How to Film a Commercial Interview - Cinematography Basics

I made a Tutorial on How to Light a Commercial Interview on a Budget.

If you're filming commercial, corporate or branded documentary videos, knowing how to set up and light an interview is essential. We often don't get to choose the perfect location either and so this video shows you have you can make the most of bad location with minimal budget-friendly lighting.

I used a Sony a7iii for the actual interview shots. This was paired with a Tamron 2-75mm lens. The lights used were cheap (£40 ish) ones from Amazon. They are basic 80w 5500K bulbs with minimal diffusion. I also used 2 parts of a 5 in 1 reflector to act as a negative fill and second form of diffusion. The other light was an Aputure MC. I hope this video is useful, let me know if you have any questions.

I'm going to show you how to set up and light a commercial interview, without the need for expensive lighting equipment. I'll take you through step by step how I lit this scene, taking it from this to this, and my thought process along the way. Often, we don't get to choose the perfect location to film commercial or corporate interviews. Sometimes, we just have to work with what we are given, and with that in mind, I wanted to see how I could transform my living room.

My first step is to turn off any artificial light in a room to see what the ambient lighting is like. I then decide on where to place my subject. I try to find the most interesting backdrop, In this scenario, when the room itself isn't important I'm not concerned with the background being in focus and so I open my aperture up to create a shallow depth of field. I'm also using a longer focal length to compress the background, making it seem closer than it actually is. As I'm working in a tight space, this helps to add to the appearance of depth, when there is none.

For this example, I place my subject to the right of the frame having them facing the opposite side. Composition is subjective but this is a common position, having the interviewee's eye-line looking slightly off frame to the interviewer, who is usually sat just to the left of the camera.

I did actually like the natural light that was coming from the window, however, the backdrop did not work with the subject the opposite way and so I decided to cut it out using the curtains.

This leaves the room in complete darkness. From here, I bought in two cheap 80w bulbs. These are daylight balanced and because I blocked out all-natural light, using both creates an even larger light source when placed next to each other. I placed the lights as close as possible to the subject without being in frame. The larger and closer your light source is, the softer it will be.

The bare bulbs by themselves are very harsh, even when close and so I added the simple diffusion sheet that comes with the softboxes. This already makes a difference but I wanted the light to be even softer. To achieve this, I added in a second layer of diffusion using the transparent part of a 5 in 1 reflector.

I don't own a lot of grip equipment and so I had to improvise by using a combination of a tripod, boom pole and monopod. It looked a bit ridiculous but it seemed to work. With every layer of diffusion, you will lose output from your light source and so once I've got my main key light sorted, I double-check my exposure and white balance. I like to use the X-rite ColorChecker video for this when I'm working in controlled environments, it helps make sure I get my levels right in camera and it also comes in handy when colour grading later on in the process. I added in the darkest blanket I could find to try and block out some of the spill from the key light that was falling onto the background.

To try and separate the subject from the background more, I added in small practical light into the left of the frame. This served several purposes. It added some warmer colour contrast to the scene as it was a tungsten bulb and the light from it added a slight edge on the left of the subject, helping that separation. Having a practical in shot also lets you get away with having other lights off-screen, as the audience will assume it's coming from a similar source. I wanted to further separate the subject from the TV in the background and so I added a small LED panel, the Aputure MC to act as a stronger hair light than the practical in shot. The final touch I added was some negative fill to the near side of the camera, just to help block out some of the light that was bouncing of the pale walls and onto the subjects face. I used a combination of the black side of a 5-1 reflector and some black foam board for this. I also covered a distracting red box in the background with some black material. Here is what the shot looked like straight out of the camera with a basic contrast and saturation.

Here is the shot with a slightly stylised colour grade. Depending on what your filming for, the client may prefer a cleaner look or a more stylised one. Let's review each step so you can see what effect each light is having. First, there is the practical that is illuminating the bookshelf slightly and adding the faintest edge light to the subject. Secondly, we have the Aputure MC which is acting as a hair light, further separating the subject from the background. And last but not least, there are the two key lights which just off to the left of frame which is creating a soft source on our subject.