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In episode #130 there are changes lurking in the distance.  The podcast is back from LA and to cap off the shift in content we are adding a video portion to the show, setting up a way for you to get on the podcast, and breaking down yet another tvc.

This week's breakdown focuses on using natural light with the bare accessories and making sure you get something you are happy with.

We also have a transcript of the show available for download (or at the bottom of the post) for people who want to read through the show when they are offline.

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Patreon Live Stream: Breaking Down Your Work

On Patreon for the bonus content this week we are back at the live streams.  Get your work featured by sending it in over on the patreon page.  

We will look at the stills, talk about the lighting, lensing, and other choices and hopefully learn a little something along the way.

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Natural Light: The Sun is Your Friend

 This was a series of ads that we will be looking at over the next few weeks.  The central theme of the campaign was our talent visiting real world locations and interacting with real customers.

Each customer had a specific location relevant to their story and in today's episode the location was a large hall.  The main action in the ad is our spokesman comes in, greets the customer, and they sit down to have a chat.

The Location

Today's location is a beach in Malibu.  The name escapes me but I am sure it will be familiar to some of you.  There aren't too many beaches to shoot around that area so this thing has been in quite a feew films/tv series over the years.

There were two issues with the location.

1.  The script called for a woman who was surfing to exit the waves and come in to chat with the host.  Unfortunately this beach isn't for surfing and was completely flat which meant we could never really look out at the water.  This made our coverage choices easy as we had to be facing away from the water.

2.  With our angles limited by item #1 the sun path and the location became a bit of an issue.  Normally on ay exteriors we would try to shoot earlier or later in the day but on this gig it worked out best to shoot at the worst possible times for light.

We would start in the late morning and push through till the early afternoon.

The Gear Package: Camera & Lighting

We shot this ad on two Panavised Arri Alexa Minis with a combination of Panavision Ultra Speeds and Super Speeds.

For lighting on this shoot day we had:

Absolutely nothing

We had a few 4x4 frames of diffusion and 2 12x12s of Blacks

Natural Light: The Set Ups

Shot #1 - In The Drink

The Shot

Our opening shot  shows our hero talent getting out of the surf and running on shore.  

The Lighting

We didn't have a lighting team on the day so we were going to be using rags and bounces to get the job done.  

In this shot we had a shiny board off the frame left and we let the sun and the angle of the action do the rest.

The Result

Behind the Scenes

Shot #2 - In the Pocket

The Shot

This is the B cam shot of the same sequence.  In tighter for the short grab.

The Lighting

The lighting here is identical to the previous frame but now you can see more of the effect of the shiny board as the talent makes their way closer to the source.

The Result

Shot #3 - The Wide Wave

The Shot

We are up in the parking lot and we needed to see our spokesman waving the talent out of the water.

The Lighting

When shooting exteriors on a sunny day it all comes down to the camera angle and the blocking relative to the sun.  The BG is down because the orientation of the location relative to the sun and that relationship is enough to give us some shape.

The Result

Behind the Scenes

Shot #4 - The Intro

The Shot

We move in for our title shot and now we can use some smaller textiles to shape the light a little bit.

The Lighting

Overhead we had a 4x4 frame of Hi-lite and we didn't need a larger rag as our talent wasn't moving and we were fairly tight.  

To take some of the ambient light away we used neg fill camera left.

The Result

Shot #5 - The Meet & Greet

The Shot

These are our meet and greet moments.  The talent say hello and shake hands.

The Lighting

The main thing we did to shape this shot was adding blacks to the ground to suck up the bouncing light off of the sand.  The return light can flatten things off and make them feel washed out.

To hold the contrast we just laid some blacks down and then brought in the 12x12 negative fill cmaera left.

The Result

Shot #5 - In Tighter

The Shot

This is the B camera shot of the same set up.

The Lighting

In this example you can see how the angle of the talent/camera relative to the sun in the background does all of the heavy lifting for us.  You can still have the light to dark pattern even when shooting outside.

The Result

Shot #6 - The Car Shot

The Shot

For our wide shot in the parking lot we need to see the car and the talent walk off to the interview section.

The Lighting

The longer lens wide shot allows us to sneak in some neg fill on the ground and on camera left to help hold the contrast.  Everything else about the shot is natural light.

The Result

Behind the Scenes

Shot #7 - The Sit Down

The Shot

Now we are into the conversation section featuring our two talent.

The Lighting

For this sequence we kept her single clean and used her position to get an angle that didn't require to much finessing in the lighting department.  We embraced the harshness of the sun and added to the contrast with some 12x12 blacks on camera left to suck up the ambient return light.

The Result

Behind the Scenes

Shot #7 - The Reverse

The Shot

The reverse angle of the previous shot.

The Lighting

Now we are looking in the opposite direction shooting from the other camera.  You can see how the position of the action relative to the sun means we have mirrored images with the benefit of shooting into the shadow side of the talent to help maintain some interest.

The 12x12s camera right are playing just out of frame and they are helping to keep the draks dark.

The Result