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How To Use Low Level LED Lights In The Studio - And Keep A "Million Dollar View" In The Window
Brad Dickson, Senior Lighting Director at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, faced a real challenge in lighting his on-site studio at
the Beijing Olympics.
He wanted to use low level LED lighting in the studio - but he had to retain what he called a "million dollar shot" through the studio window. Since he would be dealing with variable light conditions outside the window, his bottom line was should he use ND3, ND9 or what? Here, in his own words, was how he successfully solved the problem:
"After seeing the RoscoVIEW demo video, I thought, OK, I've now got a variable ND on the window. So at that point, I wanted it for my Beijing studio. In Beijing, we had a million dollar shot in the background with a beautiful view of the "birds nest". If that didn't come across in the studio, why were we there?
"RoscoVIEW allowed us to use lower light levels so we went with LED lighting. Our on-air host was turning around saying "Is this it, this is the lighting? This is like a lounge!" We could leave the lights on all day and none of the talent would complain; it was quite comfortable. Had we gone with HMIs, it would have been a different story."
"Another benefit was makeup, which was done in the morning, didn't need touch ups during the day, no one was perspiring!"
"With RoscoView we got a lot of our shots that we otherwise wouldn't have. It was a bonus that I could use lower light levels. I could have gone in there with HMIs and ND on the window, but then I would have been changing that depending on what the weather was like."
"Overall, did RoscoVIEW work? Yes, it worked. Were there issues with it? Yes. Since we were early adopters of the technology, we learned what works best. For example, heat buildup. You're trapping some heat in there between the windows and the RoscoVIEW gel and there could be some buckling. Also, RoscoView is thicker than regular gel nd in Beijing, we used a piece 8 feet by 17 feet. This amounted to a very heavy piece of material so weight could have been a factor."
"One interesting thing was that RoscoVIEW allowed us to see more detail through the haze outside than you could with your eye. This gave us more contrast in the background than you could see with the naked eye."
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 The CBC studio at the Beijing Olympics.
Low level LED lighting inside, RoscoVIEW on the windows.
Image courtesy of CBC Sports.
Brad Dickson,
Senior Lighting Director/Technical
Instructor, CBC, Toronto
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LitePads On Kilimanjaro
Last July six adults with different disabilities set off to scale Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The group was working with 5-time Emmy AwardR winning cinematographer Gordon Brown who was shooting the project for a documentary.
Accompanied by their individual "buddies", a medical crew, a team of guides and porters, as well as a world class film crew, the explorers set out to demonstrate what can be achieved when people with disabilities work together to overcome their individual limitations.
INVALUABLE LIGHT SOURCE IN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS
To aid the filming of the feature documentary, "The Mountain Within" Rosco provided the crew with 6 units of Rosco LitePad HO 305mm x 305mm and 6 units of 152mm x 152mm as well as accessories. With the LitePad's to hand, the crew were able to conduct interviews in the dark, cramped condition of their tents late at night simply by slipping a pad into a tent pocket or, due to the fact that they generate very little heat, simply by holding it. The pads also provide a hassle-free light fill for aytime interviews.
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY
An important issue for the documentary crew was to film in an environmentally friendly way and that for the expedition to be completely self-sustainable. The LitePads run off a DC adapter but also have a battery pack accessory, so the documentary crew used some small solar panels to charge the batteries on the pads. Due to the low wattage of even the largest pads, the crew was able to simply hook the LitePad up to any 12V battery such as those in their cameras.
LIGHT SOURCE THAT FITS IN THE POCKET
The crew had eleven porters carrying their equipment - and those porters must have been delighted to find out how easy the pads were to pack, with each unit measuring only 0.3" (8mm)! Cinematographer Gordon Brown says that "As they take up so little room you can take them virtually anywhere, they literally fit in the pockets where you store your headlamps and reading material. They are robust, efficient, easy to use, and the fact that they fit my existing portable package perfectly is a huge plus when weight and space is so valuable in remote environments".
Click here for more info on LitePad HO
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Skirting And Boxes For Overhead China Balls
Rosco's Cinebounce (3840) is usually used as a surface for reflector boards. But, as DP Derek Undershultz, gaffer Michael Galbraith and key grip Mark Manchester discovered, the material is excellent for skirting and boxes for overhead ChinaBalls.
Cinebounce is a durable, lightweight waterproof fabric, black on one side, white on the other. The white side offers a soft bounce while the
black side is an opaque, light blocking material. At 60 inches wide and flame retardant it can easily be sown and grommetted.
Click here to see all the Cinegel materials and filters.
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