Stylish Video Advertising
We’ve all seen those Apple talking heads featuring Jony Ive or some other leading Apple light telling us about their seemingly monthly announcements of new phones! (lets face it, they make great video advertising!) They are shot against a perfectly white background, which ensures they feel clean, professional, and above all… Apple.
So many companies would benefit from presenting talking head or interview material for their video advertising in this way. As mentioned is slick and clean but it also focuses the viewer on the person talking without any distractions. I’m always slightly disappointed when I see a corporate marketing video talking head shot with an office background. It’s hardly pushing the edge of creativity is it?
So being able to create this look for your corporate video is really useful. Here’s how to do it.
Essentially the key here is to treat the background and the subject separately in terms of the lighting plan. You will therefore need to light the background first, and then the subject.
Now, your background can be formed in many different ways. You can hire a pop up white backdrop, use polystyrene boards, or even simply hang up some large rolls of white paper (although this will require time and delicacy). However, once you’ve got your background lighting it is pretty simple. Using a couple of large soft sources such as a couple of 2K lights with diffuser or softboxes on them, you can cast an even light on the surface then adjust your exposure accordingly until you get that brilliant seamless white look you require.
Next up you need to light your subject. It’s generally a good idea to place them as far away from the background as you can. Obviously you will be limited by the size of your shooting location and if you place the subject too far forward the edges of the backdrop may start to appear in frame, but this shouldn’t be much of an issue if you’ve lit it well enough with a nice flat light. You can easily add in extra areas of white in post to fill up the frame if needed though. Just make sure that the subject doesn’t encroach on the area you’re adjusting in the edit, or you’ll have some lengthy rotoscoping to deal with!
So light the subject as you wish safe in the knowledge that they are now presented against that beautiful, clean, white Apple-style background. This will provide you video advertising with that desirable high end, professional feel.
To find out more about us and our services, please click here.
