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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

How would you light this on a budget?

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Scott C

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Hey folks,

Getting prepped to shoot a sequel video in a couple of weeks and just looking for suggestions. For reference, the original video (shot by a good friend of mine) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPkkoSfrWV8

It was made several years back with just a 7D and the available lighting on the boat. We're looking to up the production value a bit this time, and among other things, would like to shoot in at least 60fps on the A-camera which is my Epic. Truth be told, 96fps (or dropping into 4K and shooting 120fps) would be most desirable. Obviously lighting will be a challenge and I would prefer to keep my shutter 180 degrees for this piece. Just looking for any thoughts or suggestions on how you might light in this situation. My first thought (again, budget is tight here) was a couple of 1x1s mounted at crossing angles on the back of the boat (see attached-- excuse my awful drawing skills)

JLqufbq.jpg


I'm not sure what our power or rigging situation is yet but I feel like this will be the most practical setup. I just worry it's not going to be enough light, or might clash with some of the background elements we're going to travel past (a lit up bridge at night, etc). Just wondering if anybody has any suggestions.
 
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Why do you need to shoot it at 60fps?

I'd worry about just getting a good exposure at 24fps, and (most importantly) worry about telling a story. I would also be extremely concerned about shooting on a boat on the water, assuming the water will be real. Many major filmmakers have almost gone broke trying to do that, and they had huge union crews, lots of money, and were forced to take lots of time to do what they needed. Just getting the boat anchored down and not moving is hard, since the moment it shifts five feet, the lighting is different. Weather is a huge problem, too, as is wave choppiness.
 
Bob Gundu said:
Check out the video Marc. I'm assuming high frame rates for slow motion.
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Correct. His editing style has really progressed in the years since he made this and I'm really excited to see what he'll be able to do with it this time.

Michael Winokur said:
Are you re-creating the wake surfing at night? Maybe you can rent wasp pars seems like the most power you could find in a battery powered source. http://www.hivelighting.com/wasp-par/
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Good looking out Michael, I'll definitely take a look at these, thanks.
 
Man, that's gonna require a ton of light if you're shooting high speed at night. Especially on the ocean. And with the massive amount of detail in ocean waves, I think the lowest compression setting is the only thing that's going to work. I'd be very reluctant to go much past 4:1.
 
Marc Wielage said:
Man, that's gonna require a ton of light if you're shooting high speed at night. Especially on the ocean. And with the massive amount of detail in ocean waves, I think the lowest compression setting is the only thing that's going to work. I'd be very reluctant to go much past 4:1.
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Noted. Thanks for your input Marc.
 
Im assuming you want battery powered lights, and the LED Litepanels are probably your best bet on a budget but I would be more concerned with maybe some lens option maybe a couple 1.2 L series lenses or some super speeds if you have the budget. Thats a tough scenario and I feel like I come across this problem all the time (budget and no power). The slow motion is really going to kill your light though. I would never recommend this on anything besides a wake surfing video at night but maybe some bright LED flood lights you can hook up to a power inverter at night and just adjust the green tint in camera.
 
I would actually build a tripod rig for the camera and attach all lights on that rig and make sure they are aiming for your field of view. As you rig as you do on your drawing you waist half the light and make it a bit ugly as the light is not covering / they get dark faces etc. If the lights are attached to the cameras pan tilt you have much more control and when you pan over from on side wake to the other and such your lights will follow... it's a bit tricky to set up off course and demand a quite sturdy tripod head. (optimal you use a gear head that can take a big load. Then use bright low weight 12V leds and build a rig for them fixated to the camera, use cables to get batteries down in the boat. so you get that weight of the rig / camera.

This way you can adjust your light nicely to your field of view and you get a nice vignette / fall off that perfectly follows the camera. Think like kind of like gaffer a maglight to the lens but more powerful and softer... make the light follow the lens, thats my advice. And go with everything you got the more light the better.


Also no need to shoot slomo 96fps and such in 180 deg... do tests shot in 360deg 120 and you will see that for this kind of footage you will not mind the full frame shutter and your footage will look twice as good as you will be starving for light.

Also don't shoot at night what could be shot in magic hour... simple rule, that always applies :)
 
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