Wall Spreader/ Autopole longest length?

S

sweatshirtbrigade

Member
Hey guys,
I am gearing up to shoot a short that is set in a dining/living room at night. Unfortunately, the director wants some extreme wide shots and the room is about 18'x20'. Obviously, my dilemma is that I have no where to hide lights. I wanted to do some soft top lighting, but I can't drill into anything at the house . I am just wondering if any of you guys know the maximum length I would be able to run a wall spreader or autopole at and still hang a 2x4 or 4x4 kino off of it and/or if you guys have any rigging suggestions. Thanks in advance for the help.
 
Bogen Autopole is 12" at max extension.

You can get a 78" extension tube for it.

Make sure you safety the pole somewhere near the middle if you have a long extension with it.

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manfrotto has a new thingamgig called the crosspole that would solve your problem (you could suspend 75Kilos on 16ft cross pole) but the chances of a rental house having it are slim..

if you can find a minimax (from mathews), you can suspend 20 lbs on a boom arm 8 feet across. i use it in exactly those situations where i need to suspend but can't nail or clamp onto anything.
 
If you have an extreme wide shot of a room 18' across, aren't you going to see the ceiling?

I guess you might want to consider bumping up the practicals with higher wattage bulbs and bouncing light onto the ceiling and shooting wide open, possibly even 1/24th just for the wide shot.
 
Chris Santucci said:
Bogen Autopole is 12" at max extension.

You can get a 78" extension tube for it.

Make sure you safety the pole somewhere near the middle if you have a long extension with it.

.
Click to expand...
Any ideas on how to safety it w/o drilling? Thanks for the suggestion!
j said:
If you have an extreme wide shot of a room 18' across, aren't you going to see the ceiling?

I guess you might want to consider bumping up the practicals with higher wattage bulbs and bouncing light onto the ceiling and shooting wide open, possibly even 1/24th just for the wide shot.
Click to expand...

The shot is going to be kind of high angle. Ideally, avoiding the ceiling but that sounds like something I might try. Thanks!
 
You could use two pieces of speedrail with a center joiner to connect the two. I've done it before, and it does sag. You'd have to also build two braces on either side. I'd just use 2x4s as columns, and dressed to match the set. Perhaps you could find a toprail or speedrail pipe or even 2x4 that's 18' long and use that.
 
sweatshirtbrigade said:
Any ideas on how to safety it w/o drilling? Thanks for the suggestion!
Click to expand...


Is there anything you can attach to? A light fixture? Anything?

If not, try gaffer's tape and trick line, but keep an eye on it. It's better than nothing.

You can't safely span that kind of distance with an Autopole without some support in the center or at least near the center.

.
 
I had a shot like this. We bounced tightly focussed Dedos off of the light fixtures (so the light looked like it was coming from the fixtures, when it was really coming from the bounce), and put a couple 1Ks on the floor in flood position, bouncing off the entire ceiling. They were hidden by the tables and a wet-bar. There was also a diffused 1K at camera position for fill, and a 650K Dedo at camera position on the actors. That room was hot!
 
Yeah, you can bounce, if you don't mind lighting the whole room.

Since you have these limitations:

"... director wants some extreme wide shots and the room is about 18'x20"

"... I can't drill into anything at the house"

I'd go with practicals.

.
 
Instead of mounting a pole and heavy lights, why not try to go lightweight? Tie a rope to two weighted stands or to something in the room and light it with a handful of standard bulbs in sockets you can get from the hardware store?

I lit a small cellar with 6 1/2 ft ceilings using 500ft of ropelight and a low-angle key. It worked for our purposes, as long as there was nothing reflective on set. It would never cut it for daytime lighting, but I'm just trying to get you to think creatively.
 
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