Jump to content

night car lighting


Recommended Posts

I have a driving sequence to shoot over rough terrain at night in a moving car (all handheld in the car, no process trailer...) that requires ~20amps of power. Because of the terrain I cannot tow a small genny and the power needed is to great for an inverter off the car. What are other options? I'm using tungsten fixtures, so Jokers w/battery packs is out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a driving sequence to shoot over rough terrain at night in a moving car (all handheld in the car, no process trailer...) that requires ~20amps of power. Because of the terrain I cannot tow a small genny and the power needed is to great for an inverter off the car. What are other options? I'm using tungsten fixtures, so Jokers w/battery packs is out.

 

I've had decent luck with utility lamps off an inverter with some CTB on 'em. Then again, I'm not suer if you're talking about shooting INT or EXT of the car.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Rick Pearson

I've had luck with placing those round dome push lights on car ceilings, the backs of seats, on the glove box, and even on the steering wheel using velcro strips. They are not strong light sources, but they have worked for me using video as the medium. Just be sure to use enough of them if you need alot of light.

 

I saw recently on the behind the scenes footage of Collateral that they took a similar approach to their HD car scenes using a special type of light strip. It was a flexible sheet that emitted light from it's front, and it was made of velcro on the back. They stuck these everywhere from the ceiling to the back of seats. It was a nice idea. Good luck to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Kino Flo make smaller fluoro units that will run of the car's cigarette lighter and 12V system. Depending on what you need you may also be able to rig some larger Flo's on the car exterior and have those add some additional light. Maybe you have a few car batteries and an inverter? You can rent larger 12V, 24V and 30V batteries and power your lights that way. These are usualy used for 35mm cameras.

 

There are a bunch of battery powered tungsten and HMI's on the sales/rental market that can help- Sachtler, Romy, Pag, Anton/Bauer, Frezzi, Arri, Lowel, others. I used the Pag light, it's pretty nice because it will do both HMI and tungsten. Heck I've even used these little stick up flourescent lights that you get at Home Depot they work on A/C, or AA's. It's easier to throw a CTO on an HMI, you only loose 3/4 stop. Putting blue on the tunsten looses 2 stops.

 

For a feature, I lit the entire interior of an RV with Kino 9" and 15" units. Using various types of sticky tape, they were made to look like practicals. For a couple of shots I used a 2'x4 bank and used an inverter with that. We drove around during the day, but it gave me a base exposure, to work with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...