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Talking Heads – More Films about Tax Law and Prisons

A few more talking-head videos from this past fall’s Fordham Lawyer magazine.

Dean Matthew Diller on Fordham Law School’s values and vision:

Fordham Law’s Tax Clinic helps reform a New York State debt collection practice:

John Pfaff’s research into what has driven the rise in the U.S. prison population:

The Dean was filmed in his office which has a few floor to ceiling windows along one wall. I chose to avoid them for two reasons. 1. I was concerned about the light changing during the interview. And 2. the eighth floor office was directly across from Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park – at the time of filming home to the Big Apple Circus. Pulling the shades in the room not only helped mitigate any light issues it also helped dampen the sound of the circus.

Lighting setup - Dean's interview. New York City. December, 2015. Click images to enlarge.
Lighting setup – Dean’s interview. Two Canon C300s and lights. New York City. December, 2015. Click images to enlarge.

For the Dean’s interview two Litepanel Astra 1x1s with softboxes + egg crate grids were used for key and fill; a third Astra was bounced off the ceiling as an overall fill and a fourth Astra (hidden by the RoadRags black flags) provided a bit of backlight. A Litepanels Sola 4 fresnel was raked across the bookcase to provide some texture.

The professor and student interviews, all shot in the same space, presented its own unique challenge. I film these regularly as simple one-camera setups against a white seamless. This time around though only one room in the building was available, a mid-size classroom, which was ringed with desks which were both bolted together and wired for electricity and ethernet. So, moving the desks was not an option and filming within the center hole created by the desks was not viable. So, we opted for a corner of the room and used the room itself as the background.

Once again, two Astras with softboxes were key and fill. The key also had an egg crate grid on it. Two other Astras were used for the background, each with a Matthews RoadRags Silk to diffuse the light and a RoadRags black flag to keep background spill off the interviewees. The wall in the background has its own bump out which could not be avoided but the lighting and the f/4.5 aperture kept it soft.

Overall lighting setup, professor & student interviews. New York City. November, 2015.
Overall lighting setup, professor & student interviews. Canon C300, lights, and Marshall 7″ monitor. New York, New York. November, 2015.
Interviewee perspective. Canon C300, mic, fill light, interviewer chair. Tight squeeze. New York City. November, 2015.
Interviewee perspective. Canon C300, mic, fill light, interviewer chair. Tight squeeze. New York, New York. November, 2015.
Astra pushing through Opal Frost and a RoadRags silk. New York City. November, 2015.
An Astra pushing through Opal Frost and a RoadRags silk to light the background. New York, New York. November, 2015.

3 Comments

  1. Tim Rountree

    Hello Jon,

    I really appreciate how you light and your behind the scenes blog posts. They are helping me figure out how to light for my own projects. What softbox do you use on the Litepanel Astra?

    Thanks,

    Tim

  2. Tim Rountree

    Thanks so much for the quick reply!

    Tim

Comments are closed.