diagram: woodhull wellness – exterior yoga

I am sure that some of the shots I see online require that many lights to look good, but sometimes I think people are pulling stuff off the truck just to justify having the toys in the first place, or to stunt on socials.

Why not try less is more? We were able to acquire four different setups in a single house during an 8 hour shoot because our crew didn’t complicate any of the setups.

For the first shot of the day, we knew we were going to have to take advantage of available light before the sun rose too high. Bushes off camera left blocked the sun from hitting the talent directly. They also created dappled light that occasionally hit the wall behind the talent (when it wasn’t behind clouds, darn weather).

Using an app like photopills during the tech scout allowed us to determine exactly when our shooting window would be to make use of the available sunlight. The DP wanted the sun high enough to cast shadows on the wall, but low enough to not be directly hitting our talent.

An Aputure 600d fired into magic cloth just off camera left is the key, reinforcing the shape from the sunlight across the scene.

Setup time was fifteen minutes, and crucially, it was easy enough that I could handle it while Teej was still unloading the truck. We were ready to roll on the first shot within half an hour of arrival!

client: Woodhull Wellness
agency: One Forty Films
prod: Jill Coats
dp: Gabe Fermin
ac: Drew Bennett
gaffer: Tyler Trepod
grip: Teej Morgan