Commercial: "LA Weightloss"

___In the middle of August I worked as a swing grip/electric on a commercial shoot for LA Weightloss. We were working off of the 5 ton truck at this amazing house in Malibu high in the hills. It was a pretty small crew but we still got some great looking shots. One of the setups was in a bathroom that had two big windows that looked out into the canyon below. The D.P wanted to retain the detail outside in order to see the canyon so he stopped down a lot. This meant we had to blast the bathroom with light in order to get the exposure inside close to the same stop as the exposure outside. We blasted two 1.2 HMI's through a 4x4 frame of 250 for a key, then bounced a 2k mighty into the ceiling to raise the ambient level. We floated a 2 foot 2 bank Kino around for fill as well. We also used various Lekos as specials to accent certain background elements like cabinets or the bathtub. We used a mirror board outside and reflected it in through a window off screen to up the light level in the background as well. It was really tough to raise the light level inside the bathroom to match the light level outside in the canyon but in the end the image looked great despite the insane amount light we had to pump into such a small space.

A couple other setups were in the kitchen in which giant sliding glass doors were visible in the background of the shot. The D.P wanted to once again retain the detail outside in order to see the infinity pool, canyon and ocean backdrop. Instead of trying to blast the whole kitchen with light, we spent a lot of time cutting rolls of ND6 and carefully taping them over all the sliding glass doors. This brought the outside light level down two stops so it was a lot easier to match that light level in the kitchen. We used a 1.2 HMI through a 4x4 frame of 250 for key and two Image 80's for fill and ambient. The image 80's are nice lights for pretty pieces because they are a big soft source and really fill in shadows nicely. The last few setups of the day were outside in the pool. We used mirror boards through 4x4 frames of 250 and opal as key and an 8x8 ultrabounce for fill. We also used mirror boards to accent certain spots in the water behind the talent. Overall it was a solid day and because it was a small crew I had a lot more responsibility in terms of gear. I'm really getting to know this 5 ton truck and am starting to feel comfortable with all the equipment and how it is stored. A couple more gigs on this truck and I'll be even more confident with all the gear.