Lighting my AF100 - Feeling A Little Guilty

D

dreallen

Active member
Hey guys. Here is the issue. I know I need lights other than my Home Depot work lights and a Walmart bed sheet to diffuse it so I bought 3-72 X 72 Scrim Jims ($880), 2 Mole-Richardson 2K's ($700) to legitimize the kit, and a 2k, 1k, 650w, & 300w Chinese "AS Arri" fresnel kit (for $900). I just figured it was better than the alternative ($3k for one kit) as I have run out of gear budget. On my "pro shoots" where I am doing commercial or music videos for clients I figured it would just look better as well. Am I taking a steaming poop on Arri by purchasing these lights? Secondly...does Arri frown on productions who use these lights in any way that can hinder the success of my project?
 
Likely no more than Canon objects to you using a Panasonic.

Unless you're getting funding from Arri, you don't owe them anything.
 
Ok...help me out. "lamp down"? I am a little bit of a newbie to the whole lighting thing but out of need I may have to do alot of it myself. What is lamping down? The As Arri kit has standard us 3 prong plugs and work well on household power. I haven't used the Moles yet.
 
DAMN! Thanks. I am absolutely going to do this. I was looking for what this was called and was coming up against a wall! I have just gotten 2 new C Stands and need these for the Moles. I got them from CBSTUDIO on EBAY. They are SO much more sturdy and functional.
 
By "lamp down" he's referring to using a less-powerful lamp. A 2K lamp will run on a 20-amp circuit but would blow a circuit breaker on a 15-amp circuit. So you could use a 1,000-watt lamp instead in that case. Yes it won't be as powerful, but that's kind of the point; it means that your 2K light fixture can be used as a 2K, or as a 1K when necessary or desired, if you get the appropriate lamp.
 
As for the "as arri" stuff -- it's cheap knockoff stuff. It'll probably work fine, but it's not going to be as rugged or durable as the real thing, it may (or may not) have as nice a quality of light (meaning, the Fresnel lenses may not be cut quite the same and may not have exactly the same shadow qualities) but -- it's cheap, it plugs in, it throws photons, and it'll work. Most of us here cut our teeth on less-expensive gear and learned just fine. Use what you've got and build your skills. Frankly... I think anything is a huge step up from those work lights, I hate those things, they hold you back in so many ways. So any useable, focusable, aim-able, and barn-door-able light head is going to give you so much more flexibility and so many more options, that it is a huge step forward for your capabilities. Nothin' wrong with using what works, whether that's a bedsheet as a "silk" or a cheap light head like your "as arri", just so long as it actually works and does the job.

To your last question -- I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you thinking that somehow the Arri corporation will find out that you used a different kind of light, and will use their legal muscle to intimidate or hinder your production's success? If so, I don't think there's a chance in the world of that happening. If Arri has a beef with anyone, it'd be with the manufacturers and importers and resellers of those lights, if they infringe on any patents (which I don't know if they do or don't). But if the product is legally available and legally sold here, then I can't imagine how they would have any interest in what you've done with a legally-made, legally-imported, legally-used product.
 
You already have the "as Arri" lights, but for future consideration, keep in mind Coollights - they are a less expensive than Arris and quite decent quality and stand behind their products. If it were me, I'd rather buy their tungsten fresnels, than cheap knockoffs, because with the cheap knockoffs there is no consistency between product batches and if something goes wrong, the seller is not going to be available in the same way Coollights are (Nevada based). And the same principle applies, you can put less powerful bulbs in the bigger lights (f.ex. 150W bulb in a 300W fresnel), so if you buy the bigger light, you can change the intensity with a smaller bulb.
 
I use a couple of cool lights fresnels. They are maybe 40 to 50% cheaper than the same watt Arri lights. I think they are manufactured in China, but sold in the US. So that gives me a little more piece of mind in their safety and reliability. They look very close to Arris because of color scheme and all. So some would call them cheap knock offs. Me, I couldn't give two flying... monkeys.. about what anyone thinks as far as that goes. Though, I did care when I first bought them. I felt like I had to "explain" it to other people I know in the industry. Arri lights are expensive, and you've got to buy what you can with what you are able to spend. Just make sure that what you buy is reliable for image quality, and most importantly-- safe as far as electrical issues go.

Like Barry said, as long as they're being sold legally-- which in all likelihood they are-- that's not an issue for you to worry about. Companies are a bit patent crazy right now. Arri may be trying to sue the companies over patent issues, but that's between them. Otherwise, I would be illegally using my old Samsung Galaxy Nexus and my new Samsung Galaxy S4 because of Apple's suits. And then those of you that use iPhone would be using them illegally because Samsung says so. There are certainly people out there who would try to act superior because they only use the top brand name equipment. But are they buying their own equipment with their own money that they have earned with blood, sweat, and an abundance of creativity with their own clients? No, they probably work for a studio or a company owned by someone else. It's something to be proud of to be able to provide for yourself, so just don't pay any mind to those folks.
 
Thanks for that Barry. I am doing this film and it's got a real shot. It's a drama that takes on the tobacco industry, health industry and we have some pretty SOLID backing for it. I'm shooting the whole thing on AF100 straight to SDXC cards and backing up the footage externally along the way. We have location clearance from the convention center and The Riviera hotel casino to shoot where they shot "Casino" with Robert Deniro. In the same SUITE they shot in as well. I will have a trailer for the film completed in a couple weeks as we are shooting out of sequence purposely and I am forwarding it to our backers and some hopeful new ones as we progress. I just don't want any problems. And I also don't want SAG or AFTRA coming after me because of some alliances I don't know about when we go to add a few bigger names along the way to boost the value.
 
I love my "Mini HMI" lights from Coollights, which look just like Arri Fresnels but use "CDM" technology. The 75 watt is equal to a tungsten 300, the 150 to a tungsten 600. No tripping breakers, cool on the talent. Drawbacks- takes a minute or two to warm up and go from very green to normal color, and when shut down you must wait 5 minutes to re strike it. Advantages out weigh the disadvantages to me.
 
If you're shooting in a union hotel, and you have any sort of budget at all, you can be certain that SAG/AFTRA and IATSE will all take an interest in your production. And if you're in a union hotel, they will have vastly more leverage than if you were on a non-union property.

It's been a few years since I left Vegas, but -- it was always a union town. And unions support unions. Now, with the economy so awful, maybe they'll leave you alone because they'll be glad somebody somewhere's getting some work -- or maybe they'll take a bigger interest in you because there's less going on elsewhere to keep them occupied. I shot in hotels many times, but usually non-SAG work was shot in non-union hotels (meaning, non-culinary union, primarily Station Casinos or properties managed by Station Casinos). I have no idea what the union situation is now, but it is certainly something you will want to be aware of.
 
My director friend bought those ASARRI lights, three 650s, worked absolutely fine. The internals are pretty well made and I didn't notice a real difference with the glass to be honest. I'm sure if they fail after a year you could probably replace the internals with ARRI equipment for quite a few pennies less than owning the ARRIs in the first place. We did buy some premium 3200 bulbs and kept the ones that came with as backups only. After frost and ND/CTB I don't think it really matters how far off the glass is on a budget that took you to those lights in the first place, we hired in a couple of dimmers and supplemented with the practicals on site and it looked fine.

love to see some stills from your shoot Dre!
 
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