Hi, I have been asked to film a mock alas Smith and Jones type video. The sketch where they are in a dark room with just a spotlight on them. Any advice on this project would be great. I only have house hold lighting just to make it more difficult. What if I buy a cheap T-hal wall light and mount it on a tripod.

Thank you.

If I remember rightly, you will need a black back ground and 3 lights. 1 behind the camera to illuminate the subjects and 1 behind each subject (giving that white out line). This is just a guess and I'm sure the pro guys here will be able to shed some more light on the subject for you.

If you feel that your house hold light wont do he trick (and you are on a very tight budget) you may give these a try.

Portable Site Light 240V - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

Hope this has been some help.

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I was hoping to just film it on an evening with the main lights off and just the spot lights aimed at the actors.

Thinking about it I would need a black back drop at the very last.

Karlpeg, yeah, that would work. Ideally you'd have a black backdrop a few feet behind the actors so that not (or very little) spill light from the spots hits the background and the two actors cross-lit. This means that the actor to the right of the camera is lit from a lamp to the left of camera and vice-versa which will add a wee bit of modelling without losing the effect.

I personally wouldn't recommend these builders lamps as they can spit out all sorts of colour spikes, are completely uncontrollable and get very hot.
Just my opinion.

Site lights - yes the buggers are like heat lamps - everyone roasts and I always burn myself on them - but better than nothing - just. They are pants if you need to control the light, but thay do throw out lots of the stuff.

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What about those low energy daylight bulbs plugged in a table lamp with the shade fitted the other way round to give direction of light.?

Low energy lights are usually based on fluorescent or led technology and can have a wierd (ie non-linear) output. This can mean that some colours/tones are recorded "falsely" by the camera.

It might work but the chances are that something, somewhere won't be quite right. Give it a go and see.

You'd be better off using a proper tungsten (ie household bulb) lamp in a domestic holder rather than going for something exotic like low-energy.

A while back Guru, I seem to remember you recommended a book on lighting (or am I just dreaming?) If you did, can you post the title again here? It seems to be a topic that's stirring some interest, and a still photographer now moving into video I know really needs some guidance too.

Cheers

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