Party Scene in a music video - DP pulled out at last minute! HELP!!!!

[Ali Jafri]

Hi people. We've got a shoot coming up on the 5th, yes day after tomorrow! The fun part is that our DP pulled out at the last minute! Shock, Horror! What's more, since I've had some experience shooting documentaries and TV shows I've been thrust forward to fill in as DP!

We're shooting a dance/pop music video with some rap bits thrown in and the scene is of a living room where two servants of the house dream up an entire party scene after the owners have left. So a perfectly normal and somber living room situation is turned into a party scene with girls laughing and giggling and even doing a dance routine. Since this is all a fantasy we need to keep the living room vibe, only light it like a party.

We're shooting on location at a friend's house. See attached pics of the lounge and passage as it is without any treatment whatsoever.

We're shooting on a standard Panasonic HVX200 in 1920x1080 in 25p.

The lights we're getting are as follows:

2 x Dedo Lights set (6 lamps in total)
2 x Arri Fresnels 650W
2 x Kino Flos (tungstun)

I have some idea of lighting but its mostly for interviews and talking heads and product shots. I've never really done any lighting for dramatic scenes before. We're aiming to use hotspots and a lot of shadows to bring about character in the scenes. Apart from these lights we'll have lots of floor lamps, table lamps, fairy lights, etc. Anything to add that mood.

Any suggestions would help greatly! I'm going in for a rehearsal right now and will take my Sony FX1 HDV camera to try and make some good shots. Naturally, the HVX and the lights won't come until the time of shoot, so won't have time to play with the actual lighting setup.

Please do suggest if the lights I have mentioned are sufficient or would I need more? Any suggestions on how to light a place like this?

Any comments, suggestions, advice, etc would be highly appreciated!

- Ali

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Just from first impressions of those photos I would light the room with the red walls and windows and the other room I would use to mostly light and show the people. The red room is far more interesting and I would show off the space with pools of light and even light the trees outside from below. I would make the other room more like a studio and use lighting to make it more interesting and fill the frame mostly with people possibly using a short telephoto lens. I think you have the right idea - lots of pools of light and dim to make it interesting. I would remember to have some crossing back lights to make sure people standing in front of a dim background would have some rim light.

[Yang Wen]

Have you checked out Adidas' house party commercial? Might give you some inspirations as most of the lighting doesn't seem to be that complicated - just flawless execution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMI-3DAX-3I