Lighting equipment list -

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
Santa was very good to me this year. I now own two little Arri fresnels 150W. Fantastic little additions to a decent lighting roster.

Currently, when filming any project, my lighting equipment list is as follows:
( With Doors )
3 - Arri 1K open faced
2 - Chimera Softbox ( 32x24 )
2 - Arri 650 Fresnel
2 - Arri 150 Fresnel
2 - Britek ( Yuck ) 500/1000 watt open faced + Softbox
5 - med/small china lanterns + 25watt fluorescent spiral light @ 3200K & Cool White ( blueish)
- Many assorted Gels/diffusion


Now i would like to add a few daylights to my roster. I find it very practical when you don't need to burn out a few 1000watt with gels simply to achieve 250watts worth of daylight. Runs down the circuits and heats up like crazy.

So the question is, What type of light would be practical for interior settings, nothing huge like a studio, but perhaps something that can perform well within, lets say, a room of 25feet squared? I would also use it for exteriors, perhaps for fill light or some simple night settings/looks.

My grip equipment list is shameful. I have not invested in flags of any sort. I have been relying mostly on careful placement of light, and doing the best i can with what i have. My main concern is transportation. Since grip equipment can accumulate quickly, and really cramp the already cramped space, i am reluctant to go all out of this piece. I DO, however, understand completely the importance of controlling your light.

What would some of you do in this circumstance? Any suggestions, equipment?

Much appreciated, and Happy New Year to all!
 
Well as far as daylight goes you're options are basically HMI's or Daylight fluorescents.

Daylight Fluorescents, like Kino's, will work fine for interiors and can be switched out for tungsten bulbs for extra versatility. They don't get hot and are generally slimmer in profile, so great for location work. They're also low draw so they're good on household circuits.

If you need it to work in daytime exteriors you're only solution really are HMI's which are fairly expensive.
 
daytime exterior i am not worried about. i prefer the naturalistic look of exterior lighting, along with some bounce and diffusion.

Mostly for night scenes, perhaps small amount of blue light coming from the window, but my 1k's dont cut it.

Fluorescents should be strong enough for that. But then it comes to a quesiton of how many bulbs do i need in a fixture? How can i judge? I'm guessing if i could get at least 650 watts of light power, then i would be fine.

what about this guy?

http://www.coollights.biz/clsft1-cool-lights-fluorescent-video-softbox-fixture-p-33.html
 
I usually only use small lights like that for product photography, quickie interviews, or as stand-ins for practicals on set. If you want a fixture that will really compete with the bigger tungsten lights in your kit, get a 4x55w CoolLight or a 4-bank Kino.
I hope you at least have blackwrap and tape in your kit. A c-stand is nice and usually more reliable than a PA. And you can get foamcore from OfficeMax and use it as a flag or bounce board.
 
the 4x55 watt looks quite attractive for the price... Hmm, will look in to those. Bit too pricey right now for me ot pick up two of them, but perhaps one for now will suffice?

and yes, have blackwrap and tape.
 
You'll like having fluos on set. I have only used Kinos but plenty of people in the forum rave about coollights. The last commercial I worked on was shot with just one Kino 4bank, it's very effective in a small to medium-sized room. Get 3200K and 5600k lamps for versatility.
 
Ditto the Professor's suggestion. I would look into picking up a 4 bank or small 2 bank kino with daylight bulbs. It's a great versatile light.
 
i think ill do just that.. Now, to place an order before they are out, again!

any pros/cons between flolights and coolights?
 
Haven't had any experience with flolights or coollights. Haven't heard much about them and I'm hesitant to buy without trying them out first. Yeah, Kino's are expensive, but they're well made and you can expect them to perform well.
 
unfortunately kinos, although the standard, and probably the highest resell value, are out of my budget. I appreciate and understand your comment though, you do get what you pay for. It is just with all the buzz around coolights, i figured perhaps flolights were in a similar band wagon, its just a question of which one to jump on and why?
 
