Video Avalanche!
Well, not really, but stuff happening.
Well, careful what you wish for.
The school junior music faculty asked the other day if I could do a multi cam, multi mic performance of their year 5’s as the school gym is out of action when needed (a casualty of a major building project), so the fairly large group needs to be projected on screen. Three groups at once, same space, different locations, so handy or fraught depending on how you look at it.
I get a practice day so sound mainly, maybe even a safety track, then stills for camera angles.
I have the cams (the two S5’s and one G9 mk1 will be static, the G9.2 moving).
I have the mics, probably paired (or single) Lewitts per group, the LCT 240 or 040 match condenser for vocal/overhead and the MTP 440’s for ‘harder’ instruments. There will be a “modern” group, a Xylophone group and vocalists.
The H8 will get the lot, but I will backup the whole room with the SSH-6 mid-side shotgun into the F1/H5 (or the H8) as a safety net (RAW audio so easy to adjust).
This job is not about lighting, it will be what it is, but sound and putting together a 4 cam monster will give me plenty to do.
After getting my head around the first true multi camera, multi mic job that finally justifies my purchases and plans for these, I got a short notice repeat of a jb I did a few years ago to video some boarding house students.
Lighting has been on my mind.
Luc Forsyth recently posted a video on the difficulty of mimicking that “Netflix” doco light https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2opzk8PAIE and I noticed something that had been on my mind and was coincidentally followed up by a documentary, a very slick “Ken Burns” style one that used soft light against a very deeply black/grey background. The thing that got me was the “flatness” of the softness.
In the Forsyth video, after over four hours of working on the scene, he realised the main difference between his work and the supplied samples was one if brilliance, even to the point of hot spots on the subjects. It gave then a liveliness and brilliance that made them stand out.
He used a large soft box, the originals look like large LED panels, possibly bare as the hot spots are clearly rectangular.
I have options, lots and lots of options, lots and lots of ideas, but I need to test some stuff and now, because I shoot tomorrow.
Very quick and dirty test using the “great white hope”, my Smallrig lantern md on the front of a 80w lamp at 50%. Big mod on a big arm, C-stand and weights etc. Nice result considering a shitty set-up (I put the rest in place in my mind). The cam is at ISO 3200, f1.8 1/125th, so stills settings, not video. I feel this will work well for a pair of subjects, a little further forward and a bit more grunt.
Getting more realistic, as I have 5 bags to carry already, this is the same light, same settings into a Westcott bounce brolly.
My old fall-backs, that to be honest seem to do 70-80% of my work, the Godox white shoot-through (or bounce) brollies. Cheap as chips and my oldest mods, these just give. Obviously at the same settings, too hot, but less power means less heat.
Normalising the camera to video settings (50% light, ISO 800, 2.8, 1/50th), I think the cheap and simple shoot through gives me good open colour, but also some brilliance. I will use a warm hair light motivated by a warm point light behind, some other fake lamps etc, but otherwise a winner and it only needs a light weight stand, can be a little further back and is very efficient. For two people, I will bring the light closer to straight.
With a direct comparison below, the bounce brolly has more “bite” and seems to open shadows (behind) more, but it is also closer as you can see in the handy TV reflection. I may take both, just in case, the refelctor having the advantage of self flagging with a solid backing.
Ed. It happened, it worked and the system was superb.
The single brolly modified light maybe needed some flagging or the reflector model used with feathering to darken the background, but apart from that, the lights (1x 80w Selens COB on 50%, that did not even get warm over an hour, 2 little tubes that were still at 80% battery after same, some little christmas lights and a Weelite RB9 as hair light (motivated by the little tubes), were also on near full battery after an hour of 50% power.
Comfortable subjects, consistent light and processes.
The S5 in 1080/422/10bit/Flat, with 7Artisans 35mm in APSC crop (50mm), Neewer 1/8 mist filter on the mat box, Sennheisser MKE-600 on a low ifootage stand in front into my little Zoom AMS-24 interface and then the camera, all worked faultlessly. The S5 runs neutral-cool in colour, the 35mm is warmer, balancing both out (The S5.II and 50mm do the same backwards).
Over 1hr of footage needing to be broken down to about 15 mins, then a few minutes for a promo video, but plenty to work with. Focus, using the eye cup extender was a little difficult to be sure of out to the edges. I actually thought it was the lens, then realised it got better as I moved my eye around and recording on a tripod I was not super keen to push in too close, so maybe I need to look at that.
Oh and I missed that the mike tip was visible in the lower foreground, disguised by the first sitters dark pants, then I had to leave it for the next two pairs, so a mild crop to start proceedings.