Let there be Light!

in Behind the Camera by Kevin Railsback — January 30, 2010 at 12:58 pm | 1 comment

Normally in my work, I have the best light source known to man, the sun. I’ve used it to light mountain ranges, wolf packs, rivers and streams, you name it. I’ve worked with it for so long that I know how to modify its light, when’s the best time to film and when’s the worst.  Natural light is my light source of choice.

Unfortunately, Tiffany likes to hold her practices indoors during the Winter. On top of that, they’re usually at night. Something about families and careers I think is the reason she gave me. Anyway, that requires me like so many other facets of this film to tread into waters I know little about.

All cameras need light to record an image. HD cameras seem to require a considerable amount more than most other cameras. So I knew what was going to make me happy wasn’t going to make the Spirits happy.

After the first round of interviews I knew I could get a better look if I had better lighting. So I set about putting together additional lighting and wanted to see if I could come closer to the look I wanted.

The lighting setup for the latest round of interviews has certainly taken a giant leap forward. I switched from a muslin background to a hand-painted canvas backdrop and threw a lot more light on it. A 300 watt Arri to be exact. I added a seven foot softbox with a 1000 watt bulb inside to give a fantastic soft light for the main light. A 36 inch softbox with another 1000 watt bulb was my fill light and a 650 watt open face light on a boom acted as my hair light. A 48 inch reflector kicked a little more light into their eyes giving a nice catch-light which really makes the teams eyes sparkle.

Also, I was thrilled that I was able to get my buddy Jon Van Allen to stop in and help with the setup that first night of the “new” interviews.

Jon, or Jibby as I like to call him since he’s a master of running a camera Jib, is a filmmakers filmmaker. He’s worked on projects that most of us can only dream about. His work has appeared on most every network and he is in such high demand that I only get to work with him once to so a year if I’m lucky. When he says that things look good, you know that you’re going to get some great footage.

So, this is the part where I’m kinda happy and the Spirits are kind of not. Ooooooo, drama on the documentary project? Uh…. no. Sorry to disappoint you but things have been going swimmingly. ( Anyone know how “swimmingly” became associated with great, fantastic and other terms like that? )

No, what I meant is that bringing light into the studio during their practices means better shooting conditions for my camera but generates a lot of heat for the team.

You see, most dance teams are kinds like Toyota Camry’s. There’s a ton of them out there and they all pretty much run just fine. The CR Spirits on the other hand are like Ferrari’s. They move like lighting and when you see them, you can’t help but stop and look. Well, that contained lighting generates a lot of heat. Come into the studio some day at the start of a practice and see how much cooler it is than at the end of one. I mean it’s like jacket weather at the start but by the end, fans are going, bottles of water are being downed and it’s more like a sauna by the end of the night.

So, by bringing in just a 1000 watt light, increases the amount of heat in the studio pretty quickly. But the effect is pretty apparent.

Okay, so here’s a shot with just a single 1000 watt light in the studio.

The light is on the right side of this image. Can you see how the farther you move away from the light the flatter the light becomes on the team? Kaitlin, Danica and Paulette are all lit pretty well but as you get farther away, Ashleigh, Tiffany and Jes don’t “pop” off the background and the light is much flatter. Don’t tell any of the team though that 1000 watts isn’t nearly enough. I’ll let Tiffany break that one to them. I think the silver lining though will be that we can use more fans. Gorgeous women, long hair, beautiful lighting and fans? Who needs Powerball when you have a winning combination like that?

Well, I can see the team is checking their watches so I must have rambled on long enough with this post.

The planets are starting to align. The lighting is getting there, the camera moves will be getting introduced soon and the team has their routines almost perfect. The closer we get, the better it gets. If I do my job, you’ll be able to see for yourself what I’ve been talking about.

( On a side note, the term “swimmingly” was first used in like 1622! Given that most of our planet’s surface is covered with water, it’s not surprising that “swim” itself is a very old word. The Old English “swimman,” meaning ‘to move on or in water, to float,” was derived from a Germanic root that also produced the words for “swim” in several other European languages.

Since movement through water is generally smooth (unless one is thrashing about in panic), especially compared to the “clomp clomp clomp” of walking on land, “swim” has acquired a wide variety of figurative uses, many involving a sense of gliding or moving smoothly as if suspended in liquid.

This use of “swim” to mean “glide smoothly with little apparent effort” gave us the adverb “swimmingly” in the early 17th century meaning “with smooth, uninterrupted progress; easily; with complete success”

So there you have it. Who would have ever thought that this site would be educational as well? )