GUERILLA shoot: ELECTRICAL POWER question

[rhinoceroz]

We want to shoot guerilla style in a motel room (no it's not porn but a Linklater's tape type movie) and we would like to be able to power our lights without blowing the fuse of the motel. We're shooting S16, so we'll need enough lights.

 

Let's say we have a lowel kit like this:

Lowel KIT

 

(or any kits, this is just as an example)

 

How could we power these lights without draining the power of the motel?

 

I was thinking of a car battery, power inverters, something like the faroutlet for instance:

FAROUTLET

 

Can anybody give us pointers on how to do it? And be as specific as you can. My knowledge in electrical is limited. How do we use inverters? Best way to do it? How much power do we need, tips and tricks.

 

Thank you very much - from a student filmmaker.

[Mitch Gross]

You'll never get enough juice this way. It would cost you such a small fortune in batteries and other purchases that you are far better off renting a small generator and running your power from this. What city are you in? You can rent portable gas-powered generators from just about any lighting & grip rental house. It's a motel location so I would get a ground floor room and simply run your lines out the door or window. If you're worried about noise then park a vehicle between the room and the generator. If you are unsure about how much power your lights require then you can talk to the rental house and they can help you out. You can likely do this for under $100, certainly under $200.

[Michael Nash]

Most motel rooms should have at least one 15amp circuit, if not 2 (unless it's a really old crappy motel). The bathroom often has a dedicated circuit. Consider renting the room adjascent to the one you're shooting in; it'll be useful for not only power but also production/staging of equipment.

 

Just remember the basic formula: volts x amps = watts. In the US it's 120 volts, and the lights you're using will be between 500 to 1000 watts. That means a 15 amp circuit will hold at least two 500W lights. Many Lowel lights will accept multiple wattage globes, so consider getting 500W bulbs to get more available units (at the cost of output from each unit).

 

Take the time to locate the circuit breaker for each room, so that when you trip a breaker you can quickly reset it. When it pops look at each light that went out so that you can identify which plugs are on the same circuit, and repatch as many lights as needed before flipping the breaker back on.

 

Try to keep everything unneccesary turned off, at least while the lights are on. The air conditioner and anything with a heating element (like a clothes iron or coffee pot) will draw a lot of amps.

 

I don't think inverters would exactly fit with the "guerilla" style -- you'd have a running car parked right outside the room with a cord running in for hours at a time. Extension cords running from the next room might not draw quite as much attention.

[David Mullen ASC]

Consider using Kinoflos, which have a low power requirement.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Exactly what David says. Kinoflos, or any type of flourescent light will greatly reduce

the wattage. HMI's are also very efficient - about 4 times more efficient than tungsten

(tungsten turns 95% of their power into heat). For instance, a 575w HMI has the

same light output as a 2-2,5kW tungsten fresnel. Arri makes a nice small series with

the 200W pocket PAR's or their newer 400W unit. Joker Bug is another nice little

200w or 400w HMI unit that you can stick almost anywhere Especially their pancakes

which create a nice little toplight without having to rig stuff in the ceiling.

 

HMI's are howvere more expensive to rent. But if you divide the actual foot candles

coming out of them by the daily rental price, you'll find that there isn't THAT much of a

difference between Tungsten and HMI's. Plus big Tungsten units almost always require a

genny, something you could perhaps do without with if you use Kinos and HMI's on a

small shoot.

[Carlos M. Icaza]

I want to add that I just shot a short where 90% of my lighting consisted of Kino's.

 

I had four four foot four banks and four two foot four banks. And I used them in an apartment where the maximun circuit (other than the kicthen) was 15amps.

 

They are low voltage and also, they are cool. They don't get as hot and therefore the room doesn't get as hot and steamy. Just open the doors after each shoot or between takes and get a fan going depending on your area's weather. Get a 1200HMI Par to shoot through the window.

 

And do rent a second room for all your equipment, video city, sound city, etc.

 

This way, you might not need a genny.

 

C.-

[rhinoceroz]

Great advice.

 

Thanks!

[oscar jimenez]

Hi, if you are using one 1k lowell dp kit, have no money to go kino flo or small pocket pars hmi's . Get some 1/0 cables with tricko connectors, go to the main breaker box in the hallway of hotel, plug the connectors into the box main electrical plugs ( the ones before the breakers) and since you are not using that much, one phase will do the job ( plus a breakout box !!!) not that complicated to do if you know about what you are doing, I do it all the time wiht no major trouble.

[John Sprung]

The way we used to do this in the olden days is get a set of car battery jumper cables, and cut them in half. Then solder female Mole pin connectors to three of the cut ends. Go to the main breaker panel for the building, take the cover off, and clamp onto the two hot busses and the neutral. Tie things off with sash cord to keep them from getting pulled loose. Is this ancient history, or does anybody still tap the box like this? I think I still have my tap rig in storage someplace.

 

 

-- J.S.

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

It's probably worth mentioning that there are so many safety issues with doing that I have neither the time space or interest to list them all!

 

Phil

[John Pytlak RIP]

Today, that would violate just about every electrical safety regulation on the books.

[John Sprung]

Today, that would violate just about every electrical safety regulation on the books.

