new piece I got that I also think is stellar) and a couple Lowel lights.

All of the shots here were with the Sony EX-1 and about a quarter of them had a Letus 35mm lens adapter.  This allows me to create a shallower depth of field, which helps to separate the subject from the background visually.  While the adapter is a worthwhile tool, I have found that, unless I am in a very tiny space, I can obtain a nice shallow depth of field with just the EX-1 alone, and I actually prefer the quality of the image in those cases (and the ease of use without an extra piece of equipment).

There are great articles and forums online that discuss interview lighting, and I also certainly learned a ton by going on shoots with other DPs.  And while there are some general rules of thumb, there is no ONE way to shoot interviews and different projects certainly call for completely different looks.  The most important thing to remember, though, is that an interview is all about what the person is saying, so GET GREAT SOUND!