Beyond the Sound

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Louis James-ParkerLouis James-Parker is an award-winning freelance filmmaker, videographer, director, cinematographer, and photographer with over a decade of experience. He has a proven track record of delivering exceptional content for a wide range of clients, including prestigious names like Red Bull, Honda and Cambridge University.

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When Meridian, the renowned British audio company, set out to launch their new high-performance streaming speaker, the Meridian Ellipse, they needed more than just a typical commercial. They wanted a visual experience as immersive as their sound designed and engineered to deliver goosebumps. Director/DP Louis James-Parker and DP Paul Cook were tasked with creating a bold, elegant production that would bring the product to life and capture the powerful emotion of Meridian's audio experience. To achieve this, the team turned to Litepanels' Gemini series for the perfect combination of power, precision, and color accuracy to tackle the creative challenges ahead.

Merging Style with Substance

Louis, an award-winning director and DP with experience working for industry-leading brands like Red Bull, Spotify, and Intel, had established a reputation for delivering exceptional content. With five years of success at Meridian behind him, he had the full support of the team to take his creative vision to new heights.

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Meridian challenged the team to deliver something distinctly different from their past work. They wanted something bold, something that stood out, Louis shared. The team decided to introduce robots into the shoot, combining dynamic movement with precise lighting to make the static product feel alive.

With only two days of studio time; one for pre-light and robotics testing, and one for shooting, every second mattered. Louis explained, We started by visualizing the robot's movements using my phone. From there, I developed five lighting setups, starting with dark and moody, and building toward a bright, vibrant reveal. Meridian loved the concept and was fully on board.

The next challenge was securing a suitable location. Louis required a space that could accommodate dynamic camera movements and provide bold, vibrant backdrops. The solution? Ember Films expansive 5,000 square foot white cyc studio, equipped with advanced motion control robotics. With a rich history of collaborating with top brands and broadcasters, Ember had a proven track record of delivering ambitious projects within demanding production schedules. With the concept and location in place, Louis brought in DP Paul Cook, who knew that achieving the desired result would hinge on using the right lighting.

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Lighting the Scene

Paul, a long-time user of Litepanels' Gemini series, faced a specific challenge: lighting a vast studio space while maintaining high color accuracy and saturation. It's difficult to find RGB LED lights that deliver both rich color and power, he explained. Often, when you go for colored lights, the power drops off significantly, but the Geminis were different.

To light the scene, Paul relied on the impressive power of the Gemini 2 1 Hard, which delivers 23,000 lux at 10 feet (3 meters) while drawing only 500 watts at full intensity. To flood the background with vibrant colors, he used six Gemini 2 1 Hard panels-three on each side of the studio. Paul originally thought he'd need up to 10 lights, but the output from just six was more than enough. For the product itself, a Gemini 1 1 Hard with a honeycomb was mounted on a boom arm to provide a focused, soft wrap of light.

The power of these fixtures was so impressive that we had to dial them down to 50%.

Paul CookDP & Gaffer

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Key to the commercial's success was creating separation. We wanted the product to stand out distinctly from the colorful background, Louis explained. We didn&#

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