1. Lighting and Interviews

2. Why should we light our
productions?
 Lighting will make our work look more
professional
 Whether we realize it or not, all Hollywood
films are employing some kind of lighting
technique to produce their image
 Poor lighting is the bane of most low-budget
movies. We tend to think that all we need is
a camera and a story, but in reality, we need
a well exposed image
 Poor Lighting Example: YouTube
Interview

3. Uses of Lighting
 We can use lights to properly expose
and image or draw particular attention to
a part of an image
 Oftentimes, however, we may not be
able to use lights because of their
size, cost, or availability
 We should be aware however, of ways that
we can use natural light in an environment
to get good quality interview footage

4. Types of Lighting
 The Difference between Soft and Hard
Light
 Soft Light: KEXP In Studio
 Hard Light: Midnight Solo
 Watch clips from colewebley.com
 Which of the videos use soft lighting, and
which use hard lighting?
 What types of things can we use to
make our lighting softer?

5. Lighting Search
 Visit www.vimeo.com
 Browse through channels or other
videos and find an example of:
 Good Lighting
 Bad Lighting
 What types of lighting do you think they
used to achieve this effect?

6. Lighting and Color Temperature
 In film lighting there are two main
color temperatures
 5,600K is known as Daylight. To the
eye this type of light has more of a
bluish tint
 3,200K is know as Indoor or Tungsten
lighting, this is most of the lighting
that you will see from a lamp. This
has more of an orange Tint
 White Balance tells your camera
what type of lighting you are using
in the given situation
 The problem comes when you are
trying to use two different color
temperatures for lighting.

7. Lighting Safety
 From Artis “The Shut Up and Shoot
Documentary Guide”
 Use gloves to handle lights – lights can get
hot
 Use sandbags to steady lights
 Stay clear of flammables
 Be careful when moving hot lights

8. Lighting Demonstration
 Set up a light kit
 Set up a camera and have someone sit
down in front of the camera
 Talk about the components of 3-point
lighting
 Key Light
 Fill light
 Hair light or Background light
 Talk about the different tools that can be
used to diffuse and adjust light

9. Tips for Lighting Outside
 Typically when you are
shooting outside, you will
not need to use any
artificial lighting. There
are, however, a few things
that you can do to make
your outside footage look
better
 Don’t backlight your subject
 Use a solid white bounce as
a fill light

10. Interview Tips
 Have the interviewee sit to one side of
the camera. Ask the subject to answer
all of their questions directed towards
the person performing the interview
 Try to ask open-ended questions that
will provoke a longer response from the
subject
 Ask questions that are self-contained
 Use proper composition, including
headroom and nose room
 Play interview from “Off the Charts”
 What kind of interview techniques do we
see here?

11. Lighting Group Exercise
 You will create a group of 3-4 individuals for this
exercise
 Each group is going to come up with an idea for a
fake documentary – all of the interviews will be
based around this subject
 In the exercise there will be two stations
 One pair of groups will be indoors shooting on 2 different
lighting set-ups. At each set-up the group will need to
create two different lighting looks with the tools that are
available
 The other pair of groups will be shooting 2 interviews, one
somewhere outside and the other somewhere on
campus, using natural lighting
 Make sure you are using proper interviewing and sound
production techniques