Deuceofspades
Veteran
I received this private message and thought I'd answer it on the thread so that others can benefit from info:
<<Hi. I've been reading your thread on Deuces of Spades for a while now. Congratulations on such an amazing feat. I'm doing somewhat of the same thing. And you have given me hope that it can be done. I've been moving pretty steadily on my project. I'm wearing many hats just as you did on your film. My biggest hurdle right now is trying to determine what kind of lighting I need. How did you go about determining this for your shoot? Did you go to the locations ahead of time and do test shots and such with the available light, and then added lighting as needed?>>
Because I owned all my gear it was a little easier for me to handle above. I also had additional ights on loan from a large company, who's owner was supportive of my hot rod film. I have had these lights in my possession for two years now and will be returning them after I am done with my last CGI pick up shoot in a few weeks. It was a great blessing.
So now let's answer your question. Since I owned the lights or had them at hand (not rentals) I would basically pack everything I thought I would need for each shoot. Depending on whether it was an interior or exterior shoot I would pack differently and if it was a night shoot it was a little different too. When shooting run and gun on streets, I oftentimes packed nothing at all because I was trying to not attract attention to myself. For those shoots, i would, if possible scout the locatin ahead of time to determine the best time to shoot there and figure out the light situation, since I would not be able to alter it, having no gear at hand for the run and gun shoots.
Keep in mind that for run and gun shoots, you may have to pick the time that is less likely to lead to hassle, so usually super early on a Sunday morning for exemple. Even if that is not going to yield the best possible lighting situation. This is because in the case of run and gun the main goal is to Shoot without disturbing anyone (traffic, public, etc) and get out quickly.
Now for the less stressful shoots LOL, like indoors or controlled exterior shoots (shot at private property with permission of owner) then you can take your time to plan.
Scouting a location ahead of time is always the best way to go but not always an option. Location might be far or you are too darn busy wearing 2000 hats to make that extra trip.
I always packed:
My Lowell travel light set (2 OMNI 500K with frame and gels)
My 3 X 1K fresnels loaners
If exterior night shoot I borrowed a 1.3K HMI light which I now SWEAR by.
As you can see all above is ridiculously small Wattage and small light set up, because of total lack of budget / funds. Yet, it produced very nice results. Some of my best scenes were shot with ONE 1K light. And it worked because of the concept and creativity of the lighting concept for that specific scene. (Jail scene is a very good exemple of this)
I also packed:
3 large bins filled with grip stuff: One filled with extention cords etc. One filled with C47, gels, gaffer tape, cinefoil, spare bulbs, clamps etc etc. A third one filled with accent light bought at Home depot. This included a couple garage hallogen lights which came handy many times (add a blue gel and you are in business).
I then also grabbed:
A couple C-Stands and SAND BAGS (a must)
A 5 way bounce (very very useful)
A collapsable large frame with flags (one black and one diffuser)
Cinefoil (give me a roll of cinefoil and a roll of Gaffer tape and I will rebuild the universe HA!)
A FIRE ESTINGUISHER (a BIG must)
I think that's about it. With above I always had what I needed to light just about anything.
When shooting outdoors in the wild you also need a generator. I was lucky enough to own a HONDA 2000 super quiet little guy (from my camping days) and it saved the day (or night) MANY MANY times. Getting clean sound, of course becomes an issue, but with some sound blanckets and a car parked in front of generator plus super long extention cords (be careful about resistance though) I found I was in amost cases OK.
I hope the above is helpful to you guys and if you have more specific questions please ask.
below: A one light set up can produce beautiful results:
<<Hi. I've been reading your thread on Deuces of Spades for a while now. Congratulations on such an amazing feat. I'm doing somewhat of the same thing. And you have given me hope that it can be done. I've been moving pretty steadily on my project. I'm wearing many hats just as you did on your film. My biggest hurdle right now is trying to determine what kind of lighting I need. How did you go about determining this for your shoot? Did you go to the locations ahead of time and do test shots and such with the available light, and then added lighting as needed?>>
Because I owned all my gear it was a little easier for me to handle above. I also had additional ights on loan from a large company, who's owner was supportive of my hot rod film. I have had these lights in my possession for two years now and will be returning them after I am done with my last CGI pick up shoot in a few weeks. It was a great blessing.
So now let's answer your question. Since I owned the lights or had them at hand (not rentals) I would basically pack everything I thought I would need for each shoot. Depending on whether it was an interior or exterior shoot I would pack differently and if it was a night shoot it was a little different too. When shooting run and gun on streets, I oftentimes packed nothing at all because I was trying to not attract attention to myself. For those shoots, i would, if possible scout the locatin ahead of time to determine the best time to shoot there and figure out the light situation, since I would not be able to alter it, having no gear at hand for the run and gun shoots.
Keep in mind that for run and gun shoots, you may have to pick the time that is less likely to lead to hassle, so usually super early on a Sunday morning for exemple. Even if that is not going to yield the best possible lighting situation. This is because in the case of run and gun the main goal is to Shoot without disturbing anyone (traffic, public, etc) and get out quickly.
Now for the less stressful shoots LOL, like indoors or controlled exterior shoots (shot at private property with permission of owner) then you can take your time to plan.
Scouting a location ahead of time is always the best way to go but not always an option. Location might be far or you are too darn busy wearing 2000 hats to make that extra trip.
I always packed:
My Lowell travel light set (2 OMNI 500K with frame and gels)
My 3 X 1K fresnels loaners
If exterior night shoot I borrowed a 1.3K HMI light which I now SWEAR by.
As you can see all above is ridiculously small Wattage and small light set up, because of total lack of budget / funds. Yet, it produced very nice results. Some of my best scenes were shot with ONE 1K light. And it worked because of the concept and creativity of the lighting concept for that specific scene. (Jail scene is a very good exemple of this)
I also packed:
3 large bins filled with grip stuff: One filled with extention cords etc. One filled with C47, gels, gaffer tape, cinefoil, spare bulbs, clamps etc etc. A third one filled with accent light bought at Home depot. This included a couple garage hallogen lights which came handy many times (add a blue gel and you are in business).
I then also grabbed:
A couple C-Stands and SAND BAGS (a must)
A 5 way bounce (very very useful)
A collapsable large frame with flags (one black and one diffuser)
Cinefoil (give me a roll of cinefoil and a roll of Gaffer tape and I will rebuild the universe HA!)
A FIRE ESTINGUISHER (a BIG must)
I think that's about it. With above I always had what I needed to light just about anything.
When shooting outdoors in the wild you also need a generator. I was lucky enough to own a HONDA 2000 super quiet little guy (from my camping days) and it saved the day (or night) MANY MANY times. Getting clean sound, of course becomes an issue, but with some sound blanckets and a car parked in front of generator plus super long extention cords (be careful about resistance though) I found I was in amost cases OK.
I hope the above is helpful to you guys and if you have more specific questions please ask.
below: A one light set up can produce beautiful results:
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- yeah so far teh cart is workig wonderfully well. Shoots me a nice invoice everytinme someone orders, keeps track of everything etc... It's not liking Norway fabs though LOL and keeps rejecting their orders. I think it is an address format issue - will call cart company today to figure this out. So far I am very happy with this upgrade. :2vrolijk_08:
LOLOL
