Balloon light

C

chocblu

Member
Hey all,

Just wanting some information about ballon lights. Like what lights you can put in them? Fluros/HMI, do you have to be worried about heat? i suppose with tungsten you would have to. How are they made, has anybody made thier own.

I have a shoot coming up that is a murder scene outside at night, and useing one of these as ambient light would be really cool.

Cheers

Mark
 
Tungsten and HMI are commonly used in them and they are setup to take care of the temperature extremes. Haven't heard of using flo's in them before.
 
thats good to know.

Does anybody know where i could get one in australia? more specifically in western australia?

or buy them online? How much i should be paying for them?

could i get some weather balloons, put a globe in them an voila?

cheers

Mark
 
Well be careful with DIY. Its all a question of the fabric and how heat resistant it is. One would think that a high atmospheric weather balloon would need to be pretty resistant to extremes but then again we shouldn't assume on something so important. Imagine the failure on something like this: hot and dripping molten plastic coming down on your actors! If you see what I mean, its something to pay attention to.

Ideally, there would be a protective glass, high temp beaker surrounding the light and ultraviolet filter protected if its an HMI type bulb. That's not so easy to DIY up and puts this in the domain of a bigger deal to try to do right.

When I suggest a nylon (or paper for that matter) Chinese lantern with a fluorescent light inside I can sleep easy at night, but if I suggest someone put a bare tungsten or metal halide bulb in one--that would be another thing altogether and very risky. Sounds like a chinese lantern is out of the question though because of the venue for what you want to do--outside and in a large area from what I understand.

A quick search on Google turned up this link:

http://www.keylighting.com.au/

You might check it out. The search I did was "HMI Balloon". You might also try "tungsten balloon" but I have the feeling an HMI balloon may be way more efficient for you.
 
Generally they're filled with helium and have the bulbs (tungsten or hmi) in them so it's a complete contained unit.

A low budget approach is to use weather balloons and bounce light off them from lights on stands on the ground.
 
Wow. No way! That's a serious charge for an indy production. Sounds like it may be time for another approach. Maybe that's just in Germany? What is the charge in the USA?
 
That was the price from the Australian site (your link above).

Helium Size G cylinders – takes 1.5 cylinders to fill balloon $650.00 per cyl. (subject to current pricing)
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but that probably means you need to buy 2 cylinders, so 1300$ ...

​

I guess in Germany it will be 1400 Euro for one filling and 800 Euro for the unit Didn't look it up, just guessing. Prices here always seem to be higher for professional equipment...
 
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hmmm....that is a serious expense. I suppose when you have the helium in there it will stay in ther pretty well. Does anybody know if helium exands under heat?

I think i'll go with the weather balloon and light reflective thingo.

cheers
Mark

ps have a mate that worked for weta on LOTR and king kong. he said they used those ballons to light up catering and stuff. amazing what you use whe you have to money:)
 
Not all balloon lights are helium filled. Some , just air, and then they are suspended by cables, tied off to stands,or nearby structures and houses, from a crane, ect. If your location warrants helium...yeah, it can get expensive, but I'd check local prices before deflating your balloon dreams..lol

ADDED_ Just checked local prices for Helium..345-350-cubic ft of Helium canister would be aprox
$ 175.00 US.. I was also told there is a shortage of Helium, and my local supplier said he couldn't take on any new clients for awhile.. Not sure if the "gas " shortage is nationwide or local..
Good luck
 
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There's a whole mess of surplus helium buried out west - left over from WWII. We had this on our last show. \

1194277745.jpg


Don't know the cost. A lot I'd venture. It takes a crew of four to get it rigged and flown. After it's up, a single, dedicated operator can run it - unless there's wind of any kind.

Wind wreaked havoc on this thing and bolt upon bolt of trickline was deployed to secure it to trees, buildings and so-forth to keep it in place. Lateral lines keep it in place, but don't keep it from coming down entirely.

I didn't get a good look at the head inside, but I'd venture that it was two metal cages - no glass - around the globe based on the diffused cage pattern you could see against the fabric when it was flying in or out.

Power and helium run from the ground up to the balloon along one of the rigging lines. This was the small one, don't know the wattage. The "Tylenol" version we had most nights was three times the size and roughly 16kw.

e
 
filmat11 said:
I was also told there is a shortage of Helium, and my local supplier said he couldn't take on any new clients for awhile.. Not sure if the "gas " shortage is nationwide or local..
Good luck
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And that would explain why I keep hearing Donald Duck and the Chipmunks!
 
http://www.wilsonwebb.com/sp9.html

Here is one we used years ago on a film titled, A SIMPLE PLAN. using any balloon outside is a crap-shoot. we got it going the wind took it into the power line, creating more light as it sparked upon contact with the line! It was still floating but we had to take it down because it was too unsafe. This very cold day was also windy. We had to haul the 200 lb. ballast in the snowy field and after would say that more times than not, it is alot of work and if there is ANY wind, you are in trouble. We've done both the balloons with lights in, as well as bouncing off. I believe that we used a xenon 12k and used it as a moon reflection, watch The Cure.
We have also used them indoors, where there is lots of headroom, there they are much easier to use, but still very time consuming. Normally there is an owner/operator that brings the balloon and does alot of the set-up and tear down, but with assistance.

Good Luck, and be safe!
-Wilson
 
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