Dear Reader,

On Sunday, we were invited to the AFC Championship game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots to shoot live shots with NFL Network correspondents before the game.

That sounded great when they booked us. But as the week went on, the forecast shifted — and by Sunday morning we were looking at single-digit temperatures.

When we arrived on site at 6:30am, it was about seven degrees!

A few other wrenches: the location had no power, and the sun was going to rise from the side of where the correspondents were positioned.

Here’s how we pulled it off:

For power, we brought a Geneverse Home Power 2200w lithium battery power station. This allowed us to run our Sony FX9 camera, panel lights, Live View pack, 17” monitor, and more for several hours. We had enough capacity to do the job comfortably, but we still powered the lights down between live hits to conserve energy.

We lit our subjects with two 1x1 panel lights — one Litepanels Gemini Soft and one Astra 6X — placing one on each side of the camera. This gave us enough punch for a clean, great-looking shot in tough conditions.

To deal with the harsh rising sun, we set up a Westcott 6x6 Scrim Jim with a ½-stop grid cloth. Rather than blocking the light, it turned the sun into a beautiful soft kicker coming from the side. We mounted the frame on two C-stands using Matthews Matthellini end jaw clamps.

A quick word of caution: setups like this can become kites even with the slightest breeze. We weighed the stands down with Boa shot bags and also had the help of some very kind security guards holding each stand throughout the hits.

The cold temperatures were tough — and they affected more than just our hands. Our 17” LCD monitor and LCD viewfinder developed noticeable lag. Luckily, it didn’t affect the broadcast. I later learned that extreme cold reduces the responsiveness of liquid crystals, which can cause sluggish refresh rates, ghosting, or frozen images on LCD displays and EVFs.

The biggest priority throughout the morning was taking care of ourselves and the talent. We were fortunate to park our vehicles close to set, which allowed everyone to warm up between takes.

All in all, it was a great shoot — and a lot of fun to be part of such a big game. I hope some of these lessons are useful the next time you find yourself shooting outside in the winter.

Have you ever had to work in extreme conditions?​
Hit reply and tell me about it — I’d love to hear your story.

That’s a wrap for this week’s Freelancers Friday. I’ll see you back here next week with more real-world lighting breakdowns, freelancing tips, and behind-the-scenes fun.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,
Tom Miller
​Freelancers Film School​
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