Cinematography Breakdown-Loop Earplugs

The Walls Are Closing In

Hello Everyone, this will be my first ever blog post. During my downtime I want to start creating breakdowns for you guys and give you a little insight into my thought process during pre-production and on set.

I wanted to create a commercial around these earplugs called “Loops”. they’re mainly used for people with ADHD and Autism. They’re basically designed to lower the background noise of everyday life but still allowing you to have a conversation with people close to you.

The Shot: Wide#1

The camera slowly pushes in on a mom and her son and daughter doing homework.

Lighting:

I first wanted to expose for the windows so I puts 3 stops of IRND in front of the lens. Outside we had a 300x outside the window creating a hard slash across the couch and lower half of the mom. The other light outside was a 600d creating another hard slash on the back wall. Inside we keyed everyone camera right with a Nova P600c pushing through a 6x6 of westcott full grid cloth. Practicals in the back were dimmed down and Aputure T4’s were armed out to supplement the backlight. Negative fill camera left to create a nice downside.

The Shot: Wide#2

Straight on group shot, camera pulls out as the mom calms herself with the earplugs and check her kids work.

Lighting:

No lighting was changed for this shot

The Shot: Insert

The mom opens the case, and puts the earplugs in her ears.

Lighting

Everything stayed the same except we brought in the negative fill closer camera right. Added a tube light camera right to fill in the case. Then lifted the front two legs of the glass table with Gaffer Tape balls to get rid of the key light reflection.