heat on the set, air conditioning

T

TheJackyl

Active member
When big Hollywood movies are shooting on sets or inside real locations like a house or office building, but using regular movie lights, how hot does it get temperature wise?

When I fool around with regular 100watt builb in my house it starts getting hot and I become sweaty. IN AC magazine they talk about using 10k and 5k all over the place in some scenes or multiple 2ks and such, wouldnt it get very hot overtime unless they cranked major air conditioning out in these places?

I've seen movies where they put an arri 12k or something giant in the actual frame for the 'on set' feel inside the movie, example Cock and Bull Story, they have a guy right next to the light just standing there not sweating at all. Is there some trick to keeping the heat down or making it look that way on camera.


Thanks
 
I was on the set of Law and Order during the summer a long while back. They had huge a/c units. They turned them off during shooting but they really kept the temperature within reason. Plus actors have trailers with a/c and servants and such.
 
Exactly. Blast the AC until just before you actually shoot a take. Blast it again any time you have a few minutes.
 
On a shoot I witness they actors melted because they didn't turn the air on
enough. Everyone must have lost weight.

Charli
 
We actually use AC blowers on location. Those big machines with tubes blow in as much air as possible until we're ready to shoot, then turn them off while we're rolling.
 
Charli said:
On a shoot I witnessed the actors melting because they didn't turn the air on
Click to expand...
I saw that movie. What a world, what a world!

ST570.jpg
 
Yes they are but they are only soft in nature and therefore (like all soft light) have a steeper fall off. When you need a hard/long throw/spot effect and you don't want as much heat output, an HMI is the answer. Example: 1200w HMI = 5000w tungsten. Why? Because an HMI is ballast-oriented like fluorescent light and the ballast/bulb combination gives you that same kind of leverage that fluorescent gives (roughly 4 to 1 in equivalence of output). This is because the typical HMI bulb has a 86 lumen per watt output and the typical tungsten bulb has a 20 lumen per watt output (at best and can even be closer to 10 lumens per watt). Tungsten simply is the worst technology at converting energy to light without generating heat--mostly in the form of infrared. This inefficiency not only manifests itself in a higher electric bill for using tungsten but also even higher electric bill for the air conditioning needed to displace the heat.

Flo's have heat but practically no infrared--there's your soft replacement for anywhere tungsten would need to be soft. HMI's have more heat but also very little infrared--there's your hard replacement for spotlights, cookies, hard/dramatic shadows, longer throw, etc.
 
I have been shooting a bunch of cooking shows lately and you want to talk about hot...We just shot at Patsy's on 56th street and I usually shoot the close ups so I have to stand up higher on something. After shutting off the AC and they get cooking holy crap it got hot. When we finished i could not touch the camera and tripod with my hands and had to use a towel. I don't know why the tapes don't warp and the camera doesn't die but they both survived. If anything, the Sony Zu1 is heat resistant. Right after that we head out to Long Island to do the second part of the show and OMG the studio was even hotter. It was Africa hot. My shoes and socks were drenched to the point I could wring them out. I had a full package of table napkins with me and I went through the whole damn pack trying to wipe the sweat. I even took the ice packs from the fish and stuck them to my head and shoulders until I read on the side of them "do not put on body" :( Again when we finished the camera was too hot to touch with the bare skin. I even had someone else touch it to see if it was just me. Yeah some flouro's would help a little but not much in this case. I lost like 5lbs the other day and I have 4 days next week to doing the same thing. :P Aye Carrrrumba.
 
Nothing helps much once you have to shut off the AC. If there isn't some serious AC blasting going on just before shooting not even flo's will help--they'll only lessen the pain. But in your case, with frying, baking and stewing going on (and that's just you--not to mention the food) the heat level is over the top.

I saw where you got to try out a RED camera. I have one on order but still don't have it yet. From what I've heard about them they have a fan in them which shuts off during shooting. I wonder how they'd fare in the cooking world there? Could be some problems in some environments shooting with a camera like that.
 
Is there a simple way to determine how strong one's air conditioning needs to be from the total wattage of the tungsten lights that one is using? A rule of thumb?
 
That's a very good question and one I have been struggling to answer for a long time for marketing purposes (if nothing else). Unfortunately, I haven't found a comprehensive study on it or equations to be used (yet). It's just not so simple.

You have to figure out the heat loads in watts per square meter (or foot) and then calculate the air supply volume necessary to displace all that heat. It's not just lighting either, people figure into the equation. Too many variables to make a set equation.
 
Beat Takeshi said:
I have been shooting a bunch of cooking shows lately and you want to talk about hot...We just shot at Patsy's on 56th street and I usually shoot the close ups so I have to stand up higher on something. After shutting off the AC and they get cooking holy crap it got hot. When we finished i could not touch the camera and tripod with my hands and had to use a towel. I don't know why the tapes don't warp and the camera doesn't die but they both survived. If anything, the Sony Zu1 is heat resistant. Right after that we head out to Long Island to do the second part of the show and OMG the studio was even hotter. It was Africa hot. My shoes and socks were drenched to the point I could wring them out. I had a full package of table napkins with me and I went through the whole damn pack trying to wipe the sweat. I even took the ice packs from the fish and stuck them to my head and shoulders until I read on the side of them "do not put on body" :( Again when we finished the camera was too hot to touch with the bare skin. I even had someone else touch it to see if it was just me. Yeah some flouro's would help a little but not much in this case. I lost like 5lbs the other day and I have 4 days next week to doing the same thing. :P Aye Carrrrumba.
Click to expand...


Dude the new love of my life is the papertowel bandana.... just screw looks, and wrap your head karate kid style and it absorbs sweat. My next purchase will be a straight up "BPRESS Krew" gang colors bandana..... Black and Gold.
 
Not in China. They don't even know what a roll of paper towels is. They have these things that come in a box like kleenex and not nearly as good as paper towels. Some simple things like that I miss a lot. Paper towels are something most people really take for granted--that is everyone except for Timur.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top