At Home or Mobile Streaming Kit for Your Pastor
I just wanted to take a few seconds to write a short post about productions from offices. I shot and did grip work for a time in several offices with some Christian media producers I know and respect. Just wanting to drop some technical detail suggestions here as so many of you are facing what we all face in streaming and producing things from home or places that are not set up to be a studio. Hopefully this helps and if I can be a resource please feel free to contact me.
SETTING UP AN OFFICE OR SMALL ROOM
First part of any video production from offices to focus on, I find, are lighting issues. If you’re not familiar with 3 point lighting here is a short explanation that should be easy for most people to understand.
I have done enough interviews over the years to know this is a big issue. If you are an audiovisual tech or a video guy you will want to help your pastor set this all up before the quarantine hits and walk through with him where to sit/stand/pace (consider using gaff tape and colored spike tape just as visual cues and reminders). I suggest a pair of tripods that you gaff a couple of Nitecore Tiny Monster TM26 or 28 flashlights to. Have at least one coming from a shelf in his office aimed towards your pastors shoulders to establish depth. I also like putting a flashlight or two on key parts of the background like bookshelves or maybe a really unique ornament. I used this technique quite a bit while working for producers of major Christian films. I have also included links to all these products. I don’t make a dime from this but these are what are in my personal kit for when I travel. This whole kit fits in 2 flight cases I’ve taken around the world a few times so it’s also a good opportunity for your ministry if you are looking to just establish a small field kit.
TM 26’s, TM 28’s, and Ice Lights can be used and mounted from a tripod or even from some manfrotto baffle stands. They’ll give you a decent light kit. The thing I like about them for this is they are able to be pre-set to different lumen settings (backlight, fill, key) and you don’t have to adjust them to charge them just plug in a charger to them (they take about 4 hours to charge but you get about 3-6 out of them depending on settings). TM28’s are better but also have a $100 higher price tag. 3-4 of these will light just about any remote setting. Though I will confess I have 3 Trustfire $30 3800 lumen flashlights I use with softboxes to add to the rig whenever I run into the need for just a little more light. But these will do with just about any lighting situation you can come up with.
They have enough charge to do about 2-3 sermon sets take a break for lunch/emails and be back for a few more. Consider also taping a couple of filters to some extra lights for color temperature balance. On most of my professional work we used a pair of Westcott Ice Lights to help balance and add some depth but I’ve done some work with just the softboxes and it still turns out well. If your setting them up the nice part is once you’ve set it up you can actually just remind your pastor to charge them, show him how to turn them on (simple button) and then show him how to hit record on the device you’re recording with.
For convenience sake I have listed these all on an Amazon Shopping list. You can get them cheaper if you shop around. I have also included any B&HPhoto links to specific products I have found useful with these.
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