Octuplet Mom on Today

[Astocker]

I did the face lighting on the Octuplet Mom story from LA that was on The Today Show and will be on Dateline Tuesday night. I tried a new technique for interview lighting. Any opinions?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29038814/

 

[Baltimore's Finest Fotog]

I am not anywhere near your level of lighting, but one of the things I've learned over the last couple of years while trying to perfect my lighting skills is that the best lighting goes unnoticed. With hardly any shadows at all, this, I thought, was a great example of subtle lighting. The only thing I didn't like, and I really went looking since you asked for feedback, was the camera angle. I thought it was maybe too much of a profile shot. I am curious, what was your color temp.?

 

[SoMissTV]

Any opinions?

Yeah.

That lady is freakin' crazy.

 

[Astocker]

Balt.. thanks for the compliment. And yes the angles weren't the best. The room was just impossible for 3 cameras. And then mom simply wouldn't face Ann. We tried at every tape change (5) to get her more direct but as soon as we rolled she shifted in her chair to that angle. The producers (a room full of them) were pulling their hair out. I took the dolly camera (which I love to do) and was pulling my own hair out. All I got was black hair curtains with noses. Some days it just doesn't pay to chew through the leather straps. The level of chaos was off the charts.

As for color temp, I shoot almost everything on preset. All of my keys, fills and backs are diffused so the light is usually about 2700 to 2800 K. That produces a nice consistent warm look. On this I used a Chimera Pancake centered between them with a skirt, the backs were each a Rifa 55, and they were filled from the floor with a Diva 200. All of them on squeezers.

Most people put too much emphasis on background lighting. Light a face really well and no one will care about the background. That's why they call that person the subject.

 

[Latin Lens]

Yea....I am nowhere near this level of lighting so I would be out of my element to comment but it looks really good.

The only thing that I found weird was the two lamps right next to eachother in the background...maybe just one would have been alright...two set up like that was a little off for my blood.

 

[Astocker]

Not to make excuses but I will. It was a division of labor thing. I hated everything about the room. First of all the vanishing point of the wall is going the wrong direction for her to be framed that way - she should have been screen right looking left. But that would have been a zero for the other 2 camera angles. The labor fell to me doing face lighting and dolly set up. Each camera op pretty much does their own background setting - especially when there are several "A" cameras on the same shoot. IOW, the lamps bothered me too but I couldn't say anything about it. And with something like this there are just too many fires to put out and a lot of stuff falls through the cracks. But I find in general if one person does faces and the others do backgrounds, it works pretty well.

I'll post other Datelines that I've done as they come up. It is interesting to hear what people in the biz think. We get feedback from producers but rarely from other shooters. I can pick apart my own stuff quite severely and I'm sure you will be able to as well. It seems unlike a lot of folks I know, I like trying new things. I'm willing to take a chance because I've built up enough good credit. Perhaps you guys can give me that last bit of the puzzle to make some of my experiments work. This is how I have fun.

 

[goodfoot]

Astocker,

Thanks for posting this, I'll do my best without knowing your environmental limitations. The ultra soft light on the subject is very nice, but it's a little dark in the eye sockets for me. (Like they say, eyes are the windows to the soul.) She also has lots of light and dark areas on her face from the shadows caused by bumps on her forehead and cheekbones. Maybe a lower key or side fills would help? I appreciate the intimate feel but overall it seemed a bit underexposed all around. My bet is that the video got crushed a little in transmission or from one of the many paths it had to take before it ended up on air because even Ann's bureau shot looked rather dark except for the lower third. I like the splashes of light on the background...not overdone but enough to give it some depth and make it interesting. Ann's background is not great but the light on it is nice and I'm sure you did the best you could under the pressure of a high profile story and likely too many cooks in the kitchen. The dolly was a nice touch, I would have liked for them to hold it a sec longer and maybe use a dissolve instead of a hard cut but that's just me. Hope I didn't come across as an a-hole, you obviously know what you are doing and this is a very nice setup under pressure. I'm sure they were very happy with it. I'd love to know what the setup was, I'm curious what you tried that was different...

Thanks again for posting!

 

[Astocker]

Goodfoot,

All your observations are certainly understandable. This was a new set up for me. I was growing tired of the totally flat look, even with the softest of sources. I wanted something a little more cinematic, a little more dramatic without any harshness. The top heavy lighting did bring out her features more and I actually liked that because it was still so soft. I tried to get the backlights as low as possible to act as fills for the faces and provide that "spark" which is so necessary in the eyes. The eyes are the most important part. When she sat in the chair like a normal person I thought it all worked and the spark was there. But she didn't. Ultimately that's my fault because I didn't have something standing by to fly in and take care of it. Often times I'll have small lights on stands off to side, unused standing by, just to be able to douse any fires in the last seconds before roll. Just too much chaos this time.

The set was a Chimera Pancake centered between them with a skirt, the backs were each a Rifa 55, and they were filled from the floor with a Diva 200. All of them on squeezers. The floor light didn't help her much because of her hair, which I got killed by. Her hair was the biggest reason the dolly wasn't used as much - couldn't see her face. The whole shoot was an exercise in frustration.

I have another piece coming up March 6th it looks like. It's a bit more traditional. Too bad Dateline doesn't keep them up on the web but that would attract viewers and they hate that. I'll post at the last minute if it's on. They also hate letting people find out what's on so they change the schedule at the last minute - again, they don't like people watching the show.

Don't ask.......

 

[Skipcam]

Wondering what the cameras were, and if the dolly was the usual Hollywood Microdolly with a full size or small camera. You must have had a very big room to house all that! And tall ceilings to get the Pancake up that high to make the wide shots. It looked very good. I certainly know what it's like to have that many producers all making each decision a comittee decision. Nice job!

 

[Astocker]

It was shot with 3 Sony F900/Rs. The dolly was an Indie-dolly on track. The room was a very small living room, maybe 20x30, 8' ceiling. You couldn't move in that room outside the frame lines. But you have to love a Fuji 4.5.