What exactly is a coop light and what is it comprised of?

[Edith blazek]

I know it's a softbox light that uses bulbs but I would like to know the specifics of the construction of it, like how many bulbs per light for example. So if anyone could give me a rundown on what it is and required parts that would be nice.

[David Mullen ASC]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/357347-REG/Mole_Richardson_20165_6_Spacelite_Cluster.html

I don't think there were any standards, the early ones were built by studio lighting departments and basically were metal boxes with light bulbs inside. Mole-Richardson started making and selling one as listed above, a white metal box with six 1K silver bowl globes, Mogul-base. They also made a "Maxi-Coop" using six 1K PAR bulbs, basically a 6-light MaxiBrute pointed straight down.  But I think you could make a box with six 500W photofloods and call it a coop, for example.

[Edith blazek]

38 minutes ago, David Mullen ASC said:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/357347-REG/Mole_Richardson_20165_6_Spacelite_Cluster.html

I don't think there were any standards, the early ones were built by studio lighting departments and basically were metal boxes with light bulbs inside. Mole-Richardson started making and selling one as listed above, a white metal box with six 1K silver bowl globes, Mogul-base. They also made a "Maxi-Coop" using six 1K PAR bulbs, basically a 6-light MaxiBrute pointed straight down.  But I think you could make a box with six 500W photofloods and call it a coop, for example.

Alright, have you heard of anyone using regular 60 watt bulbs for a coop?

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, there’s no point in putting little 60W bulbs in the big heavy Mole-Richardson metal box, at that point you’d build something lighter and call it a soft box (sometimes called a “coffin box” too). It’s even questionable whether the metal box is overkill for 500W photofloods, maybe not. “Coop light” has connotations with a bigger box with bigger bulbs. But there’s no industry standard for what a coop light is. Today you’d probably put LED ribbon in a cardboard-type box or use a Litemat or some similar product.

[Edith blazek]

5 minutes ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Well, there’s no point in putting little 60W bulbs in the big heavy Mole-Richardson metal box, at that point you’d build something lighter and call it a soft box (sometimes called a “coffin box” too). It’s even questionable whether the metal box is overkill for 500W photofloods, maybe not. “Coop light” has connotations with a bigger box with bigger bulbs. But there’s no industry standard for what a coop light is. Today you’d probably put LED ribbon in a cardboard-type box or use a Litemat or some similar product.

Oh so basically all coops are softboxes but not all softboxes are coops?

[Eric Eader]

Edith

The "coop light" more resembled the roof of a small chicken coop on a farm and a "coffin light" had more of the shape of a coffin... long and narrow as opposed to a tall squarish rectangle.  Coffins could be baby sized or adult sized, or be big enough to contain several bodies.

What wasn't in the picture of the coop was the frame that slid in below the lightbulbs that had "chicken wire" spread across it to allow one to place diffusion and/or color gel on it.  For instance:  light diffusion and 1/4 or 1/2 color temperature blue to produce a stunningly gray light to simulate a cloudy London Day Exterior on a soundstage.

Early in movie history many lights were improvised to solve a particular problem and companies would manufacture their version of that when it proved to be popular among Directors of Photography. That improvisation continues to this day.

Softboxes are generally made, today, of fabric, whereas coops and coffins were more solid early on, then some were morphed into fabric and commercialized.  They all generally put out "softlight" as opposed to "hardlight"  (such as bare naked bulbs or fresnel lights).