older diva musician will ask to see monitor ?

[Michael Totten]

This is a situation I haven't dealt with before... at least not so blatantly.

I'm shooting an interview on Monday. The producer insists on shooting with three cameras simultaneously. :wacko:

Cam 1: medium 2 shot, profile
Cam 2: medium C/U on musician
Cam 3: medium C/U on interviewer

In my experience lighting for three camera angles(in this particular set up) limited my ability to make any of the camera angles look GREAT. They all just looked ok . Obviously the tighter shots looked better.

In this situation the picture in general (composition, lighting) is not dictated by what looks good, rather it's dictated by a need to keep camera operators, flares, and light stands out of the shot.

On top of that the producer warned me that the musician being interviewed (who is aging and very conscious of that fact) is notorious for asking to see the monitor to "sign off on the lighting". Awkward.

The thing I'm worried about is that she has very wrinkled weathered skin.
There is only so much I can do until the picture starts to look like a fairly tale with blooming misty soft highlights that are obviously a "cover up" and in general just look bad. There is usually a balance that I can strike... but with a diva (who's not in touch with reality) and who is looking over my shoulder I'm afraid that point of balance will never be reached.

Any experience with this type of thing?

thanks.
Michael

[martinnoweck]

- be charming and flirt with her.

- what kind of lights are you using? -> i made good experience with chimeras / tungsten light. use a grid in front of the chimera.

- start with her camera looking as good as possible and try to adapt the two other positions.

- rise her camera position a few centimeters above eye level. rise the chair of the interviewer a couple of centimeters, so she has to look up to him a little bit. this way her skin underneath her chin stretches a little bit. (this was a valueable tip from another aging diva i worked with a couple of years ago ...)

- add a little bit of black pro mist or something similar.

- don't go in too close on her face.

my two cents ... best wishes,
martin

[Michael Totten]

- be charming and flirt with her.

- what kind of lights are you using? -> i made good experience with chimeras / tungsten light. use a grid in front of the chimera.

- start with her camera looking as good as possible and try to adapt the two other positions.

- rise her camera position a few centimeters above eye level. rise the chair of the interviewer a couple of centimeters, so she has to look up to him a little bit. this way her skin underneath her chin stretches a little bit. (this was a valueable tip from another aging diva i worked with a couple of years ago ...)

- add a little bit of black pro mist or something similar.

- don't go in too close on her face.

my two cents ... best wishes,
martin

thank you martin.

For a back light we're using 1K's with diffusion. For Key light we're using 1k's (cross keyed) diffused... we've got 216, 251, opal, silk..ect.

For frontal fill we're either using kinos through some kind of diffusion or china/gem balls.

[Dominic Cochran]

Double up that 216, or back off the 1ks to use as fill and key with the Kino/China Balls.

Definitely agree with Martin that you should light her camera angle first.

Make sure you have an SD signal to show her.

[martinnoweck]

hi michael,

how did it work out?

best wishes,
martin

[Michael Totten]

hi michael,

how did it work out?

best wishes,
martin

It ended up being totally fine. The shoot was smooth... I was probably making it into a bigger deal than it needed to be. :biggrin: Everyone liked the look we gave them.... including the talent.

We cross keyed two 1K's with doubled opal and then used 1k's mounted on ceiling rafters up high and behind for backlight... they worked well. We had china balls on dimmers for the camera side fill and then had a kino very low right out of frame underneath talent. At first I was concerned that the opal wouldn't be enough but it actually did a nice job softening the light.

Both women looked good.

thanks for asking : )

Michael

Also, one thing we did (when she was looking at her self via a live feed on a 9" monitor) is that we threw the camera just slightly out of focus.