Looking for lighting advice for a music video shoot

[Stick Tully]

Hi there, im shooting a music video in the next couple of weeks. Its all to be shot in a studio with one artist on a plain white background, a bit like this

http://content.answers.com/main/cont...lava-video.jpg

video on youtube

and i am wondering the best way to go about lighting the shoot.

i was planning on using two lights on the artist from either side to give an even spread of light and in the background a seperatly lit (perhaps from below?) white board or sheet.

i was advised to position the subject as far away from the background as possible to avoid any shadows...

attatched is a rough diagram i have drawn up hopefully you can forgive me for scaling and detail ;)

http://www.tullyvision.net/mess/lightingdiag.jpg

just looking for any advice or tips from someone who may have experience in this area :)

hope someone can help

Stick

[Nate Weaver]

You've got the basic idea, but I watched the video, and the key lights for the subjects is coming from the rear, and the sides, almost from the same place you propose putting your lights for the cyc.

See how the light is glancing off their cheeks? Means it coming from behind them. There's a lot of shots where they come in close to the lens, the middle of their faces dip pretty deep into shadow. Lights from the rear.

[Stick Tully]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

You've got the basic idea, but I watched the video, and the key lights for the subjects is coming from the rear, and the sides, almost from the same place you propose putting your lights for the cyc.

See how the light is glancing off their cheeks? Means it coming from behind them. There's a lot of shots where they come in close to the lens, the middle of their faces dip pretty deep into shadow. Lights from the rear.

Excellent advice thanks very much :) what do you mean by cyc?

i will try out the back lighting although the concept of the video involves some chroma keying on the face of the subject using blue face paint and so the shade of the face paint is going to change with the light, but i suppose a fully lit video would look quite bland.

thanks again for your help

ps i checked out your site - its wonderfull to get decent advice from a pro! all of your work looks incredible, thanks again

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Stick Tully

Excellent advice thanks very much :) what do you mean by cyc?

A cyc is short for cyclorama, a background (usually white) that curves to meet the floor so there's no shadows. A cyc is usually built into 2 or 3 walls of a studio. It's what's always used when you need that "white limbo"

Originally Posted by Stick Tully

although the concept of the video involves some chroma keying on the face of the subject using blue face paint and so the shade of the face paint is going to change with the light, but i suppose a fully lit video would look quite bland.

Better test that if you haven't already. If the whole face is to be painted, then maybe lighting it flat won't be such a big deal. But you're right, if your BG is white and you don't take care to add pizazz in the lighting of your subject, you can wind up with very boring video indeed.

[Benjamin Hill]

I agree with Nate, I'd do a test if this is your first stab at doing this kind of look. I did quite a few videos with the white cyc limbo look, and I've gotten my best results by A) lighting the background separately, from the sides, with large chimeras and B) Deliberately over-exposing the white background while keeping your subject properly exposed- which of course necessitates keeping them a good distance from the backdrop. I use a waveform monitor to make sure the background is evenly exposed, but zebras on your camera will probably do the trick too.