What does this kind of light call!??!

K

Kenneth Lau

Active member
I see it sometimes in behind the scene pictures of music videos.

Wondering what do you call these kind of lights in the industry??

Also, what kind of look and feel does it give you.....
 

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It's a molefay - a grid of what are essentially aircraft landing lights http://www.mole.com/lighting/fay_par/fays/fays.html This link is to the original Mole Richardson brand popular in the US, although the design is really common and a favourite of pop concert lighting designers where they are called 'blinders' - as in they fire into the audiences eyes and blind them. It's a small size product that is bright and punchy, and each bay can be aimed differently (not a feature all brands can do). Power hungry - compared to HMIs - but more economic. If you have amps to spare, great things!
 
That´s a Maxi Brute. When you bounce it over the screen it´s like a big soft box - even softer.

Ah, beat me to it, and yeah there are many names to that kind of grid fixture.
 
Yet another name for that particular configuration of fay is "nine-light", for obvious reasons. If you are interested in learning about fixtures the best source is "Set Lighting Technician's Handbook" by Harry Box.
 
paulears said:
It's a molefay - a grid of what are essentially aircraft landing lights http://www.mole.com/lighting/fay_par/fays/fays.html This link is to the original Mole Richardson brand popular in the US, although the design is really common and a favourite of pop concert lighting designers where they are called 'blinders' - as in they fire into the audiences eyes and blind them. It's a small size product that is bright and punchy, and each bay can be aimed differently (not a feature all brands can do). Power hungry - compared to HMIs - but more economic. If you have amps to spare, great things!
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So I'm guessing is quite harsh if you shine it straight at the subject??

Besides it is more power hungry compare to HMI, what would you say is different compare to the HMI?? In terms of light quality, brightness etc...
 
There has been a guy on my local craigslist trying to sell 4 Molefays for months now at $375 each. Just not the type of light I have a lot of use for right now.
 
HMIs are daylight balanced, PARs (the lamps inside the Molefay/Maxi/9 light) are generally tungsten balanced, although I think I saw a daylight PAR somewhere. In that photo there's a 4x4 frame with CTB on it to correct the PARs to daylight. 9-lights also give you multiple shadows, since there are 9 individual lights at slightly different angles to the subject. That's why they're used often as bounced light or pushed through diffusion.
 
Postmaster said:
That´s a Maxi Brute. When you bounce it over the screen it´s like a big soft box - even softer.

Ah, beat me to it, and yeah there are many names to that kind of grid fixture.
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That is right, it is a Maxi-Brute or "Nine Light". It uses 9 PAR fixtures up to 1000 Watts a piece, for a total of 9,000 Watts (9K). It is different from an HMI in that it is a tungsten light with color temperature of 3200K. They do make Dichoric fixtures for them for daylight balanced light (5600K). They take more power than an HMI of similar output, but they are relatively inexpensive to rent (or buy) compared to HMIs. Of course, you will need enough juice to power them.
 
Doesn't "molefay" refer to the smaller versions that take 650w lamps? I always just referred to the unit in the picture as a maxi brute.
 
Moseph said:
Doesn't "molefay" refer to the smaller versions that take 650w lamps? I always just referred to the unit in the picture as a maxi brute.
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As far as my understanding goes, thats what it usually is. We all refer to them as 9-light fays in San Francisco.
 
Thanks for the info guys.

Seems like there are many different kind of names.
I wonder what do people call it in Vancouver....
 
I worked with a guy years back that once built a couple of 9 light arrays out of 5k fresnels for a Red Hot Chili Peppers tour. I have a bunch of 14" scoops laying around that have been calling to me to build a 9 lite out of them.
 
A nine-light array with PAR 64s is a 'maxi-brute', a 24 array is a 'dino' or 'moleeno', and a 36 is a 'super dino'. FAYs are usually 650w lamps in a nine-light array, but there are also two-light FAYs.

Any other combination is just named by the number of lights, like a 'six-light' or a 'four-light'.
 
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