Trounce Alley Lighting Company

The final video for Faber Drive, “You And I Tonight” with cinematographer Danny Nowak C.S.C, Key Grip Mike Branham of Best Film Services, and lighting by TALCO. The video was directed by Colin Minihan of Digital Interference and produced by Shawn Angeleski. Rain Effects by BrantFX.

UPDATE: Final video has been posted above.

The band Faber Drive posted a behind the scenes sneak peak of their recent music video shoot “You And I Tonight”. We worked with cinematographer Danny Nowak C.S.C on this one doing the lighting along with Key Grip Mike Branham of Best Film Services. The video was directed by Colin Minihan of Digital Interference and produced by Shawn Angeleski.

It was a wet night at Terminal City outdoor set in Vancouver, the rain towers and SPFX were done by our friends BrantFX, coincidently the same people and the same film set we collaborated on several years ago for the highly controversial CTV docudrama Pickton, by Academy Award winning director Malcom Clarke.

Factoring in 41 years of inflation since Woodstock ’69 LOVE has somehow managed to stay free in Canada suggests, The Higgins, in their first single from their second album, Dreamers Like us, which is scheduled for release in Spring 2010.

Official music video for “Free Like Love” by The Higgin.
Directed by multiple award-winner Stephano Barberis and produced by Arkadia Pictures Inc.

Scroll down for a technical lighting summary of the setup.

The Higgins are John, Eileen, and Kathleen Higgins, brother and sisters, from Delta, BC, Canada.

Lighting Summary:

We rigged the stage for cinematographer Ron Williams C.S.C with a 4×8′ softbox above the band.

The rig consisted of 3 blondes and a frame of 216 diffusion. It was built with pipe and burtons from a goalpost allowing it to “pendulum” down so the angle of light would be less overhead and more in the eyes of our talent. Due to the weight of the rig our goalpost consisted of three 20′ schedule 40 pipes (1 1/2″ Aluminum) joined together into a triangle formation using Modern Studio Equipment mini-truss brackets. We cranked the rig up in super-crank roller stands (12.6′ max height). The wheels on the stand allowed us to roll the entire rig closer to the camera to make the lighting more frontal for the closeups.

Of primary concern to Ron was beauty lighting for the band’s two female musicians.

In addition tot he softbox over the stage we filled from over the heads of the crowd using a 10k fresnel through a 6×6 frame of half grid cloth. We used solid blades and flops to cut most of the spill off the crowd so it would project over their heads into the eyes of our band. There was also two tungsten units on the ground through diffusion frames to fill from below the stage in front of the band because that was the direction they would look down at the crowd. These units were hidden from camera between the crowd and the stage on the ground.

TALCO built a 4x8' softbox with pipe & burtons and suspended it over the band with a makeshift 20' truss on super cranks. A 10k key through a 6x6 frame cut off the crowd provided fill.

Technical Notes:

If doing a similar rig consider using a specialized truss lifting support from the theatre/live event industry in place of super-crank stands. They are usually load rated much higher then super-cranks and some of them can go upwards of 20′ in height which would be a huge asset if the stage was any higher (compared to 12.6′ for a super-crank stand).

Also consider using real truss for less sag across the span. We used ropes and pulleys from the truss of the studio to safety our rig but if you didn’t have access to a lift to get up there you’d certainly want to make your truss more rigid.

We provided additional fill from tungsten units on the ground through 24'x36' Diffusion Frames hidden from camera between the crowd and the stage.

TALCO gaffer, Josh Alkoff, designs lighting for Karen Flamenco‘s Cinderella. A live performance featuring spanish musicians, arts umbrella dancers, and students in a flamenco adaptation of the classic Cinderella story. The show was produced by Karen Pitkethly, a Canada Council for the Arts sponsored performer and instructor. Those captivated by the art of flamenco can see her along with her traveling band of musicians and dancers, named Poema Flamenco, up-close and personal twice a week at Kino Cafe in Vancouver (wed/sun evenings & best of all free of cover).

Lighting designer Josh Alkoff illuminates the stage for Karen Flamenco

Stage Lighting for Karen Flamenco's adaptation of the classic, "Cinderella"

EMI recording artist Rumi of Clairvoyant Pictures has posted his new music video for the song, “Nevermind” — about an Isreali and a Palestinian romance not to be (until the end of course). The artist wanted a Brooklyn loft style theme to the video so we filmed at the Ironworks building in Gastown which hosts many a music video performance.

EMI Recording Artist Rumi, "Nevermind"

The lighting was conventional music video style with a key through a 6′x6′ light grid frame. Smoke, backlight, etc. Single kino flo tubes were mounted vertically along the back wall. We did build a nice little pipe rig for our Source Four Par backlights. They were framed in the shot which and encouraged to flare with the ‘streak filter’ on the lens.

The rig consisted of a 12′ length of Schedule 40 aluminum tube fastened to a support beam using our adjustable C-Clamp kit from Modern Studio Equipment. Picture a regular c-clamp split into two parts, each with a pipe coupling so they can slide to any width, and then bite down onto the pipe with set screws.

TALCO lighting at the Ironworks in Gastown

Accompanying Performance for Rumi, "Nevermind"

You can watch the video below:
note: we only did day one so don’t blame us for the nasty reflections in the condo high-rise shots, they did most of the inserts on day two run-and gun style around downtown Vancouver adding an available light/home grown aspect to the video. Format was 4k RED Camera.

Working with an LA based production company and cinematographer Mark Richie, TALCO meets Nickelback and creates lighting for a Walmart Soundcheck exclusive video. The artist performed 5 songs and conducted an interview for their new album release, “Dark Horse”.

You can see the lighting (and a recognizable TALCO technician or two in the background) in the following Soundcheck interview video:

If you’d like to get a glimpse of the performances, heres the recording of the song “Animals” by Nickelback for Walmart Soundcheck: