Ever wonder what would happen if a video production company started making it's own products? Well, Fijordland Entertainment Ltd. did just that and the results look solid. After years of documentary production and corporate videos, Fijordland has started selling LED on-camera lights with the nam

It is one of those late September evenings, the air crisp, the threat of snow lingering on every breeze. The fog creeps in on silent feet, filling the valley with its eerie wisps. The man who appears from the alley is a big man, the kind of big that says “Tread lightly around me.” The ki

Setting up, working with and tearing down studio lighting equipment can be some of the most dangerous tasks of your video production. Throughout the years, we have presented many ways to light your subject and improve your lighting skills. However, one area of lighting we have not covered is lightin

Gone are the old days when, to represent a night scene, all one had to do is to load tungsten-type film in the camera and shoot outside fully stopped-down, to underexpose the film and to create a dark, bluish-cast scene. The resultant strong shadows were a bit unconvincing, but that was the only fea

Whether you’re shooting a documentary, creating a scrapbook or shooting an object for a commercial – you will find a need for tabletop lighting techniques. If you are a faithful reader of this column, you have a pretty good idea about lighting people's faces and basic three-point li

Light Box A light bank is practically a must in any videographer’s lighting arsenal. Finding the one that will give you the kind of light you are looking for, at a price that fits your budget, is what we’ll investigate here with Chimera’s new Video Pro Plus 8005 Light Kit. The Vide

New, high-efficiency LED lamp technologies have sparked innovations in mobile lighting for videographers on the go. Varizoom is one company that has just added a new on-camera light to its lineup, the VZ S2010 On-camera LED Light, which lists for $399. If you’ve been considering adding a fill

An informational buyer's guide helping you choose and use the best type of lighting for your productions You want your videos to look professional? Great camera work and awesome sound alone won't make your video all you want it to be. You can take a lesson from Hollywood's book. A mot

Few other communication forms have the power to reveal a unique perspective, capture imagination and even motivate change. In this three-part series on how to make a documentary, you'll discover how you can move your story from dream to distribution. Walk onto the working set of any television

$785 Litepanels, Inc. 10932 Burbank Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601 (818) 752-7009 www.litepanels.com LED There Be Light You've seen them everywhere. Alarm clocks, instrument panels, watches, the warning light in your car indicating you've run out of gas; we're speaking, of course, o

No money for more lights? No problem! Here are sure-fire, no-power solutions to making your subject shine. One of the most important lighting accessories that a video producer uses is the reflector. This handy tool gives you the ability to control light and focus it wherever you need it. In this col

Sometimes we're too busy illuminating you in this department to define basic terms, like, for instance, all the different lights we talk about. So here's a quick description of the movie lights commonly used for video. Seat belts please; we're gonna move fast. But first, three terms

When you’re shooting news, documentary, wedding, family, or other event videos, you’re always on the move — and your light has to move with you. The good news is, if you take care in choosing, equipping, and using your “inkie”; (as historic Hollywood called them), you c

Lighting accessories can be as easy to make as a trip to the local hardware store, but why would you want to go through the hassle? In the December 2004 issue, we inventoried the lighting equipment you could buy in whole or assemble from pieces picked up at your favorite hardware store (check the co

Make your on-camera talent look their best by following these five simple steps. 1. Mr. Make-Up? It’s true. When it comes to looking good on camera, makeup is not just for women anymore. Video producers often overlook this critical first step for several reasons. Perhaps they don’t want

In lighting, the most important aesthetic quality is mood: the feeling communicated by the lighting design. You can achieve mood lighting by recipe (Scary: 1. Place spotlight under chin. 2. Aim upward. 3. Add rim light for separation), but the effect may look pretty hokey. To create a mood with lig

When you're lighting two subjects in the same shot, the problem isn't how to do it but which approach to choose. Lighting methods are driven by the location you're in, the style you're creating, and the number (and type) of lights you have. With all those variables, there's

"Lights, camera, action!" is about as clichd as you can get, but there is a reason they say "lights" first. Video and films always look better if you light them well. This doesn’t mean the scene has to be awash in light. It does mean that there is a well designed plan behin

The main difference between straight and artistic video lighting is mood. Mood-setting moves beyond technical competence and into lighting design. It’s not hard to do if you know how to control three basic lighting components: key, contrast and color. First, of course, you need to be clear ab

Once upon a time, men were lit ruggedly and women were lit beautifully (in case you had trouble telling Rhett from Scarlet) and, despite our progress toward gender equality, this convention continues today. Let’s review the basics of these two lighting approaches and then cover some special c