Lighting Archives - how to make a thing

In the lab: Purple Music Video

I have been working on a music video for a year.

Yes. WTF is right.

A year.

I was both overly ambition with the shoot and also very much unprepared. We had wigs, fake snow, candelabras smoke machines and theatrical lights. And it looked awful.

I had no idea what I was doing.

Fast forward a year later and I’m still picking up elements to make up for the disaster a year earlier. Today we shot silhouettes. Here are my reference frames.

In all fairness. I am like a 1000x better at nearly everything related to directing today than I was a year ago so. It will end up being a better product, but I dragged my poor friends through my indecision and lack of faith that I could put something coherent together.

Coherent. To be honest, it’s not something I’m known for. Articulate – certainly. Coherent – rarely. I’m kinda okay with that.

Good interview lighting reference.

Today I am listening to a new album by DJ Koze – knock knock. Really digging it. As I’ve gotten older I seem to gravitate more and more to noisy music. I think it’s the use of non-melodic or inorganic samples that blend with the beat. It is definitely some kind of post-industrial nostalgia, but I’m okay with that…

So I was searching for the phrase “What do we talk about when we talk about God”. Was was sure I wasn’t the first person to think of this phrase but I need to verify.

I found a book by a Rob Bell, with the same title. Apparently he’s a super famous preacher in California. I dug a bit and found an interview where he gets completely eviscerated on a radio talk show – its very hard to listen to – I think he almost starts crying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . So down this christiandom rabbit whole I go and find this video.

Not only is the topic of the the doc well conceived, but the lighting is fantastic. I especially like the use of the warm hard light on brown skin and as a hair light, it pops off to give an awesome halo, especially on the ladies.

The DP is Phil Maltz [VIMEO]

A few lighting tests.

Doing a dump of lighting test I’ve done over the last few months.

I’d ordered and LED Fresnel, the Aputure 120D with softbox and a few other smaller LED lights and have been steadily working on defining a few looks. At some point I’ll formalize these types of lighting scheme into a tutorial of some kind. More documenting more making. #2018goals.