Ideas for rigging Kino/Flourscent tubes

[Jacob Zalutsky]

Hi, I am lighting a few scenes in a barber shop - because of the style of the production we are not using any light stands and keeping everything on the ceiling. Unfortunately the ceiling is not the traditional drop down style and we can't use scissor clips. Below is a picture of the space.

 

What I would like to do is Rig a total of 4 x 4ft bulbs in the space circled in red either hanging down from the ceiling or mounted against the wall ( 2 rows of 2 bulbs over 8ft) - we are going to be controlling the overhead lights as well so don't mind any of that - the idea is to create a source that is giving the same direction as the practical lights above the mirrors.

 

I'd like to avoid taping the bulbs and find a more reliable way to rig them as they will be staying up there for about 6hrs and I can't risk them falling or needing to be fixed. I also of course would like to do minimal/no damage to the walls or ceiling.

 

One thought was I could screw in some eye hook style pieces to the ceiling and maybe tie off the kino harness to them - I'm no key grip though so curious what other ideas there might be.

[JD Hartman]

Is that a conduit run where the wall meets the ceiling? I'd start by considering 8' Kinos less rigging. Would wall spreaders be a possibility or is the span too great? A bounce card taped at the wall and ceiling junction might be your last resort should less complicated methods be fruitless.

 

Why isn't your Gaffer or Grip solving this dilemma for you?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I mean if you can get behind that conduit there along the wall you could use zip-ties to make a harness for the bulbs-- then you'd just cut them down at the end-- no drilling needed.

[JD Hartman]

You can never take too many pictures during a location scout. In that respect, .....epic fail.

[Jacob Zalutsky]

unfortunately no that is not conduit - its a speaker cable - this is a little project and I just have one grip helping out - and yea yea aware of the poor picture.

 

any other ideas? think I might just have to do a little drilling unfortunately.

 

 

thanks for the replies.

[David Mullen ASC]

Possibly some plastic ties and large push-pins -- or Velcro -- could hold a bare Kino tube to that ceiling, the main weight would be the harness cable going to the ballast.

 

The speaker cable is probably secured with a little plastic tie and tiny nail, so perhaps the owner would allow something similar to hold some bare Kino tubes and cables.

 

A bigger rig for heavier lights, like Kinos in their fixtures, would involve perhaps a goalpost rig with the vertical supports being dressed out and painted by the art department as if they were pipes or columns.

 

You could also just attach a bare Kino tube to the conduit pipe that is running just above the mirrors, one for every arch (so three), it would just look like it was practical source.

 

I guess one question is why do you need additional lights at all, it seems you've got a soft practical source above every mirror that is at a better height for the faces than something higher. I'd be happy to have a location that already had a source above every mirror like that.

[Jacob Zalutsky]

Thank you for these ideas. I agree the lights above the mirrors are great, but the way we are shooting will often be toward the mirror so these lights will be in frame and when that happens it sorta becomes like when you shoot toward a window and want the talent edged by the window light. You can never get enough of an edge from the ambiance outside the window so you wind up needing to fake the source. So, to get an exposure I like on the bright mirror lights I'm not getting enough of an edge on the talent.

 

I'm going to make a trip to the hardware store tomorrow and see what I can dig up.

[Guy Holt]

.... any other ideas? think I might just have to do a little drilling unfortunately.

 

When you are at the hardware store pick up a piece of 1x4x16' pine and a box of self taping machine screws that are about an inch long. Turn off the circuit for the two Flourescent fictures closest to wall (the one directly above where you want to rig and Kino and the one to the left. Take the bulbs out of the fixtures and then take the cover plate off so that the ballasts are exposed. While your grip holds the 1x4 against the outside of the two florescent fixtures, drill through the side wall of the fixture from the inside into the 1x3 pressed up against the outside. Reassemble the fluorescent fixtures that you took apart and now you have a securely fashioned piece of 1x4 running 16' along the ceiling on which you can screw baby wall plates to hang your Kino fixtures.

 

Guy Holt, Gaffer

ScreenLight & Grip

Lighting Sales and Rentals in Boston

[Jacob Zalutsky]

Guy, thank you for this idea, I'm going to try to stop by location today and look at that fixture to see if this would work.

 

As a plan B, if the owner allows for some small holes in the ceiling -

If screwing into a Stud, What are the smallest screws that would be able to hold a baby base plate in place with a 4ft x 2ft Kino Tube?

[David Mullen ASC]

You mean a 4' 2-bank Kino fixture, not a tube... I think a 4' double bank is about 8 pounds of weight.

[Jacob Zalutsky]

Yes, 4ft x 2 bank. with baby base plate into a stud.

[Aapo Lettinen]

I use to tape pieces of 1 mm steel wire to the surface I want to attach Kino tubes and then bind the tubes in the place with the wire. That way they are much easier to attach and remove than if taped directly to the tubes , much more unlikely to damage the tubes and much easier to rig them safely (no melting glue etc). The wire also does not show as much as tape so blurred tubes may pass as real fluorescents in the final image.

 

This is of course not possible if the wall material can't stand your tapes :rolleyes:

some tapes are more forgiving than others, I use a type of 50mm wide PVC tape quite often which does not damage painted surfaces as easily as gaffer tape although the glue does not stand heat as well..

 

cable ties are also OK and maybe velcro could also be used. if you are building a makeshift light you could use white cable ties to hold the tubes in place so that they can't be spotted in the final image

[Jacob Zalutsky]

In the end, we just put some small holes in the ceiling. The owners were just fine with it and everything went well.

 

thanks all for the responses, learned a thing or two about rigging.