Event Lighting?

[Jaden]

Hello everyone....

 

First post, so please forgive the newbie-ness.

 

What is the most effective way to light a red carpet with a step and repeat? It's a short one, only about 40 ft.

 

Thanks!

[Bob Hayes]

Is it day, night, or evening. If it is night most people go tungsten. It is cheaper and matches most of the sun guns. It seems like the folks choose cheap soft lights. I have seen 2k zips used a great deal. The usually choose one style of unit and then just repeat it all the way down the walk. On both sides if reporters are on both sides. The lights need to be high enough so they don?t flair the opposite camera crew. If you red carpet walk starts ion the day and moves into evening the bigger shows seem to use HMIs. They use a unit I am not familiar with that looks like a soft light. Cheap and semi soft seems to be the norm. Cabling has to be very safely laid out, lots of tape and crossovers. Caution tape is a must as there are lots of woman in high heels walking around.

[Bill Totolo]

I've been stuck on more red carpets than I care to admit.

 

I agree with Bob's post, I would add that it seems like Arri tungsten fresnels are the work horses for these events. Very rarely are they lit with HMI's, most outdoor events take place after sundown. Although occassionally, maybe 20% of the time, they are HMI.

 

Lights are evenly spaced apart around 8 feet from each other and about 8 - 10 feet from the carpet.

 

You could probably get away with a bunch of 650's at night.

 

Just make sure they're high enough that reporters and camera op's don't cast shadows on the talent on the red carpet.

 

Oh, and use extra sandbags on the units near the paparazzi, lot's of movement over there.

[Jaden]

Thank you both for your VERY informative responses. I should have added a few more details in terms of what I have to work with. The actual red carpet will be indoors at night in a gymnasium, so plenty of flourescents that we'll have to work with. And because this is a "small-scale" (low budget) event, we only have 2 Arri kits at our disposal. My initial thought was to have 2 650s up high at either end to light the talent and maybe 2 250s (all fresnels) down low to light the step and repeat because if the talent walks down the red carpet, they'll shadow the logos, right???

 

Again, thanks!