Advice on portable lighting (Battery powered)

S

SPZ

Veteran
I'm about to shoot a short film, guerrila style. I've already got a nice Arri kit for conventional "I got a permit and electricity"shots. However, for some exteriors, I was trying to find some portable lights that could help me out, since I'm on a very tight budget and need to shoot some night exteriors that require very fast setup, due to no permit and lack of security "tuff part of town" shooting. My budget is $1000 for lights, battery and charger. I'm looking for the maximum output for my bucks- maybe 100 watts? Anyone know of an affordable system within my budget? Maybe 75w would suffice...

I need this to be portable (like in a battery belt) and easily setup. I need at least two lights to work independently. Can my budget cover it?

Thanks in advance,

Sergio
 
100 watts is not going to be enough to light up much.

why not have someone drive a car to your location and turn on the headlights and bounce off a wall?
 
I'd suggest a portable fluorescent light. We made one that used a 70W daylight, high CRI tube, and that is powered by a high capacity lithium polymer battery via an inverter. Works GREAT!!! Runs 2.5 hours...oh, and it's dimmable too, down to about 20%.

75W flo will equal about a 300W incandecent.

http://vidled.com/70Wc.jpg
 
vidled said:
I'd suggest a portable fluorescent light. We made one that used a 70W daylight, high CRI tube, and that is powered by a high capacity lithium polymer battery via an inverter. Works GREAT!!! Runs 2.5 hours...oh, and it's dimmable too, down to about 20%.

75W flo will equal about a 300W incandecent.

http://vidled.com/70Wc.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a great suggestion, Vidled, but I'm terrible at DIY... Any way you can sell this as a complete setup- battery, charger, light? What's the price? Do you chip international? (I'm in Asia- a bit far from the States...)

Alexa, the car suggestion is interesting, but I need to go to very narrow streets and locales where cars are not allowed... This is a very old town, which gives excelent scenery, but requires a lot in guerrila stile filmmaking.
 
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I shot most of both of my films at night in outdoor settings and the most useful piece of equipment I ever laid hands on was a FREZZI...it is a protable, battery operated light that comes in various wattages...I use one that has a dimmer also...you can mount them anywhere including on the camera...you can find them on ADORAMA...

Best,
Stan Harrington
http://igfdb.com/news.php
 
stan harrington said:
I shot most of both of my films at night in outdoor settings and the most useful piece of equipment I ever laid hands on was a FREZZI...it is a protable, battery operated light that comes in various wattages...I use one that has a dimmer also...you can mount them anywhere including on the camera...you can find them on ADORAMA...

Best,
Stan Harrington
http://igfdb.com/news.php
Click to expand...

Stan, great suggestion, but it seems like its very very expensive- about $1700 for an average workable setup... Can you suggest a setup closer to the $1000 dollar I have availabe?
 
The cost of a Frezzi starts at under $100...the one I used was in the high 200's,,,I only used one and use existing light within the vicinity to highlight...ie I fill the face with the frezzi and use the other lighting to rim the head etc...you can get an idea of what I managed to achieve by looking at my trailer if you like...some of the shots I did on the 39th street pier in San Fran are on the trailer... http://www.xristosproductions.com/html/e107_plugins/eplayer/eplayer.php?view.2.0.10

Of course, the budget on the feature was only $8,000 so it was a real guerrilla shoot...I hope that you find this somewhat helpful...more than happy to elaborate if you wish...

Best,
Stan Harrington
http://igfdb.com/news.php
 
(Perhaps I wasn't clear enough...the frezzi I use is commonly referred to as a ninja...it is very small and very powerful...it can be mounted on the flash shoe ontop of the camera and is the size of the neck of a beer bottle)

...another neat trick was something I saw The owner at Wooden Nickle Lighting come up with...he adapted a couple of jumper cable wires onto a couple of halogens so they could be run from the car....great for guerrilla shoots but you have to have your car running...make sure whoever does the cable wiring knows what they are doing...cheap soluution...

Only thing is if you are on a tight guerrilla shoot...too much light attracts a lot of attention...this was the main cause for me getting busted, when it happened...that is why I like to use the surrounds and one frezzi (Ninja).

stan
http://igfdb.com/news.php
 
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Check out ck changs thread here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=69121
He´s in Singapore (were are you in Asia?), maybe that´s close by enough to help you out, asking price was around 250US$...
3 of these on light tripods or booms and automotive batterys on a small wheel car, should be enough (he didn´t state how he powered them, probabbly battery belts...).
We also have energy saving lamps her (fluos in the shape of a bulb...) that run on 12 volts. If you can find them they make a nice guerilla setup together with some high power gel batteries...
Good luck!
 
