Getting a light up high

junct

junct

Active member
Hey there,

This is less lighting than it is problem solving/rigging, but unsure where else to put it.

So I'm shooting on the weekend, at night, where we need to "boost" the light coming from a street light out of a window. Issue is, we need to get the light up at least 4-5 meters high, and there is nothing outside we can really rig something to.
It's an ultra low budget shoot, which doesn't help.

The current thinking is to basically attach a worklight to a pole (maybe gel it a bit more orange to match it to the temperature of the street light) and have someone hold it out of shot. Is there a more logical approach? (I'm not a grip, and this isn't my area, but so it goes). If not, what sort of material would one recommend for the pole? Wood may be a bit heavy/inconvenient (though easiest to attach the right size screws to)...

To make matters worse, everday other than our shootday is forecast for heavy rain, so whilst we're in the clear at the moment, I'm not that hopeful. Looks like we'll be getting a few tarps..
 
A mombo combo stand could easily reach that high, as it tops out around 24'. I think you might even be able to get that high with a triple rise combo. Both of these are very heavy duty and would be fine even with a lamp up to a 5k on it, if tied down properly.

There are other options as well, depending on the roof situation, I've made a small menace arm off the edge of the roof to have a light coming back in through a window.

Here is a pretty deatiled video about how you would do that.
http://vimeo.com/47451056

You can get both of these things from a rental house for $10-20.
 
Change your camera angle... Put the light inside the room.... Shoot within your means Or up your budget.
 
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If this is very low budget:

- Use a ladder with some kind of clamp.
- Put the stand on top of a solid table or even the roof of someone's car if possible.
 
You don't want a work light, a C stand, a ladder with the light clamped onto it, or a stand on top of a car. Bad things can happen when you don't use the right tool for the job. If you're using a 2k blonde or anything smaller, a 3 riser 2k/reflector stand will get you about 4m up. A daddy long legs will get you 6m and a mombo combo will get you up over 7m.
 
I'm with David; Shoot within your means or up the budget. Attaching a work light to a pole and have a crew member hold it up sounds extremely dangerous.
 
Depending on the weight of the unit. You can easily put a c-stand on a combo stand and use that for your light stand. Just make sure you safety it too.
 
Cheers gang. Rental houses here tend to be pretty overpriced hence not relaly considering that route initially. But I was visiting one today anyway, so I enquired, and it seems they can get me a 4m c-stand pretty cheap, so that makes things a lot easier! Sorry for what turned out to be a non question :)
 
Let me reiterate - you REALLY shouldn't be using a C stand for this, unless the light you're putting is only a few lbs. Really, anything over a redhead or a 650 is going to be too much if you're outdoors, C stands have too narrow of a footprint.
 
Yeah, I understand. We're either going to use a worklight or a 650w. I'll also look into your suggestions as well when I visit tomorrow. I hadn't read this thread when I went out today, and the C-stand was what the guy suggested - but they have a heap of stands, so hopefully they have some other options :)
 
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