Not much light, interestingly enough. Everyone looks beautiful on the radio!
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The trick that nobody likes to acknowledge in lighting for any camera is that everything in the scene not lit will be dark. Period. It’s not that larger budget projects have larger lights but that they have a greater quantity of smaller ones. The ability to throw a little light in a background, to have some extra backlight to highlight some hair, all that stuff is a million times more useful than one brighter light. So consider getting a few smaller lights to help balance out scenes. If you can match color temperature all the better.
One of the ones I love for film is a flat panel LED that is bi-color, by Litepanels. They’re outrageously expensive if you get the brightest ones but the earlier ones are reasonably priced if you don’t need a huge punch. But I’ve seen feature films lit with a very small quantity of them.
I also like the Wescott Flex series, which I feel dumb that I didn’t invent. It’s also a bicolor LED panel in a frame with a diffuser but it all comes apart. You can take off the diffuser and get a hard light. Then pull the frame off and get a flexible LED panel that you can staple to a ceiling or drape over a c-stand.
You might be interested in this new Kcickstarter that I saw the other day. It’s by the guys who did the Pixelstick but it’s smaller and is just a light. It’s called the ColorSpike and looks reasonably priced for what it will be. I have the Pixelstick and know the guys in question and ponied up my money for this within moments of hearing about it. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitbangerlabs/colorspike-create-in-color
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If you check the times, @SteampunkBanana was supposed to end on the 23rd, and @enceladus was supposed to start 11/6. Is there anyone who’d like to jump into an AMA until 11/5?
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I’m content just kicking around in case any other questions come up as well.
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That’s my current plan unless we get a volunteer. Glad you are ready to serve.
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At least he knows there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, so he will be able to switch off soon. 
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The light, it’s getting brighter!
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Why not? The best shows (music) for sound and sight lines I ever took in were at Place des Nations in Montreal, an outdoor amphitheatre. In general, what’s good for a concert is good for a play (clarity of sight and sound throughout the seating).
The problem with stadiums and arenas is that they were built for a different purpose, and the architectural compromises reflect that. These can be mitigated to some extent with a “concert bowl” setup using half the facility, but the downside is that half the facility thus becomes unusable. The kind of acoustics suitable for music and theatre aren’t necessarily a plus for sports facilities either.
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The point is we can get the same kind of seating the Greeks used without dealing with all the problems the Greeks had. Because nobody wants to cancel shows because of rain or have to wait around for the weather to clear up. Even the Delacorte in Central Park is considering some kind of roof right now. Actors also stopped wearing masks that amplified their voices.
There are a ton of times that exteriors are nice places to watch a show, but at the same time, people have different expectations these days. Seats with cushions and backs, air conditioning, the ability to have a decent blackout, better sightlines, shows that aren’t weather dependent, walls that block out exterior noises (seriously, planes out of JFK above the Delacorte can be really annoying), not having to get weatherproof equipment, the list goes on and on.
I’m literally in the middle of redesigning one of the larger outdoor theatres right now and most of the budget is going towards solving what happens when it rains. Add the fact that this theatre is closed for eight months out of the year and you can see that it’s a fiscal travesty to build something new like this these days. you need a Public Theatre or some other larger entity to absorb the costs throughout the year in order to make it work. And these days it’s difficult enough for one theatre to pay the bills just for itself.
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How can I make the lighting for my laptop videoconferences look most flattering without spending much money?
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Consistency and evenness. Get a single color temperature for your lights (you will have more than one) and eliminate windows that bring in color temperatures you can’t control.
Then basically light it like you would a bathroom mirror, something soft on either side of your face at eye level, preferably linear going up and down about a foot long or so.
But that’s ideal, you can just use two desk lamps or a desk lamp and a standing lamp or whatever, just get two things that are brighter than your monitor (which is also putting out cold blue light), about equal brightness (if one is brighter than the other, put it further away) and coming from in front of you. Don’t spend a lot of money on this at first, you probably have two things around your house that will work.
The first thing is about giving your tiny little camera a clean look at things, solve the problem for it instead of making it try to adapt to two different things and choosing poorly:
The second thing is about getting soft light on your face itself instead of from the side of your head, leaving your eye shadows dark (see two colored dude above).
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I normally point my crook necked lamp at the big monitor behind my laptop and adjust until I get a decent look. I like the two lamp idea. Any colors I should be thinking about, like if I buy a bulb with a bit of color in it, or a lamp shade that will add some tint?
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As long as they are very similar it won’t matter. Your camera/software is designed to find its own color temperature and make things look normal. So you could conceivably pick two 3000K lights or two 6500K lights and as long as they’re the same the camera will fix the problem. One 3000K and one 6500K and you’ll start to get problems.
So two lamps with the same shade the camera is just going to ignore and fix the problem. So find just something you like and you should be just fine.
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Someone in Ottawa is advocating OUTDOOR amphitheaters?
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Well sure, maybe they have to put on a sweater in February or whatever, but why not? 
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And clear off the snow to sit on the benches.
Then again, if it’s situated right they could skate there.
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I’d imagine they’d have one of the systems that heats the concrete to keep them snow and ice free (not to mention heated) for the time people are there.
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Hey, do you have any idea how many OUTDOOR festivals we have up here?
Seriously, there are more outdoor festivals here in Ottawa than any other city I’ve ever lived in. Most have been going on for at least two decades now - they’re really quite successful (and the audiences seem to be quite hardy ). A purpose-built large amphitheatre in Lebreton Flats would be very handy.
Seasonal? To be sure, but there is no problem with making lots of bucks. I think the real problem with live theatre is the draw - that makes building any theatre, let alone a seasonal one, a financial burden… which is a pity, because a good play well acted is a mind-blowing experience. Music concerts, especially popular music concerts? No problem. Plays? Well, shy of public funding, outdoor theatre is going to be marginal, and public funding is going to be problematic in the current climate.
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About 30 or so?
Get to work funding it, I’ll come up. We’re already over at the NAC a lot these days anyway.
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I just realized everyone should just be doing videoconferences from their bathrooms and putting their laptop where the mirror is.
I have to go make a million dollars creating a laptop shelf that can suction to bathroom mirrors…
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