Lightning Effects

Nick Passick · September 23, 2005

Question about simulating lightning. It's a short about a man trapped inside his house during a storm. We've looked into Lightning Strikes and hopefully things will pull through. However, our two week deadline Lightning Strikes needs is coming up quickly and my school's insurance is being kinda slow, so I was hoping to seek some advice on ways around this. All lightning will occassionally be seen flashing outside a window but there will be times when we want it to light up the interior for a very short period of time, so we want it to have some presence. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dimitrios Koukas · September 23, 2005

Question about simulating lightning. It's a short about a man trapped inside his house during a storm. We've looked into Lightning Strikes and hopefully things will pull through. However, our two week deadline Lightning Strikes needs is coming up quickly and my school's insurance is being kinda slow, so I was hoping to seek some advice on ways around this. All lightning will occassionally be seen flashing outside a window but there will be times when we want it to light up the interior for a very short period of time, so we want it to have some presence. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Nick,

if you manage to rent the lighting strikes, u will not need so much light inside, while the light from the lighting strike fixtures will cover a lot of your set.

I will suggest if you don't finally manage to do this, just gel 5k or 10k tungsten fixtures with double C.T.B. and use a lighting desk to flash them.

U can add some lights, if u want to simulate the strikes that flash inside the house too, But use smaller fixtures, like 1k fresnels.

Just be sure that u group them so they will flash all together.

I hope that I have been helpfull.

It's just that I do not know how big your set is.

Dimitrios Koukas

Nick Passick · September 23, 2005

Thanks for the info, the lighting inside is going to be very dark as the power is out, failed to mention this in the initial post. Motivated light from inside will be from few candles inside and then some low ambient light outside.

timHealy · September 23, 2005

What is a "lighting desk"? I have never heard of that one before.

The old fashion Hollywood way to create lighting is to use the big tungsten lamps with shutters or a use a carbon arc lighting machine but you'll need DC to use that I believe. Of course you'll want an experienced electrician to use that one.

Tim

Paul Bruening · September 24, 2005

You have the right situation for doing this cheaply and getting away with it. Set your light up outside the window. Gell it blue. Build (get it checked by licensed electrician before use) a simple box with a 110V, high wattage, snap toggle from the hardware store. Run it inline on the light's power. Heat up the light before the take. Snap the toggle rapidly during take. Pop a block board in front of the light to rapidly halt the light flow. The switch makes noise so set it with extension cord away from the set. Throw some pillows or blanket over the operator's hands.

It works just fine and is way cheaper than renting a lightning rig.

It gets cheaper than this. You can spin a gobo with various cuts in it. Sort of like running a wheel with the light shining through the spokes. The gobo has to be pretty big and you have to practice control. You have to spin it fast or the movement will be dedectable. It's cheesier than doing it with power control but very cheap. You'd be surprised what the viewer will swallow.

If you have the bucks, nothing beats a nice, rented, lightning rig.

Dimitrios Koukas · September 24, 2005

What is a "lighting desk"? I have never heard of that one before.

The old fashion Hollywood way to create lighting is to use the big tungsten lamps with shutters or a use a carbon arc lighting machine but you'll need DC to use that I believe. Of course you'll want an experienced electrician to use that one.

Tim

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Ok maybe a lighting console makes sence?

Something that controls your DMX controlable dimmer packs u plug your lights at, and call it as u like my friend.

Dimitrios Koukas