Lights, camera — ground rules

How some real estate professionals handle their close-ups

From left: Jeffrey Appel, Barbara Corcoran and Donald Trump

From the August issue: Television loves real estate, maybe now more than ever. This means industry bigwigs are in high demand for everything from cable news to reality shows. And every minute they spend in front of the camera translates, for some, into plenty of time behind the camera primping. That behind-the-scenes preparation is outlined in a pre-production memo obtained by The Real Deal about Donald Trump.
In the document, Trump’s handlers spell out in five bullet points the lighting and camera angles most flattering for their boss. Cameras should be “slightly favoring his right side, while avoiding left hair part and back and sides of hair and head,” it says. It continues, “We had [sic] more success with being front lit and avoiding strong lighting behind top of hair/head.” [more]