CVP | ADVERTI SEMENT FEATURE
A PRICELESS HAUL. A crack team of thieves. A plan that can’t fail. A 1x1 LED that can light an entire movie? In a new promotional video for LitePanels’ Gemini 1x1 soft panel, audiences are transported into the world of heist cinema. A genre littered with cliched camera techniques, but also the infinite pleasures of watching criminals trying to beat the odds and avoid getting caught. Expect to find contra zooms, bullet-time photography and, finally, a huge twist! The thief’s priceless haul is not your average gem – but the Gemini 1x1 itself, revealed as one of just 20 others used to light the whole movie. The brains and labour behind the project can be attributed to director and DOP, Joe Ransom, who was tasked with creating the concept for an epic heist film, showcasing the new light. Ransom explains: “The client, Litepanels, wanted me to show the light working in different scenes – in exteriors and interiors – before revealing that it was all made possible with the one model of light fixture.” Using only 1x1 fixtures to light a scene – let alone several of them – certainly isn’t traditional. Unsurprisingly, Ransom had a couple of initial concerns.
He says: “I called the client a week before the shoot and asked: ‘Is this definitely the only light we’re going to be using?’ I wondered whether or not it would be possible to have other lights as a backup. But I actually remember lying in my hotel room the night before and thinking: ‘There’s no way I’m going to use any other light – because I want the challenge.’ I just needed to think how I could use them differently.” Ransom got to work, doing just that. “Even though there were a couple of backup lights loaded up on the lighting truck, I genuinely didn’t use any other lighting. I wanted to be able to talk honestly about this project afterwards.” When you see the film, you wouldn’t know that it was lit without additional lighting support. “The most amazing thing about the Gemini 1x1 is that it’s versatile,” comments Ransom. “I was able to use it to create hard shafts of light on a background; put a 5ft octo dome on; get a soft top-light. I also found that I could put a snap bag on it with an egg crate, giving myself a nice key light – and so, I quite quickly discovered that I was able to do everything I wanted with just those 20 1x1s.”
“Even though there were a couple of backup lights loaded up on the truck, I genuinely didn’t use any other lighting”
JUNE 202 1 | DEF I N I T ION 43
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