By Dan Shinder, CEO/Director/Producer 

This article is really an example of making the best of a situation. When I was asked by The Tad James Company back in May of 2009 to film a one-time 3-day Marketing Training in Sydney Australia, set for 4 months later, my first question was, “What are the dynamics of the venue and what is the lighting like?”

TJC’s General Manager Bogdan Bobocea was kind enough to take pictures of the room at the Swiss Grand Hotel, Bondi Beach and e-mail them to me – one of them was even through a peep-hole! The concern was, “Do we need to rent a sh*t-load of lights?”

I could see straight away that the answer was, “No!” Everyone thought I was nuts. But here is a valuable tip: Sometimes you need to be innovative by NOT over-thinking anything. By using our heads, yes – we do that at Shin-Dig Film Productions, we saved about $6,500 from the budget by not renting lights. I saw from the pictures Bogdan sent me, that the lights in the room were canned incandescent lights and even though we had a picturesque view of Bondi Beach from the Training Room, I saw that the double-layer curtains would draw closed to 100%.

Those ingredients, plus the abilities to “F” with the iris and shutter speed settings in the cameras, let alone get creative with unconventional white balance settings, made for “Let There Be Light Magic” on the spot! Four months later, I am writing to you the night we have concluded the three-day shoot. Look at the pictures below and see the results:

Figure A is what the room looked like with the curtains wide open and standard settings on the iris, shutter speed and white balance. Notice that the subjects, the people, are in the dark because the blown-out light coming though the windows… which incidentally, would have changed in position and intensity throughout each of the three days! Figure B, below, shows the same scene with the curtains closed – notice the light shift! 

Figures C and D, below, are of Drs. Tad and Adriana James on stage during the filming… Does it look like we need lighting???                        

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another issue with having brought in lighting for this particular shoot was the fact that apparatus would simply have been in the way. Given the size of the room and camera sweeps from stage to audience and the iris having to adjust to what would have been un-lit areas, we made the wise magical adjustments yielding superior results…                                                                                                                       THAT’s what Shin-Dig Film Production does!