16:9 planning

[fmoorexx]

I hope that some of you more-experienced 16:9 shooters can probably give us some advice that will make an important opportunity be the best that it can be.

We have a 2-camera studio shoot this Thursday afternoon which will be the heart of a university fund raiser. QuadCam camera 1 (Canon HV 20) will video an adult son (& physician) asking questions of his parents (videoed using QuadCam Background camera, a Canon XH A1). Father is also a physician (with black horn-rim glasses) and mother a community volunteer and published author of children's books. Both cameras will shoot at eye height and in hi def, but the finished 10-minute DVD is planned to be wide screen, i.e., 16:9.

Lighting and studio dimensions are a challenge. Planned set up uses one 24x30 Fotoplex SilverDome nxt (at camera height) to light parents 7 feet away, augmented by two ARRI 300 plus at 80" lighting heads and shoulders from behind. A 2nd Fotoplex will light the son from the same distance, but about 28 inches higher to be out of view of the background camera.

Several questions bother us:

1. Will reflection off the father's glasses be a greater distraction than having lighting at camera level is worth?
2. The event will attract 300 to 400 and the hall uses large screens that power down from the ceiling at show time. Those screens are clearly 4:3 aspect ratio. Should we frame parents and son far enough from the left & right edges so that "spill" beyond these 4:3 screens will not matter, or re-edit in 4:3 just for that evening's showing? (It would seem a shame to opt for letterbox.)
3. Are we overlooking anything obvious?

--Frank

[LouBruno]

Frank,

Use Umbrellas and cones. You don't want direct light on the glasses. Try to bounce as much light as possible and don't forget backlighting as well with diffusion paper.