Quote: (Originally Posted by JohnKendall)
Has anyone got any tips for shooting video in caves? I'm off to france on thursday for a few days of cave diving (WooHoo!!!!) and am taking my Video rig. I've got twin 24w HIDs which I can either mount on the camera, or on buddies.
hi john,
our experience with video work in caves is that there is no such thing as too much light, so it's best you get as much light as possible for shooting. twin 24s on the camera will surely be fine, as long as you've also got video reflectors. normal reflectors, even with the beam turned wide, tend to burn through the picture. in the ojamo mine video clip teppo sent, we had one 24W on the camera, one 18W w/ a normal reflector and 21W w/ a video reflector on the model and i had another 21W for additional lighting. even with this , much of the video is dark, so more light is needed.
as for what bob and qbu said about planning ahead when shooting video, it's a must. without planning filming sequences, placement of camera, lights and models, the chances are slim you'll get decent footage. it would be best if you know the area in advance, that way you can plan the placements and what you want to capture. where possible, it may be a good idea to let the divers do the swimming and have the camera man stay in place, panning and following the divers. as bob said, there are so many butt cam (ie. diver filmed from behind) cave clips available that all other filming angles are a welcome change =)
one more tip is to see to that the divers being filmed are aware of their light beams. when being filmed, the light beams should always be turned away from the camera in order not to burn the picture. a good idea is to turn the lights so that the light up the background, the bottom or whatever lies behind the divers. that way, the perspective works better in the clip.
- e