LIGHTING 101

J_Barnes

Veteran
I'm biting off more then I can chew here, but here's my outline for a lighting guide i'm trying to tackle. A Gaffer's 101 was requested in response to a lot of recent electrical questions, so I'm trying to put that together within the context of this general lighting outline. Feel free to suggest any changes or gaps.

I intend to only tackle sections 2 and 3 for now.

Outline for Lighting Section

1) Overview of the Lighting Crew
a) Gaffer
b) Best Boy
c) Electric
d) Grip
e) Swing or Grip/Electric
f) Generator Operator
2) Power Management
a) The Basics of Single Phase Power
i) Basics
ii) Ohms law
iii) Grounding
iv) multimeters
b) Delivering Electricity by tying in
i) Tying In
ii) Feeder Cables
iii) Distro boxes
iv) Stinger cables
v) Lights
vi) Managing Electricity
(1) Understanding amp loads
(2) Measuring and Balancing loads
(3) Checking and maintaining
c) Delivering Electricity using the existing service
i) Inside the breaker box
ii) Mapping out the circuits
iii) Managing the loads
iv) Follow your nose
3) Electrical Safety
a) Maintaining grounds
b) Managing and balancing loads
c) Inclement weather techniques
4) The Basics of lighting
a) Color Temperature
b) Light Intensity
c) Light power
5) Light Sources
a) Tungsten light
b) HMI light
c) Fluorescent light
d) Carbon Arc
e) Xenon
f) Sodium/Mercury vapor
6) Lighting Instruments
a) Open faced lights
b) Fresnels
c) PAR lamps
d) Ellipsoidals
e) Fluorescents
f) Soft lights
g) Bare bulbs
h) Balloons
7) Lighting control equipment
a) Gels
b) Diffusion
c) Spuns
d) Snoots
e) Softboxes
f) Scrims
g) Chinese lanterns
h) Flags
i) Butterflies and overheads
8) Lighting Stands
a) Kit stands
b) Baby stands
c) Junior Stands
d) C Stands
e) Combo Stands
f) Roller stands
g) Crank-o-vators
9) Grip Equipment
a) Apple boxes
b) Clamps and grips
c) Rigging
d) Simple knots
10) Basic Lighting Techniques
a) Basic three point lighting
i) High and Low Key
ii) Reverse Key
iii) Fill lighting
iv) Back light
v) Accent lights
vi) Eye lights
vii) The “kicker”
b) Color temperature balancing
c) Techniques for outdoor daytime lighting
d) Techniques for shooting at night
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Wow! This looks like a complete list! I've got a few books, but frankly, none of them covers all of this.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

You are going to write on the second and third topics for now? It sounds great. I can't wait to map some circuits myself...
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

The list looks good and I look forward to seeing the electrical sections. And yes, you *are* biting off a lot :).
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

That would be quite an accomplishment, but I can tell you right now that I will buy one from the first press. There's so much about lighting I want/need to know.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

I think the intent with this would be more of an online publication. Hopefully one people with knowledge of lighting will be able to contribute on. The basic idea i'm getting from this is that barnes will try to tackle a great deal of the specific technical aspects but would probably want help with a lot of the other sections other people might know equally as much in.

Not to discredit Barnes, but it is an awful lot to do and writing it alone would be far too much of a task for one man alone. This is very much along the same lines as that filmmaker's guide that was in talks of being made awhile back that seemed to fizzle out...
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

EXACTLY...

I'm going to write the power sections because so many people requested it, but this is intended to be the first step in the guide to video. I'm looking into server space in order to get this project back on track, and after the power section is finished as a first offering I hope that people will slowly offer to tackle other sections so that I can begin to compile all the knowledge into a single cross-linked document.

Rob G has been offering his valuable knowledge to me on the internet issues needed to get this project moving.

My intention is to write this and have everyone "vet" the content for accuracy and coverage, so in essense, I'm writing the 0.9 version...and with the help of everyone here who can verify and add to my writing...we will all contribute to complete the 1.0 version.

I hope people will be interested in contributing in this, as I think everyone can make a valuable contribution. Even people with no knowledge of power would be encouraged to read this, if for nothing else but to verify any unclear issues in the descriptions and instructions.

I intend to put a lot of work/research into this over the weekened, so I'll keep everyone here updated on the progress.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

i think "the set lighting technicians handbook" by harry c. box covers all this, it is the book that every set electriacian reads and studies from for the union test, it will cover most of your topics. i would use that for your base and concentrate your efforts ammending it with newer or more detailed information on lights and sources. but it is the bible for best boys, and understanding temporary power distribution and safety. and for grip info there is "the grip book" by michael uva.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Those resources could very much help us... I think the main thing we'd be looking to accomplish however would be to have a single place to get all this information. It can be difficult to know exactly where to get the info on each individual subject. It would be nice to have a single place for filmmakers to come to to learn a little about all aspects of filmmaking.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Also, the idea is to make this project open to contributions, managed in editorial content, and free for the community to use in order to gain knowledge. There are many wonderful books out there (people should buy both of nycgrip's suggestions), but there's an absence of cohesion in the online world of technical resources for filmmaking.

By making it a communal effort, we can hopefully cull a far more detailed bank of knowledge then could be available in any single book (even about a specialized subject).

I’m about 70% done with my gaffing 101 offering. I don’t claim it to be complete by any measure, but I think it’s a good first start for others to expand upon as needed. I’ve been doing a lot of fact checking over the weekend, and that has delayed a lot of what I hoped to get accomplished.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

This is great! What a fabulous community we have here.

I would be happy to provide illustrations, if needed. I use VectorWorks in my work and it has built-in lighting functions which cast nice shadows accurately, depending on where you put your sources in the drawing. If, you PM me with your "real" email address, I could send you a JPEG sample of what I'm talking about.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Rogue Crew, consider yourself hired. While I intend to do most of the illustrations for this section by myself (they're just simple diagrams and line drawings), we will certainly have need of images for other sections.

Okay guys...I'm just about done with my first draft. It's about 16 pages in a word document, so if anyone would like to take a look at it before I start dropping in illustrations, send me a PM with your real email and I'll drop you a copy.

I had to do some wrangling over a domain name, so I don't think I'm going to be able to get the one I want. Hopefully I'll have an alternate registered and ready for hosting this weekend. Anyone with experience in site management is encouraged to give their advice as this thing develops.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

The First Drafts of some of these lighting sections have been posted.

I've registered a domain name and I've been busy building up the site in hopes that others might want to contribute to this project. If anyone wants to take a look, please point your browsers to:

www.filmmakersunion.org

Pardon the dust, it's still under renovation and in need of some strong help!
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Oops, I also forgot to point out where to look.

There's a link that has the recent articles off to the right, and there's a menu of articles off to the left. The Lighting/electric is the one you want...since none of the other ones have any content yet either.

Take a look when you get a chance.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

I think the site layout looks very snazzy. I'm about to read the articles.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Sorry guys, my host has completely crapped out again. For anyone seeking hosting, certainly avoid

www.existhosting.com

I couldn't have had worse experiences, as this is the third time in three weeks where my front end has been down for longer then 12 hours...with absolutly no response or action from the hosting company.

I'll let you know when it's back up.
 
Re: LIGHTING 101

Okay, the site's back up.

I'm going to add an article about managing power through household circuits later today.
 
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