True, but I never got killed doing it. Not even once. ;-)

 

Maybe if you guys live long enough, there'll be something you're doing every day now that'll scare the crap out of anybody you tell about it. Of course it required some care, and you had to keep careful track of your loads because there were no branch circuit breakers, but it really was everyday practice 30+ years ago. The only real no-no was going in ahead of the meter. DWP was cool with it as long as you were paying for the power.

 

 

-- J.S.

[oscar jimenez]

I do agree with John, it's not that hard or scary, just to be careful and knowing what you are doing

[Guest Andy Sparaco]

One of the easiest and most over-looked ways of getting more power is to find an electric range or Dryer 220/240 outlet. You can get the plud fron any hardware or Home depot and wire it to split the 220 line into two 120 lines. Usually the 220 line is 40 amps so you can get 5000 watts of Quartz lighting without a meltdown.

 

I carry a couple different "trick plugs that plug into "lunch boxes" for 110. Th advange being the breaker switches

[Carlos M. Icaza]

Andy,

 

That's a good thing to have in a grip electrical bag. I have one and it has become handy on previous shoots.

 

I doubt though that a motel will have a 220 range kitchen or a dryer as rhinocero/ orinigally stated that he would be filming in a motel.

 

No doubt thought, that is a useful item to have.

 

Cheers,

 

C.-

[Dan Salzmann]

Personally I don't care for Kino's if they're not on some kind of arm. Motel rooms tend to be a bit cramped for this sort of thing. Depending on what you are filming, why not boost the practicals and use some bounce fill?

The genny outside the ground floor solution is really good if you don't have to shoot towards the window of the room.

[Bob Hayes]

Dangers of tie-ins. When I fist started and was young and dumb I tied in many times. It is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Many people have died or been seriously injured doing this. Several years ago a grip was killed just by walking by a tie in where the power jumped from the box to a c-stand he was carrying. And went to ground. He didn?t even touch the box. Sometimes boxes are installed improperly and the box can be hot. I have seen it.

[Elhanan Matos]

The way we used to do this in the olden days is get a set of car battery jumper cables, and cut them in half. Then solder female Mole pin connectors to three of the cut ends. Go to the main breaker panel for the building, take the cover off, and clamp onto the two hot busses and the neutral. Tie things off with sash cord to keep them from getting pulled loose. Is this ancient history, or does anybody still tap the box like this? I think I still have my tap rig in storage someplace.

 

I like the way you think John. I can't think of a more noble way to die...

[John Sprung]

Several years ago a grip was killed just by walking by a tie in where the power jumped from the box to a c-stand he was carrying. And went to ground. He didn’t even touch the box.

The jumping part simply isn't possible with ordinary 120/240 volt power. Even 240 volts won't "jump" more than a few thousandths of an inch. At 12,000 volts, you need to be under half an inch between electrodes to strike an arc. Once the air is ionized, it'll sustain that arc out to maybe 8 or 9 inches max. I also used to make Jacob's ladders using old neon sign transformers and coathanger wire.

 

 

-- J.S.

[Eric Steelberg ASC]

Kinos

 

High output with low power consumption.

[JONATHANEDWARDS]

I think that it is extremely erresponsible for some one to suggest that a non set electric tie in to a hotel ellectrical box with battery cable jumpers that has vary little experence.

 

if this hotel has more then one floor it possable for some one to tie in to a 300v or 240v line as it is a vary common to power hall lights with higher voltage to save on electrical bills.

 

do you realy need to power that much, if there is one 15amp circuit in the room and one in the Hall way and one in a other room thats 45 Amps i cant see a large indie needing more then that for a small room.

 

if your realy need to get more power or are concerned that you would not have a nuff. go to the rental house you are geting the gear from and find some one from there to help you out.

 

in some states in the us there is a big fine for tampering with electrical equipment in commerical locations.

 

if you are interested in learning more about electrictal power distrobution, get a electric to teach you and dont just try it as there are mistakes the pros make all the time. think of what you could do ?

[Bob Hayes]

Many of the larger hotels have a licensed electrician on staff and are more then happy to tie in and give you a box. It?s pretty common when you shoot higher then several floors. I?ve done this for Features, television, and even press kit style interviews.

[Eric Steelberg ASC]

Or gee, how about asking them to use additional rooms for power?

[John Sprung]

Or gee, how about asking them to use additional rooms for power?

It depends on how the rooms are wired. In a cheap motel, several in a row may be all on one or a few circuits.

 

 

-- J.S.

[Leon Rodriguez]

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, but just to be on the safe side, I assume that it goes without saying to shoot a faster film. With 7289 (800T) how much light do you really need? (John can help here) I've had surprising good results in lowlight situations with it. You could even push it a small amount if you can live with the extra grain in the look.

 

You can also paint the motel room flat brite white on the bounce side and cieling or pin up white foam core for bounce back and definitely bring in the long extention cords from the neighboring rooms. You'll may need the additional room anyway for security reasons if you have valuable rental stuff and a small crew to guard over it. So if you have the extra room, you paint flat brite white for room two on the opposite side and cieling as room one for shooting your reversals. Hand held bounce cards from anybody just standing around being a "witness". Put 'em to work. You can rent a little "genie" at Home Depot for next to nothing. Anyway good luck with it. Sounds like fun.