Shooting on the London Eye

[Simon Dunne]

Anyone done it? On a really bright day, with limited lighting, while the wheel is in motion, what's going to be my best method to balance my lighting??

It's a bit of a logistical nightmare this one!

TIA, Simon

 

[Brent J. Craig]

Don't just show up with a camera and tripod. Tried that. Turns out you can use a tripod anywhere on the property without a permit.

 

[Simon Dunne]

We've got a deal with the eye, it's a 4 cam shoot in 1 pod for 2 rotations on a weekly basis! They can't stop the wheel though and we have to roll as soon as the talent shows up hmy:

 

[ericyoung]

You could probably manage with a couple of small reflectors or poly boards as you aren't going to be able to get any lights big enough to fight the sun into one of the pods and power it!

 

[Simon Dunne]

and to kill the incoming light? Scrim and ND isn't going to work either?!!

 

[ericyoung]

Well you're going to want stuff visible and recognizable outside the windows (or you negate the reason for being up in the London Eye), so large depth of field, hence iris down for exposure. Possibly an ND camera filter if you can't iris down enough, and a pola filter to control reflections (pola loses about 1.5stops, so may not need ND). Then just fill shadows with reflectors/poly boards and/or use a poly to flag off hotspots.

Got to say 4 cameras sounds a little overkill for such a confined space and will limit you on shots unless seeing other cameras is OK, they're all pointing the same way or they are all pointing outwards - who/what are you shooting?

 

[Liam Hall]

I've shot on the London Eye fifteen times. Eleven times stills and four times video. Always in our own pod, once we went round four times. I've done interviews on there as well as promos and portraits.

It's quite stable, but don't try to take too much gear on as space is obviously very tight. You've got about seven or eight minutes to set up before there are any interesting views and the best exterior views are on the way down. Just balance your lighting for the available light and watch for reflections. Dont blast it with too much light - a rigid reflector like a California Sunbounce is useful as are hand held HMI sunguns.

Enjoy the view...

 

[Simon Dunne]

thanks for all the reply's and suggestions so far. Can't go into too much detail, but this is a grab from the fish eye from our first show/rehearsal.

 

[Jeff Coatney]

Any of you guys tried self-adhesive window film like from Home Depot ( Rice Paper to soften) or a Car tint film (Like an ND)? Or artist's airbrush frisket (Like Rosco 111 to soften)? It goes on fast and comes off fast. I'd try it on the complex curve of the eye before the day-- on a tech scout maybe. Just a thought. Seems useful.

 

[Simon Dunne]

It's useful stuff, but no good on the curve of the glass. We'd have to cut it to get it flat in places and that'll create even more issues! Thanks for all the replies so far

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

I would imagine that pointing the lights at the talent as shown in the pic is likely placing some unwanted reflections in the curved glass - or limiting the camera positions.

I would approach the lighting / grip in a different manner:
Use HMI PAR's as the sources. (Consider something like ARRI 200's with a DC ballast powered by an Anton Bauer VCLX battery).
Point them up towards a 48x48 hard reflector hugging the ceiling (parallel to the floor of the car). Black wrap any side leakage by the PAR lens on the talent / camera operator plane. Add a floppy cutter on the edge of the reflector closest to the talent and curved glass.
Place diffusion material on an angle between the reflector and the talent. Custom frame some artificial silk to fit the space... It has been a while since I've been on the eye - would something like a 30 x 72 do the trick?

Some of my reasoning: Lighting will appear more natural coming from above instead of across an interior.
A soft / diffused light will give your crew and talent more mobility within that limited space without going in and out of the focussed beam area of your current lighting setup.
Placing the apparent source of the illumination above will also help avoid light source reflections (The glass curves in the car are pointing down or across - so reflections of items above you are out of plane)


There is another solution:
Shoot with a camera that has HDRx capability
This shot - and the problems you are trying to get around - just begs for an EPIC.....

 

[Simon Dunne]

really useful stuff Brian, thanks. Still detoxing from NYE.......i'll think about it a bit more later! :bigear: