Filming a music video, any advice? at DVinfo.net

Gary Douglas · May 8th, 2009, 06:07 PM

I'm filming a music video. And I have a choice between a big room or a little one.
Using stage lights, or using natural light.
Any advice on these choices, or any basic techniques to play around with to get results?

Filming with a hv30 btw.

Marcus Marchesseault · May 8th, 2009, 09:45 PM

The size of the room doesn't matter too much as long as you have enough space for the lights and to get the right camera angles. The look of the location is more important.

Lighting for a camera like the HV30 is probably best to go with as much as you can get. A combination of natural and studio lights with daylight balance is probably the most feasible. Of course, daylight can be uncooperative so there is always a risk depending on the sun.

Oren Arieli · May 9th, 2009, 09:55 AM

My guess as to why you're not receiving many responses to your query is that its a bit too vague of a question, and the answers would require an encyclopedia of knowledge in shooting, lighting, and editing. Your best bet might be to hire experts to help you (if you can afford it). Barring that, there is no 'shortcut' to quality...and don't expect that reading something here will instantaneously make your work stand out. I'm not trying to be harsh...but what you really need here is experience, and that is something none of us here on the forum can supply you with. I do wish you best of luck and hope that someone comes along and refutes everything I said, thus giving you the skills you need to make a super music video (because I'd love to glean that knowledge as well).

Walter J Walsh · May 9th, 2009, 01:34 PM

I don’t know if this is any help; but, I recently finished a music video for the Vampire band Plasmata that I shot with a Canon GL2. Here is the link YouTube - Bartonville . The scene with the band playing was a rather large empty room; but, since we were only using a small section of it we used a 500 watt and a 250 watt light. The scene recorded much brighter, which is what I wanted, then I darkened it in post.

Gary Douglas · May 9th, 2009, 09:00 PM

Marcus - When you say Daylight balance, you mean the white balance setting on the camera? Is that not presumed a bit of a sin with any work your doing? Is it not normal practice to try and get a orthodox white balance setting and then mess around with the image in post?

Oren - Thanks Oren, going to try and make my weakness' my strengths on this one. With that mentality coupled with no budget i'll go this one with the crew around me.

Walter - Enjoyed the video. What sort of lighting did you use on the black and white, mental asylum vampire scenes?

Should I pump up the gain while filming to compensate for light loss when capturing or is this again (not an typical orthodox practice to be broken) but another artistic choice?

John S. Cooper · May 11th, 2009, 06:37 AM

When filming a music video, try to be as innovative as possible, and try not to make it look like al other music videos. Make it stick out...

Walter J Walsh · May 11th, 2009, 11:08 AM

Gary,
Glad you liked the video. The whole video was shot in color using a combination of 500 watt work lights and a few 250 watt incandescent lights. We were using a generator for power so I couldn’t use as many light as I would have liked. I also shot as many of the hallway scenes during the day. I white balanced for the incandescence bulbs so I could get a bluish cast from the daylight. Then in post I increased the contrast and desaturated or removed the color to get the black in white look.

Marcus Marchesseault · May 11th, 2009, 03:55 PM

Gary, I mean to use lights that are daylight balanced so they blend with available sunlight. Use daylight fluorescents or CTB (blue) gel to make your tungstens daylight colored. Tungsten with blue gel is not power efficient but cheap. The reason I would recommend this is the answer to your other question. Your camera is not super light sensitive and cranking up the gain is generally not good. The noisy image is not very attractive and detail can be diminished. You need LOTS of light to reduce gain noise so daylight AND studio lights to fill in backlit areas will give you the cleanest image. If you had a kit with thousands of watts of output, you could just use studio light but it would blow the circuit breakers on an entire house.

Learn as much as you can about lighting because that is what controls your image. A camera records nothing but light so your subject and how it is lit determine your overall quality. With a huge amount of well-directed lighting, your camera can make stunning images.

BTW, use strong lights even in a dark-looking video. Keep your backgrounds dark and rim-light people's faces to keep it seeming dark. You can also dim things a bit in post or slightly underexpose.

