Band Lighting
 

Hi. I’m filming a Promo video for a band at the weekend in a hotel for some friends. They have the room for a few hours and are bringing there own stage lights. I don’t know what colour lights they are bringing or how much control I will have over them.

My question is, Are there any colours of lights I should avoid in this situation that might cause problems in post? Any do’s and don’ts?

Any other advice for this type of shoot would be great?

Red is always a problem and what looks OK on site will be a lot stronger in post.

Maybe take some halogen white lights and use them as fills on top of the band lights, this is what i done in TV and it softens the colours.

I agree.

When people try to light creatively, they always want to use more color for some reason.

My advice is to ask your client how important the video is to them.

If it is important, take control and tell them that you need the lighting person to interface with you.

Tell the lighting designer to light more towards for television. If they don't know what that is, then take over and tell them what to do because after all, you are there to make a good product.

The main thing is to have the lighting person raise their base level of exposure and use more (white) fill light.

Colors are o.k. if there is enough light on your subjects. It is when they are using a red color for example as what we would call a key light.

The total wash of colored light is what looks the worst on video.

Basically, have an impact to improve the quality of the video!

If you watch good quality live videos, you'll see that most of the front lights are actually white with the colours coming in from behind, usually accented by a hazer to make the light volumetric. EVERY band thinks that red is cool. When the stage is in a red wash, TYPICALLY it looks like the video is badly out of focus when compared to "normal" lighting.

PS. Rent a hazer if there is money in the budget. Don't bother with a smoke machine. A hazer is what gives you that "shaft of light" look.