I shoot small business video's for a variety of "subjects" from doctors to salons, restaurants, warehouses, smoke shops, spas you name it I have more than likely shot it.

I run as a 1 person crew, on site for no more than 2 hours and are limited in what "gear" I can bring do to most business being open, people and time constraints

I switched cameras now a PMW EX1R and am having real problems with pulling the proper light in open spaces ...

I dis like an on camera light as you can see the light move when the camera pans

I don't have time to run a soft box and move move move

I am wondering if a ring light attached to the tripod camera shoot through would throw enough light
to get the "grain" out I get from time to time ...

Please ask any questions to enable maybe some help dialing this in ...

Thanks

Nothing onboard the camera is going to look good so get that out of your head right now. If you need fast, cheap, and versatile video lighting to basically just illuminate a room -- you can't beat a Lowel Tota light and an umbrella. Total cost with a light stand is less than $200 and it is very portable.

That is exactly what I was after ...

Could this Tota be placed a corner and left there through the shoot?

Like I said I cant move it a lot, and really don't want to have to keep adjusting it - simply something to fill the room

I have a complete small LED 3 light system that is too much hassle and does not do what I need

Cost is relative to product ...

If you want to fill the room, then you'll need something more robust than the Tota. A 1K fresnel should work nicely.

You can spray the Tota at the ceiling and it'd be a nice reflective bounce.

I use 1x1 LED's with v-mount batteries - with no plug-in, it REALLY cuts down the amount of set-up/tear down time. Just move it where you need it.

You can spray the Tota at the ceiling and it'd be a nice reflective bounce.

Just one Tota with an EX1 doesn't strike me as enough, given my experience with them. I do the same with my Aputure 1x1 LED panels (about 1K), and usually use at least two. But that's with a C100 Mark II, which is a lot more light sensitive.

A dimmable on camera light might be useful in certain spots as a sort of fill.

For filming people you can easily get by with one light and a clampable reflector.

Otherwise, yeah, having easy access to 2 or 3 lights to fill a space is really nice.

That is exactly what I was after ...

Could this Tota be placed a corner and left there through the shoot?
..

Absolutely. Get a 750w bulb for the Tota and a Lowel umbrella and you'll be surprised at how much light it puts out. It will fill the room with a good soft flood of light that can sit there all day if you want. It's plenty.

Just one Tota with an EX1 doesn't strike me as enough,.

With a 750w bulb it will be plenty.

You can spray the Tota at the ceiling and it'd be a nice reflective bounce.
.

Five problems:

1) Ceilings are often t0o high in a business environment to get the intensity you want.
2) You risk melting stuff (seen it done)
3) You introduce unwanted colors if the ceiling is not white.
4) The angle of the ceiling is not efficient for reflecting the light and cannot be aimed.
5) Paint is not as reflective as an umbrellas so you lose a lot of your footcandles.

Hey, no arguments Doug, but we're dealing with a guy who has a perfectly good 3-light setup and "doesn't have time" to use it. I'd rather see him invest the 5 minutes to light a room, but I'm not here to argue with him, just to offer the best I can with the limitations he gives me.

You can for sure start a fire with a 1K tota, I've seen it done. For a guy working in a hurry with no helper, I'd rather see him reflect off the (almost always white, almost always flat, almost always 9') ceiling than use an umbrella, which in my experience have a magnetic attraction to people walking into them and knocking them over.

I agree completely that the real solution is to budget a few minutes in the schedule to do proper lighting!! But I would say in my experience the umbrella placed in a corner of the room is a lot less likely to get knocked over than a naked Tota. Those things are almost invisible when faced the other way.

Many ways to skin this cat.

I'd rather see him reflect off the (almost always white, almost always flat, almost always 9') - I honestly wish that was the case, would make it a wealth easier

The company I sub contract for wants everything shot natural light / no lights on site until recently ...

but we're dealing with a guy who has a perfectly good 3-light setup and "doesn't have time" to use it

90 minutes on site / clients never done this before / 10 question interview / B-Roll / paperwork - So NO I do not have the time to do a 5 minute light set up working around customer / clients ....

I did not ask for an argument either, I asked for advice on how to approach my issue

The limitations are place on me by the contract / clients - Just trying to figure out how to make it work ..

Thinking about this in honesty - The camera may be or is out of my league I don't have the experience to use it to as it can be used ...

The EX1 is not out of the league of anyone who wants to spend a little time learning it.
Vortex Media: VIDEO & PHOTO Tools and Training (http://www.vortexmedia.com/DVD1.html)

I'd really like to see a separate thread on how to start fires and melt things with lighting. Looking forward to hearing the stories. Doug?

Andrew

I'd really like to see a separate thread on how to start fires and melt things with lighting. Looking forward to hearing the stories. Doug?


One time we went to the home of a mental patient to shoot a profile for a pharmaceutical company. We were prohibited from using any lights at all because a previous crew had bounced a light off the ceiling and completely melted a model airplane nearby that had been an important part of the patient's therapy. I guess the wings had completely drooped down like wet noodles.

Another time I was shooting behind the scenes inside the TV truck at a NBA game. An assistant bounced a light off the ceiling of the truck so not to disturb the crew. Well, after a while I noticed it smelled like someone had pissed themsevles. I looked up and saw that the plastic cover of a recessed fluorescent light in the ceiling had melted and drooped down about 6 inches in the middle. I moved the light and carefully tried to push the plastic back into shape as it cooled, but of course it would never look right.

Another time (while I was still in college so it was one of my first commercial shoots) we were shooting in a school that had just had new carpet laid the week before. Someone tripped over a light and it crashed to the ground causing the bulb to pop out. I was quick thinking and decided to kick the bulb around so it didn't sit in one place and burn a hole in the carpet. Well, as you can imagine, it scorched the carpet in about a dozen places instead.

And then there was the time we needed to dim some task lights underneath the cabinets in a kitchen. There was no way to add a dimmer so I said to my future wife, who was doing audio on the shoot, "watch and learn." I proceeded to put gaffer tape over a few of the lights to bring the intensity down. Not too long later we noticed smoke coming from under the cabinets and I got the tape off just in time before they burst into flames. My wife still throws the "watch and learn" line out at me to this day.

Speaking of gaffer tape, I recommend you never demonstrate to a nervous client, that "hell no, this expensive gaffer tape we are using on a poster we hung won't pull off your wallpaper when we rip it off the wall" while you demonstrate it right in front of them.

Oh, the fun times of the past 35 years. It's no wonder I only use LEDs now.

Andrew,

This is not exactly video lighting but it is. I shoot a lot of corporate AV gigs. To up light the black drape they use behind the stage the old industry standard was Par-can 64s. I can't tell you how many times the smell of smoke came into the ballroom. Fortunately, most of the time it was during set up or rehearsal because it does not take much time for the drape to go up in flames when some idiot does not set the lights properly.

I respect all of that heat coming off of those lamps!

Steve

Just a quick step-in here while I put on my Admin hat...

1. If any discussion on DVi begins to turn sour, *please* use the Report Post button (the little "!" icon to the left of any post) to let me know about it.

2. Some recent replies in this thread were meta-discursive and therefore have been removed from public view.

3. Some earlier replies were "self-deleted" out of spite... those have been magically restored to their original form.

I'm not sure which aspect disappoints me the most: the fact that we had certain posts which were significantly less than helpful (now gone), or the fact that someone wanted to strip out content because they didn't like the feedback (now restored).

Please keep in mind that for some folks it's not easy to post here. They see the well-seasoned, experienced regulars and all that they know, but feel a bit out of place asking questions because they're nowhere near the same skill level. That's exactly what I don't want. I have always intended this forum to be welcome, inviting and not at all intimidating to people who are new to the business.

Some of the bigger names here -- like Doug Jensen in particular -- are really very good at this, for which I am most thankful. But there are other regulars on this board who could benefit greatly by taking care to be quite a bit less condescending and more tolerant, patient and congenial.

Meanwhile, I sure would like to see some thicker skins on certain others. Learn how to graciously accept constructive criticism. Don't be too quick to take things personally. If you feel the need to get defensive, then it's probably a good idea to hit the Report Post button and let me handle it, because I'm the most motivated as the site owner to do what's best for the forum -- and that is to cull out whatever doesn't contribute directly to the discussion and put it back on track where it belongs.

Finally, the original subject title for this discussion was far too ambiguous. I have changed it to "Need quick set-up lighting solution for one-person crew."


Thanks.

Steven,
Yep gotta love the back drapes catching fire in the middle of the CEOs speech with 4 or 5 hundred people sitting there (or more) all the while someone forgot to tape down the ONE audio cable from the podium mic to the board and it's exactly at that moment that someone going to the bathroom thru the side door decides that his size 12 should hit the exact spot where the XLR connection is and kill off the mic. No problem because the fire department is there to put out the flames that are now roaring BEHIND the stage so the last thing we have to worry about is the mic.
Luckily I was running the #1 camera (center rear main shot) and I could see what was happening on stage. I was thinking to myself this is gonna be great footage (no one was in real danger, the speaker had run off the stage) and the V2 who was running the decks shut them down and also ran out.
Ah good times

Don,

You crack me up. I was the guy on camera two, but you never saw me, I smelled the smoke first, my spider pod was empty!!!

Steve

I was next to the main doors center rear so I was about 3 steps from being out. Of course all these other people (attendees) were rushing the door and blocking me from escaping plus I was a good long distance from the fire so I took my time, waited for a break in the line and ran out like a burglar. Stayed out long enough to have a couple of cigarettes, a cup or 10 of coffee, went in shut down the camera grabbed my ditty bag and beat feet. Ah the good old days! :-)

I'd really like to see a separate thread on how to start fires and melt things with lighting. Looking forward to hearing the stories. Doug?

Andrew
Sheriff's office had just built a new HQ in Albuquerque. Guy I know went to interview the Sheriff about the crime of the week. Stand-up interview. Tota-brella on a stand. Set off some kind of heat-sensor, sprinklers went off, drenched the office. As I recall, station's insurance paid some sort of claim. The ABQ paper had a piece on it, but of course it's long gone now.

Also, I could write a book "10 ways to take the microwave dish off a live truck" (luckily none from first-hand experience), but that's for a different forum.