Recently a quick music video was shot in our studio and I wanted to give you guys some ideas for creating your own inexpensive sets. Here I show you how a simple and cheap DJ Pinspot LED Light
and some cheap outdoor flood lights to add interest to the scene. The flood lights are using basic light sockets and are just tie strapped to the truss. One nice option is that these flood lights come in a variety of colors if you wanted to add a splash of color to your scene.
Colored Outdoor Flood Lights
We plugged all four lights into a surge protector, and connected the surge protector to a Router Speed Controller
which gave us the ability dim the lights. This is a great tip, because most Tungsten or Halogen light kits you purchase may not come with a dimmer and you have to purchase this separately.
(DIY Light Dimmer Switch) SE Stepless Speed Controller
Here is a snapshot of the set shown in the video above. This is the set completely naked.
To mount our lighting for the set, we used simple tie straps to mount the light sockets onto an inexpensive DJ Truss system
. These Truss systems are very lightweight, yet sturdy frames for mounting our background and rim lights. The kit can be broken down and transported in bags if you need to setup in a remote location.
DJ Truss System Portable Tripod Lighting System with T Bars
There are also four can lights (located above the flood lights and in front of me) with colored gels to create the lighting for this set. The router speed controller is a cheaper way to dim video lights, than if you were to purchase a dedicated video light dimmer. You can also find ways to DIY one for yourself, but if you’re not familiar with electrical wiring, the Router Speed controller is found for around $20 dollars.
We are using 4 100W Outdoor Flood Light bulbs, the Router speed control should be able to handle up to 1000W, has a voltage capacity of 120 AC and a built in fuse of 15 amps for safety.
This speed control has variable speeds or full run via a speed knob and an on/off option with a rocker switch.
Another lighting trick I show is the single DJ pinspot LED spotlight. This $35 light produces a very tight spotlight effect in a dark studio. We were having a hard time getting a solid spot light using other LED video lights, and this simple spotlight really added the impact as a creative light source. It’s not a very powerful light, but our 5D Mark II and Mark III cameras are able to handle this with a higher ISO setting. This particular Pinspot LED came with color gels and an extra lens included in the box to change the beam angle. If you guys have other cheap and creative lighting tips, please share in the comments.
Pinspot DJ Led Powered Metal Housing
Tags: cheap spotlight,
creative lighting,
dimmer,
DIY lighting,
impact lighting,
LED pinspot light,
light dimmer,
lighting,
music video lighting,
music video tips,
router speed control,
spotlight
I’m curious, what is the distance of that LED spot? (from the subject)
Hi Dave, the LED spot light is about 7 to 8 feet away from the subject in this particular setup.
Great tutorial! Thank you! Who is the artist playing at the end? She is amazing!
Melissa Polinar.. yes, she’s incredibly talented! The song is called ‘Off Guard’.
Wow thank for here name and the song. Truly amazing! What’s more loved the lighting great work as usual Olivia!!!
Did you use any filters on the pinspot at any time? I think it goes a lot more blue on the last clip with the artist.
Really good tips though!
Simon, no gels were used on the Pinspot LED light. The blue cast you’re seeing was probably in part from the blue gels on the can lights used in the background.
Great info here Olivia! Probably outside the scope of your tutorial, but where did you get the can-lights and the background, and what was the cost? was it the colored can-lights that made the background into that nice red color, or was the fabric red to begin with?
Thanks!
Tom, I can’t currently find the can lights that are used in this video, but HERE is something very similar. The colored gels on the can lights gave the brown curtain the red color. You can throw any color gel on the lights to play around with color, they’re fairly cheap on Amazon or eBay.
Thank you so much for your reply, and especially the Amazon link to that can-light – looks great, and inexpensive! I check your site daily now, and between you and Emm, you are bankrupting me!
In the short time I followed you, I have bought studio lighting kit, tascam dr-40, gini rig, full jib w/lcd monitor (ended up with proam), and lensse dslrpro stabilizer and the 312 LED 
Great post! Love the DIY infor. A great extro song. The lens flare was sick as it highlighted on the artist. Was that in post or on the raw footage?
Thanks, Dave… the lens flare was not inserted in post. It came from the Sigma 20mm F/1.8 Lens.
Hi Oliva,
I recently lit a short film almost entirely using these workshop lights: HERE.
My favourite shot from the whole shoot can be seen on the blog page of my website including how I set up the shot with these lights plus lens choice etc which all helped to tell the story: HERE
Keep up the great work with the videos!
Hi Pete, thanks! Also found these Designers Edge L14SLED 1000-Watt Twin-Head Adjustable Work Light with Telescoping Tripod Stand, Halogen on Amazon.. they’re similar to what you used.
Content is king. Amazing song.Dope light and camera movements. To concentrate your light into a smaller bean, make a snoot with your cinefoil /blackwrap. Blackwrap can be used as barn doors also – to stop light spilling on areas where it is not required
faronbi, we haven’t had good results using Cinefoil with LED lights. It creates a weird multi shadow type light. We’ve tried various techniques and finally decided to test this Pin Light, and have had the best results. Color is not accurate, with a slight blue cast, but we balance for it as the main temperature.
Hi, just wondering. From the looks of the video, it looks really dim. Just wondering what your ISO settings were? You were probably shooting wide open as well I presume? Anyway, really cheap, creative way of designing your set. Thanks for this! Am looking to try this out myself. (Y)
Alfian
We shot with a Canon 24-105 with the 5D Mark III. F/4 ISO 3200
Можно ли сделать такое видео в комнате 3 на 3 метра?
Hi Olivia – great set! This is something I will be doing and your tutorial was awesome. Question: What is the height of the main backdrop curtain? And the height of the DJ Truss? Thanks!
@Tony Hello and thank you. I want to say about 7 feet but I’m not 100% positive as this was shot about a year ago and we didn’t measure everything out prior.