David G. Smith

Pick up a copy of the October 2013 American Cinematographer and read the article on how Roger Deakins ASC, BSC shot the new film "Prisoners". In that film, shot with an Alexa Studio with Arri Master Primes, