QampA Jim Sanfilippo
Published: WORSHIP
California-based Nila Inc is an expert in LED lighting, manufacturing products which embody and practice keen energy sustainability values. President of the company Jim Sanfilippo shares with Worship AVL Asia his unique insights into making the best of video-shoot lighting for worship events
How does lighting for live worship differ from lighting for video for broadcast, streaming or IMAG?
The only real differences for a live event compared to video is placement of lighting instruments and control. For a live event you’re limited to where you can place the lights without blocking the view of the audience and by the building or space where the event takes place. With video, you place the lights simply not to block the view of the camera. Lights for live events need to be much further away. The long throw of Nila lights makes them very advantageous for live events. You do need full remote control, though – unlike at a video shoot, where on/off and dimming can be manual.
Is your equipment exclusive to one discipline or the other, or can it be used for both live and video applications?
Our equipment is not exclusive to either live or video. Many light fixtures work better in one of the environments, but the best fixtures work well in both.’
How does colour temperature play a role in lighting for video?
Colour temperature is a measurement in degrees Kelvin, along what we call the “black body locus” on a colour spectrum chart. This black curve represents white light as perceived by the human eye. Daylight is generally around 6,000-degrees Kelvin and a tungsten halogen light source is around 3,200 degrees Kelvin. As you look at the difference between daylight and tungsten, daylight has more blue and the tungsten has more red-orange.
The big concern when shooting video is to avoid a mix of lighting sources that do not match each other in degrees Kelvin. If you were to shoot some video of a person next to a window with daylight coming in, you would use daylight-balanced lights to match the colour temperature of the daylight. The most important thing to remember for video and colour temperature is to keep the same – or at least similar – colour temperature between as many of the lighting fixtures that you can. With video you can adjust the base white level to let the camera know what the dominant colour temperature is. This is known as ‘white balancing'.
Are there any other basic considerations you can recommend when lighting for video?
Keep your lighting simple, to allow the subject you’re filming to take all of the focus rather than the lighting itself. A three-point lighting setup is highly recommended. Firstly: “key” light, the most dominant light hitting your subject. Secondly: “kill” light, not as dominant as the key but designed to fill in shadows that the key light can’t reach. And thirdly: “back” light, a light behind the subject to help separate the subject from the background. When lighting a live event for use as a video it works well to have multiple key lights to allow for even lighting across the subject from multiple camera angles, as well as from all the audience seats.’
What developments have driven forward worship lighting for video over the last 10 to 15 years?
Fifteen years ago there was no video in houses of worship – so the impact has been quite dramatic! Most houses of worship have unique needs as this is a combination of live event, with a live audience, and live video production. The lighting is needed to make the video look good, and yet also has to work with the live audience. This is where Nila fixtures work the best: they’re long-throw, so the lights can be hidden from the audience yet get all the light you need onto the stage; there’s no heat, which keeps air conditioning costs low; they’re DMX-controllable to sync with the live performance; and they’re maintenance-free – you’ll never lose a light during a performance.
Where can someone turn to for training in lighting for video?
There are many books available, like Harry Box’s Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook, now in its Fourth Edition, and Masters of Light: Conversations With Contemporary Cinematographers by Dennis Schaefer and Larry Salvato. One of the best learning tools for lighting is to read one or two books and then take some lights and try to duplicate images from films. By learning the basics by reading and then playing with real lights, you get the theory and then the hands-on practice. The best learning is to get hands-on.’
How are your products distributed in Asia?
Linfair Engineering distributes in Hong Kong and China; we use Barbizon’s Australian subsidiary; and there is C&C Lightway in Korea. We are currently looking for more partners in Asia, in fact.