Sergio,
we also make LED lights (see signature), but judging by your posts I am thinking a few LED lights might not be enough output for you, especially if you want to light a whole street!

But let me know, and we sure could hook you up with some rental LED lights. Shippng would be somewhat expensive, but not overly.
Let me think about selling our fluor light, hadn't considered that yet.
Email me if you like.
 
vidled said:
Sergio,
we also make LED lights (see signature), but judging by your posts I am thinking a few LED lights might not be enough output for you, especially if you want to light a whole street!
Click to expand...
Well I didn´t understand him that way that he wants to light whole streets (This wouldn´t be guerilla style either...)
I guess he is looking for a portable key setup, or simply sth that gives a punch to his subjects when out in the streets...
But of course the VidLeds would also make a great deal on portable lights ;o)
...and pretty much indestructible!
 
Thanks a lot guys, for the great information!

Vidled, Spartacus is correct. What I want is just a couple of lights to light my actors, and maybe one extra to highlight just a bit of background. I know my limitations :)

Stan, how do you power your portable Frezzi's? The setup on the website quotes the battery package at about $1000... With lights...

Spartacus, is there any battery belt solution (affordable) that you can recommend? I'm in Macau (next to Hong-Kong).

Thanks once again for the very valid suggestions... Please keep them coming! :)
 
We have very old ones (from Sachtler if I recall) and repaced the batteries with newer ones so they have their full capacity again.
No recommendations for new ones sorry, just check whats available in Macao...
Depending on your budget and crew I would still look into rigging some automotive batteries (gel ones...) on a little wheel cart, surely heavier than belts but also cheaper (but maybe clumsy for guerilla work...?)
Lighting up the background still is difficult without powersupply, I´d rather change the location to one with a good lit BG (eg neon signs, street lights aso)
If Macao is like the Asian Citys I know, theres a lot of neon light on the streets(?)
Good luck!
 
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I didn';t think you wanted to light the entire street...if you did these would definitely not work...these are great for fill and again, I recommend using a section of the location that has street light or something to light them from behind...here is another link that sells them starting at a little over 100...the one I use is the first one that is 299 and, as it states, it can be powered by any 12 volt ballery. You only need to have an XLR adapter connected to the battery, which is what I have...I bought it like that and the battery looks like it is one of those rectangular block batteries like they use in EXIT signs...probably no more than 10 bucks...mine is carried over my shoulder with a shoulder strap... http://www.dvshop.ca/lighting/frezzi.html
there are a couple up on Amazon starting at under 200...good luck

stan harrington
http://www.igfdb.com/page.php?6
 
Hey there,

I ahve a frezzi micro fill dimmer package and they are great lights, but they are pretty expensive. 2 cheaper options would be either buy a lowel i-light (less than $75 from ebay or craigslist) and a cheap battery pack. That should run less than 300. OR if you want your shots to look awesome, but you don't mind renting, rent yourself a little battery powered 150-200w hmi sungun. Sunray makes a nice one, but it wont really work handheld, and LTM makes one that is pretty nice that has a great handle on it.
 
The other night on a shoot we used a 400 watt power inverter (black and decker) to power a 4' t12 flourescent shop light with an electronic ballast and high CRI daylight tubes, it worked really well. We also ran two super small t5 flouros on there with some barndoor things that I made out of black foam core. If you're going the DIY route with flourescents, make sure to tape the inside of the housings with silver aluminum tape (not duct tape, the other stuff). It increases light output by a significant amount.
 
I got the Frezzi Mini Fill (100W) - I believe I paid under $500 for this. Add a bescor 12amp battery for $80 and you'll have 45-50 mins of run time.
 
Thanks a lot guys. I want to purchase this gear, so renting is not an option. Spartacus, thanks a lot for the car battery suggestion. I'm seriously thinking about going that route. I'll look into the Frezzi's, Stan, thanks a lot.

I really hope to be able to put up 2 or 3 independent lights with a max of 300w output total. I'll see what I can come up with, taking into consideration all your invaluable input. Thanks!
 
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