Basic Two Person Interview Setup
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The Job - An Interview with a Singer and her Producer in a Recording Studio
The interview will be part of an electronic press kit and offered to broadcast TV.
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The Location - Studio Vocal Room
Triangular room with dimensions 29' x 12' with 12' laminated wood ceilings. Windows on far wall. Overhead fluorescent lights.
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The Requested Style - Light, Low Key Look
They wanted a slightly dramatic, contrasty "workspace" feel to the lighting.
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The Kit - Lowel DV Creator 55 Kit.
4 lights with accessories & stands, 2000 Watts total.
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The Approach... |
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Our 2 person interview took place in the vocal
room of a recording studio. The room had a combination
of fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling and
a couple of large windows along one wall on the
other side. This image was taken with just the
overhead room lights on.
Because we needed a more contrasty look, we
blocked some of window light with a movable
sound partition and turned off the overhead
lights.
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 (Top) Rifa 55 (500W Softlight), Pro-light (250W focusable),
(Bottom)Omni-light (500W focusable), Tota-light (750W broad throw) |
 (Clockwise from Top Left): Tota-light (750W broad throw), Pro-light (250W focusable), Omni-light (500W focusable) with umbrella, Rifa-55 (500W softlight) |
The subjects were quickly lit with the Rifa 55 off to
the left of the camera and placed just far enough
back to cover both people. The light still being
close-in made it very bright, so when we adjusted
the exposure for it it helped make the background
become darker and enhanced the moody look we
were after.
The Omni-light with an umbrella was positioned
nearly over the camera's position. We adjusted the
distance of the light from the subjects until we saw
a flattering light on the female artist, who was nearest
the fill light, and more dramatic effect on the
male producer.
Brightly lighting our subjects against a very dark
wall in a dimly lit room caused the black acoustic
treatments on the wall behind them to drop nearly
into complete darkness. Dramatic but bland. This
was dealt with in two ways.
The Tota-light was hidden behind the low wall to
the left and aimed directly at the background at a
sharp angle to bring out the texture in the material.
While we could have placed the Tota-light to wash
over most of the back wall evenly, it provides more
visual interest by opening up what was the darkest
corner and let it gradually fade out along the length
of the wall.
Where the wall shaded back into deep black the
Pro-light from the kit provides a highlighting edge
along their hair and clothing to help visually separate
them from the background. The light was
placed directly behind them but backed to the wall
to keep it out of the shot. While somewhat intense,
it adds to the dramatic look requested. If a subtler
hair light would have been wanted, we could have
added the gel frame and either the Neutral Density
or Frost gels to lower the lights output.
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The Final Shot... |
In the final shot, you can see that the Rifa-55 did a good job of covering both subjects with a nice
soft Key light. The Omni-light with umbrella filled in some of the shadow from the Key, creating a
nice contrast ratio. If we had wanted a more dramatic contrast, we could have easily achieved it by
simply moving the Omni Fill light a little further away from the subjects.
The Pro-light as a hair light covered both subjects easily, giving both separation from the background,
and a highlight to their hair.
The Tota-light hitting the back wall gives a little texture to its black fabric covering, while adding a
highlight to the wood strips.
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