When Cheating Is Legal
Cheating is the common practice of moving
a subject between camera setups, usually to
increase working room, separate subject and
background, or find a better-looking background
altogether.
Careful cheating is invisible to viewers,
because the lack of true depth in video makes
subject-to-background distances hard to judge,
and the background “behind” a subject may not
appear in earlier shots.
When it is time for the interviewer’s closeup,
she is cheated back and to the right (to avoid the
right-wall window), and completely re-lit.
Because viewers do not see the right wall in
the other shots, this cheat, too, is undetectable.
reporter’s face. Backgrounds at night are generally
dark, but look for lighted walls or windows to
include in the shot, so that the image behind
the reporter has some design to it.
LED lighting units are especially useful for field
work because of their very low power consumption.
Nighttime Reports
Night shooting requires a different
deployment of lighting tools, Figure 16-42. The
on-camera light continues to provide much of
the illumination. A second, battery-powered
light on a stand can fulfi ll the same function as
a refl ector, providing more modeling on the
Subject’s closeup
Lights, camera, and performers are all cheated to
the right.
Interviewer’s
closeup
Cheating a subject to light the background separately.
Two-shot
A master two-shot of subject and interviewer, avoiding
the windows.
In this example, a subject and an interviewer
are placed in the upper-left corner of a room, to
keep back and side windows out of the frame for
the master shot.
Because there is no room behind the subject
to add a rim light for his closeup, the entire setup
is “cheated” three feet out from the left wall.
From the camera’s new position, the move is
undetectable.
Chapter 16 Lighting Applications 355