3500w generator. 4k just out of reach....

[Johanan Pandone]

This 3500w (4350w peak) conventional generator was gifted to me (not running) got her running real good.

 

She has a 240v/20amp twist lock and four 110/20 amp 3 prong. Total draw must not exceed 3500w average, 4350w peak

This thing is just shy of running a 4k. Kind of bummed to be so close but fall short. Not interested in hmi. Have plenty led. Want more tungsten. 

If you had 3500w to light the background on a small night exterior what would your kit consist of? I already have open face 1k. Should I consider anything other than 2k fresnel? Maybe mole fay? 

 

 

 

 

[Johanan Pandone]

1 hour ago, Johanan Pandone said:

 

She has a 240v/20amp twist lock and 110/20 amp 3 prong.

 

I meant 4x 120/20 amp

[Doyle Smith]

Good on you for having the skills to get it running again. Shows motivation.

I'd probably use one MolePar to slash a tree line, maybe your open face 1K 1/2 or 1/4 blue to edge your humans out of frame and if you can steal some house power,  malibu light (color optional) the buildings with inkies or midgets. You could always use your 1k for a faux streetlight if you have a phone pole in the scene.

You probably don't really have 3500 watts with that gennie. I'd try to keep the load to 25 amps max. Switch the lamps in one at a time to give the gennie time to compensate.

FWIW Tungsten lights are going pretty cheap in LA now that the rental houses are phasing them out. I'd guess that $500-700 could buy a little package if you're so inclined.

[Johanan Pandone]

11 hours ago, Doyle Smith said:

FWIW Tungsten lights are going pretty cheap in LA now that the rental houses are phasing them out. I'd guess that $500-700 could buy a little package if you're so inclined.

This is the trend I have noticed. Arri 5k fresnels are being sold off for 300$ ea. 

What is Malibu light? Is this uplighting the front of a building?

Thank you for your ideas about night exteriors. Could you suggest a fixture that would make good use of power for a single hard source for small day interiors?

I love using my led lights for cool daylight bounce.

 

I think tungsten fresnels are wonderful for pushing a warmer hard light through the middle to play as rising/setting sun on background. The only lensed  light i have right now is a 550w leko junior zoom. 

Please pardon this still from a cell phone. I don't always set up a  camera when I'm just experimenting

Its a pretty amazing time to be alive. 

I was thinking about building a 6 bank fay light or downlamping a large fresnel to use all 3000w on a single source.  I never used par lamps before. Only open faced lights like lowell dp and generic redheads. It would be pretty easy to put 3x 1k mole pars on a triple tree. Are they a nice source for hard light? Do people use banks of these and aim them to make the beams look more parallel from a closer distance? 

I know I can do it right with a single ellipsoidal or fresnel... 

It would be really cool to have a big fresnel around to practice old hollywood beauty lighting using it directly on faces.

I wonder if someone who usually operates on 240v (not me I live in USA) can reccomend a lamp that uses just under 20amps

We have so many options for lamps up to 1000w, they go 150,300,500,750,1000

I always carried lower wattage bulbs in my kit in case I already have a 1k on a circuit and now I need another so I downlamp one of them to 750w

There are even 1.5k bulbs in case you need to run a 2k on a 15amp circuit (most of the homes in my area  14g wire on 15a breakers, I used 12g/20a when I redid mine) 

So is there anything like a 2.5k or 3k bulb that can be used in the 5k fixture?

 

 

[Doyle Smith]

Sorry it's taken me so long to answer. I'm not on this board much.

Yes "Malibu" lights emulated colored landscape uplighting. We'd throw some kind of small fresnel on a baby nail-on plate on a pancake and hide it with some foliage.

Interesting experiment with the triple header beadboard bounce. Maybe if you were going for a Northern latitude look like a Bergman film it would be nice. Now for Youngstown, unless it's a bleak day or a bleak story, I'd see if I could cover the window with your LED fresnel (sorry I don't have any experience with them) and still have enough "pop" to suggest a shaft of sunlight in the interior. I'd drag the duckbill and bead bounce indoors and another lamp indoors and loft a little soft fill into the room. Motivate a couple of practicals and you're set. As you grow in your career remember a couple of things... controlling and shaping your light is often more important than the units you use. I know a grip package is expensive but don't hesitate to improvise (as long as it's safe!) and use field expedient methods. Also the more lights you set, the more potential problems you have to deal with downstream.

Your theory about downlamping tungsten fixtures is very sound. My ideal interview "running gun kit" was 2 inkies/midgets/in-betweenies downlamped to 100 or 150w, a 300w Betweenie, and ideally a 650w openface like a Redhead or teenie-Mole running into an extra small Chimera w/ a grid. Substitute Arri's or similar units. I wished I had a leko zoom like yours and a variety of patterns to juice up backgrounds. I think you can downlamp your Lowel DP to 750 and 500W.

Now a big fresnel source is beautiful. That's why BID we used 18 or 12K HMI's. Maybe HMI's will (or have) come down in price? The HMI PARs were pretty useful as it was quick to change out a lens. On an interior with a ~3200K=/- WB a quarter or half CTO on an HMI gives a cooler daylight feel that contrasts with your warmish interior.

I find Mole-Pars useful for slashes, I don't think they're a good choice for your triple tree. The Maxi-Brutes are/were useful for a bucketload of light but I think we always used them from a great distance not to have multiple shadows. A Maxi on a low rolling stand bounced into a 12x12 Grif or a silk gave a nice fill for night exteriors. By switching on or off the individual globes you could quickly regulate the amount of fill. Remember that PAR64 globes come in different patterns and the tighter ones are elliptical. 

You'd have to ask a gaffer as I don't know about downlamping a 5K. It might have been possible, but if it was, I'd imagine the supply of globes is drying up. Same thing is true of your smaller tungsten. I'd try to accumulate a supply of spare lamps. I remember the Lowel DP globes being very fragile. One thing that helps is to let a tungsten head cool to the touch before it's moved. I know in the rush of production it's not always possible, but shut 'em all off and then wrap stingers or grip equipment and come back for the lamps.

Hope this helps. Keep checking the craigslist ads and don't be ashamed to bottomfeed.

DS