Shooting puppets- how do Cool Flo/Cool Lights perform?

sputnikslim

sputnikslim

Active member
Hi, Shooting a couple of puppets on a 4' x 8' set and am thinking of making the switch to cool flo (spiral tube screw in) or the Cool Lights I'm reading about here. Has anyone shot puppets with these lights? If so how does the finished footage compare to tungsten? Any editing issues? How many flo lights will I need to equal what I've been using? 1500-3000 watts tungsten. I see kits on ebay for aprox $500 for the spirals w/reflectors/stands/etc. What will I need to spend on cool lights? I just want to know if the cool/spiral lights will give me enough light. Using a DVX100b to shoot. Thanks
 
A lot of it depends upon if you're starting with a controlled room where there's no natural light coming in through windows. That changes things in any setup. I would say that in general if you're using up to 3000w tungsten that you would need in the range of 750w of fluorescent light to cover it. However, you also need to be aware that fluorescent is always soft and if part of the reason you're using tungsten is you like the shadows (or maybe you don't) and the way they fall then fluorescent may be a let down. Its like using a softbox basically. So, if you don't like the softbox effect on your work, you may not like fluorescents.

One reason that Cool Lights didn't just settle on a fluorescent solution and keep it at that was that I realized early on that one type light won't do it all so I searched for the cool "fluorescent" of hard lights so to speak. You'll eventually see everything available from us from flos to LEDs to HMI and even tungsten because they all have their places. No one solution covers it all really well. The energy efficient hard light will be metal halide / hmi. Our CDM 150w fresnel for instance gives the same type hard light you've come to expect from a 650w fresnel but available in daylight (without gelling) or tungsten color to match other existing fixtures. The fixture still gets a bit hot but not as hot as a 650w fresnel and the light itself emanating from the fixture is very cool. It can be softened up as necessary just like a tungsten open face or lensed light can be. Flo's are soft but can't be hardened. So, you may find that a solution that puts together something like our CDM 150 (and other forthcoming models in that line) and some flo's will cover all your soft and hard lighting needs without heating up the set.
 
Thanks Richard. We're in a studio w/controlled light situation. Can you recommend any programming that has been shot with Cool Flo lites? Esp puppets.
 
That's great--controlled is the best way to go. I was pretty sure but it never hurts to set expectations.

I don't know all the specifics of all my customers have shot and where it might be posted except for a couple anyway. DVXUser deedive did his halloween fest entry using our lights as primary sources.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=112239&highlight=cool+lights

He talked about it on his thread. You can view the film here:

http://www.dvxfest.com/allhallowsfest/loader.php?id=7168


The feature film "A Dangerous Place" being shot right now in New Jersey is using some of our lights, but I know of no online video posted for that:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=110313&highlight=cool+lights

If I find any others I'll post it. I've been a bit behind on posting stuff like that.
 
Thanks again Richard. So, anyone else here have any experience shooting/lighting for puppets? Looking for that Sesame Street look and wanting to know if I can achieve that with cool lights.

So, Richard, using a combination of cool lights and tungsten w/gels might work? We film in Jan but I am doing the legwork now and want to buy the right setup.

Charles
 
Yes people do that kind of setup all the time. A common configuration is background or rim lighting with tungsten then soft key and/or fill with fluorescents in 3200K color temperature. Or use 5600K color temp flos and gel the rim lights with CTB. Lots of different ways to use them.
 
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