An educational video on lighting and its basics for film and documentary!
If you’re shooting an interview for your documentary you will be using either natural light sources or studio lighting. But as what Robin said in tutorials, everyone should making choices in the environment you’re going into accordingly and not be bounded by location of light. Rather, be free and experiment but ensure the ideal visual setting.
If you’re shooting indoors or in a studio, the basic 3 point lighting technique is a favorite and also the most ideal. It fully exposes the facial expression and emotions of your subject as well as isolates them from the background and hides unwanted shadows.
Refresher: The back light creates a nice highlight around your interviewee’s hair, shoulders and face, and it gives them depth that help separate them from the background.
The key light is the main lighting source that casts directional lighting and shadows on the interviewee’s face and body. On the other hand, the fill light is a softer light that helps fill unsightly shadows created by the key light.
Decorate and deign the background by using different colors, cookies to add texture or coloured lights to colour up and add details to your your shot and location composition.
**You should light your interviewee from upstage rather than downstage. The lighting that falls your interviewee’s face and body will be much more desirable. To light your interviewee from upstage simply ensure that the key light is positioned on the other side of your subject to where the camera is positioned. For example if the camera is on the right side of the subject than the light should be coming from the left.
xoxo.
drunkonhelium 