Lighting a Studio Suggestions?

Xtopher

Xtopher

Well-known member
Hey everyone, the company I work for is building a studio and it is nearly complete. I am trying to figure out what to do with lighting the place.

We have one lowel 3 light kit that is about 2500 watts, but we would like to use it for a portable kit for on location shoots.

We are wanting to build something that is more permanent in the sense that it will be moveable around on some sort of rack on the ceiling so that the whole room can be used for different sets, and not to limit us to one corner or side of the room. I am putting pics of the room in below and I will try to get the dimensions posted soon.

So, in summation I am looking for tips on:

Size/brand of lights to get and how many

An efficient way to mount the lights making them portable throughout the room but not too clunky.


Thanks in advance for the advice!

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Most smaller studios have hanging grid in the ceiling that lights are hung from.

Do an image search (with the Google) for "tv studio," to get some idea how they're configured.

I'd recommend keeping your Arri kit an Arri kit. Buy stuff than can live in the grid permanently and keep in mind that each 20 amp circuit you use to power lighting will normally (safely) allow for 2,000 watts.

Generally, Mole Richardson, Arri, and Desisti are brands that are used in studios with fresnel and the "zip light" style fixtures being used the most. I'd recommend finding a dealer in your area and trying to buy most if not all of what you need from them. Certainly you can research prices online to make sure they're comparable, but I think you'll find that a local dealer will offer pricing that is identical if not less than that huge mail order dealer in Manhattan. Of course, then you have a handy consultant (with the local dealer) who will talk to you when you have questions.

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Hi Xtopher:

That's a nice little space you have to work with there. I agree with Chris, it sounds as if you want to install a pipe grid. Anyone who is handy could probably do it without too much trouble. The nicest way to set it up would be to wire the grid, buy your lights and a small dimmer board. How cool would it be to have three different scenes all pre-programmed to light up with the touch of a button?

I would actually be more concerned with sound at this point, the room is an acoustic nightmare. It is probably too late to make it into a real soundstage, but you could at least put up some treatments and install a floor that would minimize the sound issues. You have a room with all hard reflective surfaces, a concrete floor and mostly 90 degree corners. It's going to sound horrible unless you do some things to reduce the acoustic problems.

Since the room is not set up with stage level air conditioning, personally I would light it most with fluorescent instruments or LEDs if you are rich. Filling that space with tungsten and not being able to run the AC is going to turn it into a sauna if you are shooting sync sound.

So to summarize:

1. Before anything else is done, research and obtain the proper audio treatments. A good place to begin with learning about room acoustics is http://www.acoustics101.com/

2. Construct and install a pipe grid to the ceiling

3. Route electrical for the grid, based upon number of instruments, total wattage you will be using and what kind of dimmer board you will install

4. I would also seriously consider turning the far end of the room into a three sided hard cyclorama. You could paint it as needed and hang black and other color drapes on a track in front of it. Depending on the type of scenes you will mostly shoot, I would seriously consider making the cyc digital green and lighting it from above with fluoros. You could then have green screen, black, white and any number of muslin BGs. This would give you maximum versatility and you could possibly rent out the stage to make extra income.

Good luck!

Dan
 
I second the lighting board and dimmer idea (just be sure to have the dimmers installed in another room.....).

In the studio we have in our university, we have pipes (the square ones) with wires inside them and sockets along them. each socket goes to a patch systems were you choose witch sockets gets power by connecting it to a dimmer or directly to the power source.
Its mainly what it is used in theater lighting systems (I can't tell you in other studios as I haven't been to many studios..).
Lighting boards are the best thing you can ever invest on. As Dan said with the slide of a fader you can change your whole lighting in less than 1 second.

I'd love to have that kind of space........now I'm jealous......nevermind, Iñaki heads to the christmas dinner.....
 
And make sure the ceiling can support the added weight of any grid. If you can afford it, those rail systems with the "pantographs" as their called which is a cantilever lighting support that can move up or down and slide along the rail system are really nice.

Real sound stages often do the sound treatment with kraft paper covered fiberglass insulation and chicken wire to hold it in there. You may actually find that the treatment of the ceiling can reduce sound reflections to be good enough. If not, you may need to treat a couple of the walls. But you don't want it too dead in there.
 
Also the walls should be painted grey or it will be very difficult to control light.

Echoes can be easily (and cheaply) controlled by wrapping 2-inch thick fibreglass panels (the stiff kind) with cloth and screwing them to the wall and ceiling (a few feet apart). Basically what you want to do is reduce the length of the echo down to about one second. Clap your hands hard and count how long the echo trails off (I bet it's now 4-6 seconds). The insulated panels should be offset from each other on opposite walls to eliminate flutter-echo. You don't want the room completely dead (which will suck the life out of people's voices), so don't go overboard.

When I built a similar sized studio about 15 years ago, I found some tungsten scoops and PAR cans from a local theatre that was upgrading -- these were perfect for us. Nowadays you'd probably want a combination of fluorescent and Fresnel. A grid of some sort will make things a lot easier. We kept the (metal) roof joists exposed and used those.
 
Thank you everyone for all the help. I have another thread for the audio issue which we know is going to be a big problem, and have some good ideas for that, but I don't know the exact method I am going to suggest. I am trying to get as much knowledge as I can on this so when the owner comes back to the US I can talk him into something ;)

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=148773

I think I will be calling a dealer in Minneapolis called cinequipt and ask them if thy can hook me up with the light setup so I don't have to ship everything.

The light board is a great idea, I used to run A/V at my University so i can definitely run that, just rigging it will be fun :p

The pipe grid, I am gathering is something I will have to build my self... does anyone have any more details on how to build this, I am a very creative person, but not very handy...

Thanks again everyone
 
Not necessarily do you have to build it from scratch. You can get something like the "photo studio lighting rail" systems on Ebay. Just use that as a search term.

And that would work well for a small studio plus allowing you to bring lights down closer to talent without having stands cluttering up the floor space.
 
pmark23 said:
Also the walls should be painted grey or it will be very difficult to control light.
Click to expand...

I'd suggest black. Reduces unwanted reflections to near zero.
With all the white walls and white ceiling like it is now, it will be a spill-nightmare.
If you're sure you only want high-key lighting with lots of soft light anyways, then keep the white, you can use it for reflecting light (if it's real white - your walls look like they're in some off-white pink-ish tone. Not exactly the color for studio walls, if you ask me...)
 
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The problem with black room is that it will dull the colour-senses of people inside it, causing them to misjudge colours. And worse anything off-camera that glares (like a grip walking around in a bright t-shirt) will be immediately noticeable in an on-camera reflection.
 
pmark23 said:
The problem with black room is that it will dull the colour-senses of people inside it, causing them to misjudge colours. And worse anything off-camera that glares (like a grip walking around in a bright t-shirt) will be immediately noticeable in an on-camera reflection.
Click to expand...


Good point, and really, if you know how to control your lighting, you are better off with white walls & ceiling.


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