Customizing Kino Flos

[mjmcneese]

I think I'm just tipping the iceberg in terms of what Kino Flos are capable of. Right now I have (2) 2' 4Banks and (1) 4' 4Bank. All with their own ballasts, tubes, etc.

I initially just wanted to get a Single Bank 2' fixture to hang as a backlight. And I THINK I've figured out that I can get a splitter cable and hook this Single Bank into the same ballast as the 2' 4Bank. No?

Also, I want to experiment with setting up the tubes outside of the fixtures. For instance, I wanna put the 4Bank of tube just dangling from C-Stands. And it looks like I'll need harnesses for this. Has anyone done any of this stuff?

Next I'll figure out how to use them underwater.

 

[RyanT]

You definitely can do that, but it will split out into either two double feeders or 4 single feeders. You won't be able to use your 2x4 after the split so you'll just have to keep that in mind.

We use kino's outside their harnesses a lot. Here's a good trick too if you don't want to go out and buy a bunch of single harnesses and have a bit of time on your hands. You can take the harness out of your 4x4 kino, take zip cord and push the ends into each end cap and run it the desired length to your tube. At the end just use female add-a-taps, which fit perfectly into the ends of kino bulbs. Here's a website that puts a little more detail into it.

http://gaffersunite.com/2010/12/16/add-a-taping-kinos/

Honestly single feeders with single 4' harnesses are a lot better, but it's a good trick to have in your back pocket.

When I was first starting I worked on this music video that used a ridiculous amount of kino bulbs, splitters, and single harnesses. We also wrapped a lot of the tubes in party gels and hung them from c-stands. Pretty much what you're talking about.

http://vimeo.com/3866668

A few other things to look into:
Backlight tubes. You can find them at home depot for very cheap. Pop them in your kino fixtures and very cool things happen.
Colored tubes. They sell things like red, gold, purple tubes. All different colors, all pretty interesting. For some reason they seem to be different than if you just gel them, but that's probably just me. Sort of separate from this is super green and super blue tubes meant for green screen work.

One last cool trick is try taking your Walkie-talkie antenna and running it over a kino tube. It'll light up wherever the tube is touched...somewhere in there is an idea for a music video.

Possibilities are endless! Look into some of kino's other products, they make some amazing stuff.

 

[mjmcneese]

Ryan...very...VERY COOL! Wonderful info.

The add-a-tap trick is exactly what I was looking for. This could change the way I do a lot of things.

Thank you.