Lighting Back Road--Which Lights?

[ekb]

Hey there!
I'll cut straight to the point here:
Location: EXT. COUNTRY BACK ROAD - NIGHT
Scene Description: Car Accident [yes low budget film, just budget enough for real stunt]
The problem is there is no street lights on this stretch of road.
The question is...
What would my best option be to make the lights look legit. I assume florescent construction lights jacked way up [making sure whatever is jacking it up isn't seen].
There will be no CU's or anything of the lights, its just to maintain a real look and of course to light our scene.

ANY HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!
THANK YOU!

 

[Chris Santucci]

Either day-for-night, or get a half dozen cheapo par cans with PAR 64 medium flood lamps and a half dozen high stands and call 'em streetlights.

http://www.bulbamerica.com/

.

 

[mainstreetprod]

If your scene can be written so that the accident is lit by automobile headlights of
cars that happen upon the scene - you could greatly simplify things.

 

[nejuicer]

get a half dozen cheapo par cans with PAR 64 medium flood lamps and a half dozen high stands and call 'em streetlights.
.

Though cheap to rent, a half dozen 1kw Par 64 Par Cans will require a sizable (translate costly) generator and will still not light your deep background - the woods. I would recommend a lighting package that consists of HMI Pars to light your deep background and Kino Flo Parabeams to simulate street light. Though it will be harder to find in smaller heads at your local rental house, I would also recommend using HMI electronic ballasts with Power Factor Correction (PFC.) so that you can power all your lights off a Honda 6500W generator. Formerly only available in the higher wattages, this advanced electronics reduces current spikes and harmonics in the power line and contributes to a more economical use of power. 800 & 1200 Watt ballasts with PFC use considerably less power than conventional electronic ballasts. A brand name to ask for is Power to Light (P2L). P2L is incorporating Power Factor Correction (PFC) into their 800w, 1200w, as well as 2.5kw/4kw.

While not a tremendous advantage when plugging into house power, the power efficiency of PFC ballasts can make a huge difference when powering a lighting package off of portable generators. For example, where a Kino Flo Parabeam 400 draws only 2 amps, the 8 Amp difference between using a P2L PFC 1200W electronic ballast and standard non-PFC 1200W electronic ballasts, can mean the difference between running four additional Parabeam 400s on your portable generator or not – I think you would have to agree that is a major boost in production capability. And when you start to add up the incremental savings in power over multiple HMI ballasts in a lighting package, add to it the energy efficiency of light sources like LEDs and Kino Flos, and combine it with new distribution technology that provides 7500W of power in a single 120V circuit from a Honda EU6500is portable generator, you have all the ingredients for lighting your night scene.

For example, on a recent independent short shooting with the Red, I used a modified Honda EU6500is Generator to power a lighting package that consisted of a 2.5kw, 1200, & 800 HMI Pars (with PFC ballasts), a couple of Kino Flo Parabeam 400s, a couple of Parabeam 200s, and a Flat Head 80. Given the light sensitivity of the Red Camera, this was all the light we needed to light a large night exterior. The scene takes place behind a mall, rather than the woods, but the principles are the same: we used the 2.5 HMI par to light the deep background, the 1200 HMI par to light the near background, and the 800 Joker was mounted on a Source 4 Leko with a bug-a-beam adapter to create a window pattern on the ground from a building that doesn’t exist but you don’t see that in the movie. We used two Parabeam 400s to key the talent and a Kino Flo Flathead 80 to fill the entire scene. To see the final results, use this link - www.screenlightandgrip.com/html/hdfilmstrip4lg.html - to our website where we have posted more detailed information on the lighting package we used along with production stills from the movie.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that in addition to being a gaffer, I also own and operate a rental house that rents and sells a lot of the equipment recommended above. If it sounds like I’m hyping the P2L line it is not because we rent and sell them. We are also dealers and rental agents for Mole, Power Gems, and ARRI. As a professional Gaffer of a lot of tight budgeted historical documentaries for PBS’ American Experience and The History Channel (see my “credit-entials” on Imbd), I think these ballasts are a major development worth noting.

Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip