Xl1s / Arri / Lowel Test Footage. Need Feedback

[Bert Smyth]

Originally Posted by Eric Shepherd

You clearly have it out for me and I do not appreciate it.

Not at all. I have never addressed you in any other forum. My response was to what seemed a quip remark on your part. I think you're whole approach is wrong. In every post you have entered in this thread, there is subtext where you seem to need to qualify yourself. Before your post, no one was attacking anyone else's ideas. You fired off the first shot:

"I'm not sure that lighting up the black background will do much more than giving you bright dust on top of the background. It looks like a super dark cloth, so you wouldn't get much out of it with even a white light on it."

Which I took as a possible misunderstanding. Notice in my first post to you I politely said you "might be confusing". At that point you started in with the terminology thing, and I've already covered that. You could have simply apologized. In any regard, there's no need for dramatics. No one has it "in" for you, its just differences of opinion.

[Oliver Darden]

His back was right against the wall, but I could try lighting one side at floor level like Greg said.

This took 2 takes to do and yes the drummer is playing another part of the song sometimes but I didn't worry about that in the editing so much because this was done as a lighting test shoot for me. If this was something I was going to give the band as a promotional video I would make sure that was all timed correctly.

Thanks Eric.

Originally Posted by Eric Shepherd

Maybe not zoom in so close on the drummer too, because he's moving around quite a bit.

How many takes of this did you do? Overall it looks really good, though around 2:45 the drummer is playing a totally different beat than we're hearing.

Maybe I'm biased as I've been playing drums for 23 years, but others might notice that too. All in all, it really looks like a multicamera shoot, which is impressive. :)

Again, nice work. ;)

[Oliver Darden]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

"What would some other options be to get that separation without making them move?"

You can also put a small light on a boom if you have one available.

Great Idea, ill try that next time.
Thanks Marcus

Originally Posted by Bert Smyth

Oliver, I hope your next shoot goes well. I know how tough it can be when you have to shoot in tight quarters. We just finished shooting rooms in homes that had been done over by an interior designer, and a couple those were really small and tight... Post again if you shoot some more.

Will do, thanks Bert

[Bert Smyth]

Oliver, remember next time that when you want to bounce a light, you really have to check to see how much light is falling on your subject or subjects. A 650w being bounced off a ceiling probably isn't going to give you much light at all, that's why I suggested turning the light on and off so you can see what you're actually getting out of that light.

While I don't like Eric's idea of a single piece of foam core, a lighter background can look great (light a white wall, which you can then make any color you want with gels), but be warned, you need lots of room so that you can keep the background seperate from the talent, and keep the background lighting off the talent. Still think in your case a low angled kicker would have made a world of difference. But hey, practice makes perfect.... (sadly not true, it never turns out perfect!) Good luck.

[Oliver Darden]

Originally Posted by Bert Smyth

Oliver, remember next time that when you want to bounce a light, you really have to check to see how much light is falling on your subject or subjects. A 650w being bounced off a ceiling probably isn't going to give you much light at all, that's why I suggested turning the light on and off so you can see what you're actually getting out of that light.

Yes the 650 didn't do a thing, not to mention the ceiling was really high. The whole time I was looking through the eye piece I was thinking of how I could get a backlight behind them, I knew it would have made a world of difference. Next time, next time...=)

I liked how the soft box / key light turned out. I had a 1/4 CT Blue filter on all the lights which got a lot of the yellow out. The Lowel DP seems to put off a lot of yellow light with a 750watt bulb...

Thanks again Bert.