Last weekend was an interesting one for me. My friend Matt and I got together and shot a commercial together. It was for my level 2,000 class at University of Miami. From my school, I borrowed $6,000 worth of equipment. It was exciting.

I had with me:

– 4 tungsten lights: Two tweenies and two juniors.

– 4 scrims (filters that block light): One half double, one half single, one double and one single (Single coated scrims are

green, and double coated are red).

– 4 barn doors (These control the extra light spill from the lights and concentrate the light.)

– 4 light stands with baby pin heads.

– One Century Stand with a lollypop (circular locking device) and a gobo arm (extension arm to hold cloths and

other materials.)

– One Canon 5D Mark III

I ended up using: 

-1 Tungsten tweenie

-One single scrim, one double scrim and one half single scrim

-One natural, incandescent light from within the house

-One 5D Mark III

-My personal 50mm Nikkor lens from the 1970’s

Lighting Process, Setting Up and Shooting

We started lighting the room at around 8:30. It took us 30 minutes to get the look we wanted. From there, I took another 20 minutes trying to use a wheelchair as a dolly; it was highly recommended by my teacher. That’s never happening again.

The shoot lasted about four hours; we were done at 1:30 am. From there, I edited for an hour and thirty minutes and was done at 3:00 am. I was in bed by 3:30 am. It was a long night.

The Final Product

After rigorously shooting and editing, here was our final product.

There’s also a blooper reel.

Thanks for reading!