Lighting tight spaces with Scissor Clips
Lighting in tight spaces
Scissor clips & LEDs
I operate a full service video production company called Point North Productions where I work directly with my clients to see their vision through from Pre-Production to Post Production. This project falls under that umbrella and I was also the gaffer on this project.
The client had a reference video that he sent over and then I scheduled a meeting to go talk about more specifics and check out his new office. He wanted a video that would run less than 60 seconds, gets posted on InstaGram and showcased all of the services offered.
In total, we were in four different treatment rooms and at first I was a bit nervous seeing such small spaces. How would I light a small space like this? Will I even have room to put my stands anywhere? My problems were solved when I realized that I could use the drop ceilings to my advantage-
I HAD A LIGHTING GRID
BUILT IN TO EVERY SET!
In real life, when a patient goes in for a treatment, the overhead lights get turned off and the room is lit by a salt lamp or table lamps with low wattage bulbs. We wanted to maintain that vibe of the dim massage room but I didn’t want to go overly dramatic- This is still a commercial after all.
The idea that I came up with was that I was going to use Quasar Science LED tubes and rig them to the ceiling with scissor clips. I outlined the bed with the tubes, and I had each tube connected to a dimmer outside of the room that I could easily tweak intensity with.
The lighting motif that ran throughout the day was to backlight and I let the light bounce around the room to fill in the ambience. Again, this was using the small space to my advantage so I could pull off a passive fill light in this way.
I brought on my buddy Jacob Christensen as the DP. He was on a Ronin all day, which I wanted for a few reasons. One big factor to the Ronin is that we are in small, sometimes bland rooms. How can I make this more visually appealing? Ronin seemed to be a practical answer. Because I had the lights rigged to the ceiling, Jacob had every angle of the treatment room to use as his backdrop.