The Cool lights are a site sponsor, so you can PM them and I'm sure they will allay your apprehension. :) That's probably why there's "all the buzz" about them around here.
 
I guess the question to ask is what is it you think you'll get with a flolights unit that you wouldn't get with a Cool Lights unit. Also, they don't have anything but studio models so if that's what you're looking for it may be fine for you. Their price is higher than ours as well so I'm not sure I see the benefit. Our new plastic fixtures are about the lightest ones around that I can see at this point.
 
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there we go!

guess ill be ordering a 4x55 soon.
What is the estimated delivery time? <-- montreal
cheers!
 
I'm considering the 6x55 setup from coolights, however i wonder if perhaps the extra size is of some sort of burden in the end? Does it increase the weight that much? Is there a reason people generally get the 4x55 instead?

I mean, 1000 watts of daylight i can imagine does a pretty good job even from 15 feet away? But the 6x55 would be almost 1400 watts.
 
PaPa said:
I'm considering the 6x55 setup from coolights, however i wonder if perhaps the extra size is of some sort of burden in the end? Does it increase the weight that much? Is there a reason people generally get the 4x55 instead?

I mean, 1000 watts of daylight i can imagine does a pretty good job even from 15 feet away? But the 6x55 would be almost 1400 watts.
Click to expand...
Flos behave differently compared to hard light single point fixtures.
Look up "inverse square law" for a start...
 
i do understand it, but i guess it is just because i have a difficult time, regardless of the rules, understanding how even 1000 watts of softlight ( kind of like my softbox ) wouldn't do some goodness from a distance. Mind you.. no 15 feet is overkill, but i imagine at 10 feet it would still be quite useful.
 
PaPa said:
i do understand it, but i guess it is just because i have a difficult time, regardless of the rules, understanding how even 1000 watts of softlight ( kind of like my softbox ) wouldn't do some goodness from a distance.
Click to expand...

It's the nature of softlight that because the shadow it casts is so diffuse, it's difficult to control, and it also has a smaller throw than a hardlight. You're not gonna get much mileage from a softlight from 10 - 15 feet away. Not only that, the further away it is you're not going to have much control. It will just be adding a little ambient and giving a general wash to your scene.

Try using one of your chinaballs and testing how much intensity is lost from 2 ft, 4, and 8 - 10ft. And now try a hardlight to see the difference.

There's a reason we use HMI's for daylight. They deliver a lot of punch, and when softened or bounced they give you a stronger general ambient than a China ball will.
 
but alas, hmi is not an option right now, way to expensive for me.

However, the day of birth is approaching, i could ask for a cool light 4x55 and one of the lower wattage hmis ? Hrm
 
PaPa said:
i do understand it, but i guess it is just because i have a difficult time, regardless of the rules, understanding how even 1000 watts of softlight ( kind of like my softbox ) wouldn't do some goodness from a distance. Mind you.. no 15 feet is overkill, but i imagine at 10 feet it would still be quite useful.
Click to expand...
Depends on what you mean by "wouldn't do some goodness from a distance"...
 
PaPa said:
I'm considering the 6x55 setup from coolights, however i wonder if perhaps the extra size is of some sort of burden in the end? Does it increase the weight that much? Is there a reason people generally get the 4x55 instead?

I mean, 1000 watts of daylight i can imagine does a pretty good job even from 15 feet away? But the 6x55 would be almost 1400 watts.
Click to expand...

Weight of 455P is 8 lbs. Weight of 655P is 11 lbs. So not a big increase. I think the 455 models end up being the most popular because of size. The 655P will definitely be more popular than the 655 now that we have it though as the 655 is 25lbs. Meant for fixed use in a studio in which case that's not so much of an issue. I think you should keep the flo's (or any softlights) up as close to the action as possible if you want to use them effectively. Otherwise, tungsten and HMI are more effective for definition and distance throw. You might also try out a MF0150 CDM 150w fresnel. I think you'll be pleased with the light it puts out and no need to gel it if you use the daylight color bulb so no loss of light when matching to daylight.
 
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