Light Source: The Wedding (Not) in the Woods: Part 2 (page 2)

The producer checks the effect and goes ape (in a good way). It’s wonderful! Instead of a dark hole behind the ceremony, we’ve got a magical glow of flowers, with dramatic pitch black above them.

Also, the spot up on the beam adds extra front fill on the bride and groom and back lights the pastor, which is great because he has a bald head with a fuzzy ring of hair around it. Now it looks like a halo.

The producer agrees to put the main camcorder under the fill light, to feature the bride. I’m expecting him to put a second camera near the key light, to get cover on the groom, over-the-shoulder on the pastor and guest reaction shots.

But No! Instead, he wants the second camera down by the guests, where he can pan the audience as well as catch the other stuff. The bride is not at all excited about one more piece of evil technology in her natural, environmentally sensitive nuptials, however.

The camcorder positions aren’t really my problem, but hey: anything to help a shoot. We’ve got to have a second camera for cutaways and such, but the bride adamantly refuses to have it in the hall.

Suddenly I get an idea: okay, then, how about outside the hall? After all, we got a wall of clear glass running the length of the guest seating area. Why not set the camera outside shooting in?

Partly because it’s still pouring rain, but the key grip rigs a blue plastic tarp and we get a camera and tripod out there where it’ll stay dry. Everything looks great except for one thing. The outside camera is seeing mainly reflections in the glass. That’s child’s play for the videographer. He fits a polarizing filter over the lens, rotates it for best effect and the reflections are gone. It’s not an ideal solution, but it’ll work.

As I review this e-mail, I realize that I’m going on and on and the whole thing sounds too complicated and technical. Okay, but hear me out: Figures 4 and 5 should wrap the whole thing up for you.

Figure 4 shows the complete lighting design with the hard key on the groom, plus spill on the bride. The fill light fills both bride and groom. The spill from the two lights together picks up the pastor.

The pastor also gets a dynamite rim light from the back light up on the beam, which also delivers extra fill to the bride and groom, while blasting down on the bright flowers. The flower glow wipes out the empty room behind and looks very dramatic, too. Meanwhile, the guests are keyed by soft, diffuse window light and given a small extra kick from the high window behind them.

Now look at the same diagram, but with camera setups emphasized instead of lighting (Figure 5). Camera One stays in a two-shot of the bride and groom, except at a few crucial moments. Camera Two grabs cutaways of the guests (mainly during the music before the ceremony). Once the wedding starts, Camera Two shoots over the groom’s shoulder at the pastor.

As you look at the diagram, you may well ask: Won’t Camera Two’s shot be marred with Camera One showing in the background behind the bride and groom? Nope: With a proper exposure, it’s too dark behind the accordion screen to see the camera.

So the wedding goes great, the footage is primo, everyone is ecstatic and I am feeling like one pretty smart gaffer. Then I remember that the back light is still taped to the beam 15 feet overhead and me without a ladder.

Contributing Editor Jim Stinson is the author of the book Video Communication and Production.

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