Wall-o-lite

DavidSloan · January 25, 2005

Does anyone here use it? I think it's a wondeerful tool if you have the space. A friend of mine likes to use it real close for CUs after wrapping it in muslin. He said he got it from reading about Amelie. Anyone else a Wall-O-Lite fan?

David Mullen ASC · January 25, 2005

Yes, I love it -- a lot of the close-ups in "Northfork" were keyed with a Wall-O-Lite or an Image-80 through a diffusion frame. Great for getting an "unsharp" light.

Jason Maeda · January 25, 2005

these are great lights, i've used them hundreds of times.

jk :ph34r:

Chris Keth · January 25, 2005

these are great lights, i've used them hundreds of times.
jk :ph34r:

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What is one exactly? I presume it's a wall of lights, essentially, but is it a big bank of kinos or...?

Phil Rhodes · January 25, 2005

Hi,

It's ten four-foot kino tubes in a row.

http://www.kinoflo.com/sales/wallolite/

Phil

DavidSloan · January 25, 2005

I'd love to get my hands on a Blanket Lite, one of these days.

Adam Frisch FSF · January 25, 2005

Then I suppose I have to be the negative one.

Yes, nice light quality, but the rest is just bad. It's heavy and cumbersome - designed to be rigged like a normal Kinoflo on C-stands but it'll just tip over and go on a wonk due to it's own weight. Try rigging a toplight with a Wall-O-Lite - it is impossible. Try keeping the light at any other angle than vertical without it hitting the stand - impossible. And if you try extending the arm on the C-stand the whole s*** tips over. It's much easier to go for two 4ft 4banks on different stands.

Not only that, it uses two regular ballasts, which i suppose makes sense rental wise, but that means two more sets of stiff-as-wire Kino-cable and those horrible, horrible multipin connections and ballasts that ensnare you. The only thing it's good for is to use straight up and down at eye level, which I'd much rather use a butterfly/Chimera and Blondie for anyway.

And why can't you remove the eggcrate?

Edited January 25, 2005 by AdamFrisch

Michael Nash · January 25, 2005

You can remove the egg crate, it's just a pain in the a**. I don't remember the trick though.

I love the light they put out but I agree they can be too heavy for their own good sometimes. I gaffed for a DP who liked to use a Wall-o' or image 80 for a top light, and I'd choose the image 80 every time! ;)

The wall-o' is just heavy enough that you'll seek out an alternative unless you really need all 10 tubes in a small space.

But a wall-o' on c-stand? Crikey! I've only seen them with their own special pin that goes in a junior stand! I can't imagine trying to put it on a c-stand!

DavidSloan · January 25, 2005

But a wall-o' on c-stand? Crikey! I've only seen them with their own special pin that goes in a junior stand! I can't imagine trying to put it on a c-stand!

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I never knew they can fit on C-Stands! That does sound rather awkward and tedious. Junior stands are what they are made for.

Kevin Zanit · January 26, 2005

Well you really should use a combo stand with a lollypop in it for it to be stable enough.

Otherwise you?re right, a bit awkward indeed.

Thing is, getting a source of the same size is about as awkward as the unit, if not more awkward.

Kevin Zanit

Adam Frisch FSF · January 26, 2005

Sorry, my fault. I confused them with the Flathead 80's. My abuse was directed at that, not the Wall-O-Lite since I haven't tried that.

My apologies.

David Mullen ASC · January 26, 2005

Wall-O-Lites and Image-80's don't need separate ballasts -- you're thinking of a Flathead-80 or something.

I've never had one tip over on a junior stand, which is what they are designed to be on. It's not particularly unstable.

The main advantage is that it's a large soft light that is only five inches deep or something, which is great for small spaces. Even when an actress is only two feet from a wall, I can key from the wall direction, like I did here below. The only other way would be to put a bounce card and shoot a light past her and into the card, but when you're working on a smoked set like this one in "Northfork", you can't really ping-pong the light without seeing the shaft coming from the wrong direction:

I've used them many times for bedroom scenes because I can basically fit one behind the headboard of a bed or behind a night stand against a wall and get a soft key light from that direction (besides the tungsten Image-80 behind the headboard, I had a 4-bank daylight Kino over the bed, and natural daylight leaking from above the frame.)