fluorescent tubes

Sherwin Akbarzadeh · June 22, 2011

Hi,

I'm trying to work out my lighting plan for a sci-fi short film. The film is being shot completely in studio and I want to build practical lights into the set. The setting is an underground facility.

These are my aims:

1. Emphasise architecture/perspective using rhythmic practical lighting - eg. a small light every couple of feet along a tunnel. (a still from Moon is attached to illustrate this)

2. A 3:1 or 4:1 lighting ratio (still from Deeper Than Yesterday attached to illustrate this)

3. An industrial quality to the light (as in both stills)

From a design perspective, I like the tubes of light used in Moon, which leads me to think about fluoro tubes and LED tubes. Fluoros are cheap but if i place so many in a small space i'm afraid they'll wash my set with direction-less soft light, limiting my lighting ratio. I don't want to use egg-crates because i prefer the look of the bare tubes. From what i understand, LEDs are more directional but has anyone used LED tubes with the frosted coating?

An idea about making fluoros more directional would be to inset them within the wall/roof. I want to see the tube clearly so I would only be able to inset about 1/2 tube diameter. Will this do much for me?

If I do go with fluoros, I'm considering what would happen if I ND them down and make them less a practical source and more a set dressing. I still want them to be hot (at least 3 stops over) so I would have to open up the iris to compensate, but the effect of the fluoros would now be relatively less than the studio lights augmenting them. Given that I want to shoot at T2.8 or T4, I'd probably be using ND.3 or .6 at most. I'm not sure if the end result will warrant the effort.

Any ideas on achieving the look that i'm after with fluoros or other lights much appreciated. Sorry to ramble and let me know if i've left anything out.

freddie bonfanti · June 22, 2011

Hi,

I'm trying to work out my lighting plan for a sci-fi short film. The film is being shot completely in studio and I want to build practical lights into the set. The setting is an underground facility.

These are my aims:

1. Emphasise architecture/perspective using rhythmic practical lighting - eg. a small light every couple of feet along a tunnel. (a still from Moon is attached to illustrate this)

2. A 3:1 or 4:1 lighting ratio (still from Deeper Than Yesterday attached to illustrate this)

3. An industrial quality to the light (as in both stills)

From a design perspective, I like the tubes of light used in Moon, which leads me to think about fluoro tubes and LED tubes. Fluoros are cheap but if i place so many in a small space i'm afraid they'll wash my set with direction-less soft light, limiting my lighting ratio. I don't want to use egg-crates because i prefer the look of the bare tubes. From what i understand, LEDs are more directional but has anyone used LED tubes with the frosted coating?

An idea about making fluoros more directional would be to inset them within the wall/roof. I want to see the tube clearly so I would only be able to inset about 1/2 tube diameter. Will this do much for me?

If I do go with fluoros, I'm considering what would happen if I ND them down and make them less a practical source and more a set dressing. I still want them to be hot (at least 3 stops over) so I would have to open up the iris to compensate, but the effect of the fluoros would now be relatively less than the studio lights augmenting them. Given that I want to shoot at T2.8 or T4, I'd probably be using ND.3 or .6 at most. I'm not sure if the end result will warrant the effort.

Any ideas on achieving the look that i'm after with fluoros or other lights much appreciated. Sorry to ramble and let me know if i've left anything out.

The best boy electrics of "Moon", Paul Starkey, is a good friend of mine and i remember he mentioned it was all mainly kino flos/fluoro practical fittings in most of the scenes. I guess the trick will be to plan things carefully with the Prod Designer, building sets and designing/creating fixtures that will make your practical lighting effective and directional. look into all types of fluorescent fittings and test them, there's so many options out there!

sounds like a good project

timHealy · June 23, 2011

I agree with Freddie: work with your Prod Designer and there are many options out there.

You may start the work with all the fluoro's with the same ND on them and then as you shoot you'll want some brighter and some darker. Dimmable fluorescents may be helpful, but if this is a small budget you have to make due with ND. But you'll be fine. As Freddie says there are many options out there which includes turning some off if you need to.

You may need help doing all the wiring and building the fixtures. There is a company or two in LA that specialize with that. You also can use companies like Grainger and McMaster Carr though there are not film specific. You'll learn a lot about fluoros along the way.

You may want to build and test some fixture before committing to to an order for the whole set.

Best

Tim

Sherwin Akbarzadeh · June 23, 2011

I agree with Freddie: work with your Prod Designer and there are many options out there.

You may start the work with all the fluoro's with the same ND on them and then as you shoot you'll want some brighter and some darker. Dimmable fluorescents may be helpful, but if this is a small budget you have to make due with ND. But you'll be fine. As Freddie says there are many options out there which includes turning some off if you need to.

You may need help doing all the wiring and building the fixtures. There is a company or two in LA that specialize with that. You also can use companies like Grainger and McMaster Carr though there are not film specific. You'll learn a lot about fluoros along the way.

You may want to build and test some fixture before committing to to an order for the whole set.

Best

Tim

Thanks guys!

Freddie, great to hear advice from the set of Moon (!) albeit second hand.

I'm doing some tests tomorrow with lots of small fluoros - like 8 watters. I'm hoping the weak source will have a rapid enough fall off and the small size of the tubes will result in a not so soft light when the character is within range. I may experiment with putting camera tape on the non-camera side of the tube to limit spread.

I'm a bit unsure of the colour rendition index on these lamps and how important it should be to me. I'm hoping that the light coming out of these fluoros will be weak and supplemented by proper lights so the green spike produced by the fluoros won't be all that noticable? I should mention i'm shooting at around T2.8-4 on 200 or 500T 16mm stock (sorry if that's too vague but that's how it is). But if CRI is a problem, these 14 watters seem decent.....

http://www.anllighting.com.au/shopping-cart?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=23481&category_id=26

Anyone wanna guess the wattage on the fluoros in the still from Moon ?