May 8th, 2009, 06:07 PM	#1
Gary Douglas Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lancashire Posts: 40	Filming a music video, any advice? I'm filming a music video. And I have a choice between a big room or a little one. Using stage lights, or using natural light. Any advice on these choices, or any basic techniques to play around with to get results? Filming with a hv30 btw.

May 8th, 2009, 09:45 PM	#2
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	The size of the room doesn't matter too much as long as you have enough space for the lights and to get the right camera angles. The look of the location is more important. Lighting for a camera like the HV30 is probably best to go with as much as you can get. A combination of natural and studio lights with daylight balance is probably the most feasible. Of course, daylight can be uncooperative so there is always a risk depending on the sun.

May 9th, 2009, 09:55 AM	#3
Oren Arieli Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: San Jose, California Posts: 919	My guess as to why you're not receiving many responses to your query is that its a bit too vague of a question, and the answers would require an encyclopedia of knowledge in shooting, lighting, and editing. Your best bet might be to hire experts to help you (if you can afford it). Barring that, there is no 'shortcut' to quality...and don't expect that reading something here will instantaneously make your work stand out. I'm not trying to be harsh...but what you really need here is experience, and that is something none of us here on the forum can supply you with. I do wish you best of luck and hope that someone comes along and refutes everything I said, thus giving you the skills you need to make a super music video (because I'd love to glean that knowledge as well).

May 9th, 2009, 01:34 PM	#4
Walter J Walsh Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Frankfort, IL Posts: 28	I don’t know if this is any help; but, I recently finished a music video for the Vampire band Plasmata that I shot with a Canon GL2. Here is the link YouTube - Bartonville . The scene with the band playing was a rather large empty room; but, since we were only using a small section of it we used a 500 watt and a 250 watt light. The scene recorded much brighter, which is what I wanted, then I darkened it in post.

May 9th, 2009, 09:00 PM	#5
Gary Douglas Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Lancashire Posts: 40	Marcus - When you say Daylight balance, you mean the white balance setting on the camera? Is that not presumed a bit of a sin with any work your doing? Is it not normal practice to try and get a orthodox white balance setting and then mess around with the image in post? Oren - Thanks Oren, going to try and make my weakness' my strengths on this one. With that mentality coupled with no budget i'll go this one with the crew around me. Walter - Enjoyed the video. What sort of lighting did you use on the black and white, mental asylum vampire scenes? Should I pump up the gain while filming to compensate for light loss when capturing or is this again (not an typical orthodox practice to be broken) but another artistic choice?

May 11th, 2009, 06:37 AM	#6
John S. Cooper Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: London. GB Posts: 29	When filming a music video, try to be as innovative as possible, and try not to make it look like al other music videos. Make it stick out...

May 11th, 2009, 11:08 AM	#7
Walter J Walsh Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Frankfort, IL Posts: 28	Gary, Glad you liked the video. The whole video was shot in color using a combination of 500 watt work lights and a few 250 watt incandescent lights. We were using a generator for power so I couldn’t use as many light as I would have liked. I also shot as many of the hallway scenes during the day. I white balanced for the incandescence bulbs so I could get a bluish cast from the daylight. Then in post I increased the contrast and desaturated or removed the color to get the black in white look.

May 11th, 2009, 03:55 PM	#8
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	Gary, I mean to use lights that are daylight balanced so they blend with available sunlight. Use daylight fluorescents or CTB (blue) gel to make your tungstens daylight colored. Tungsten with blue gel is not power efficient but cheap. The reason I would recommend this is the answer to your other question. Your camera is not super light sensitive and cranking up the gain is generally not good. The noisy image is not very attractive and detail can be diminished. You need LOTS of light to reduce gain noise so daylight AND studio lights to fill in backlit areas will give you the cleanest image. If you had a kit with thousands of watts of output, you could just use studio light but it would blow the circuit breakers on an entire house. Learn as much as you can about lighting because that is what controls your image. A camera records nothing but light so your subject and how it is lit determine your overall quality. With a huge amount of well-directed lighting, your camera can make stunning images. BTW, use strong lights even in a dark-looking video. Keep your backgrounds dark and rim-light people's faces to keep it seeming dark. You can also dim things a bit in post or slightly underexpose.