Williams Chooses Litepanels for Music Video

“We had several challenges to face, shooting the Mark Woollen directed ‘Everlong’,” he explains. “The story takes place in a single hotel room, following five couples at different places in their relationships. Each of these contrasts the other. It is really a piece of visual poetry. Ultimately, the entire room and our couples are consumed by nature.”

‘Flicker-free’ light for high speed shooting
To shoot this visual diary, Williams decided to capture the entire video from a remote head on a jib arm using Phantom Flex cameras. With primary lighting from tungsten pars bounced into unbleached muslin over the set, he found that he needed a consistent fill light source. His only choice was his trusty MiniPlus LED fixtures from Litepanels. “When you shoot at high speed you need to use a ‘flicker-free’ source. Even tungsten lights flicker during a normal power cycle. The Litepanels don’t flicker. And being DC powered, they are ideal for high speed work as DC power provides consist output during a power cycle,” he explains.

Soft fill light for the actors
“I mounted two MiniPlus fixtures on the camera with the bracket Clairmont made for me and attached this with an Israeli arm. This way I could get the lights near the lens to act as very subtle fill for our actors. At times, I would use the Litepanels onboard gel pack and diffusion for a little more subtle adjustment when needed. This allowed me more flexibility in getting the lights to match my bigger tungsten sources. I love the quality of light that I get from Litepanels. A subtle dial in or out, a bit of diffusion and the blend is so imperceptible, you don’t notice them. And, when the camera traveled close enough to the actors to create shadow, Litepanels mitigated it as well as creating a nice soft fill for the actors.”

Whenever a small soft light source is needed...
Williams says he bought his first set of Litepanels four or five years ago. “I use them all the time! I do a lot of car commercials for Mitsubishi, Audi, Infinity, Lexus, Toyota and more as well as major campaigns for everything from Coca Cola to Walmart, Jenny Craig to Puma and Converse. I started using the Litepanels on the car commercials and found them super helpful in interiors. Now I use them everywhere I need to add a small soft source. Being cordless, allows me to place them anywhere with little fuss. They are always within an arm’s reach on set. We just drop them in wherever we need a little light.”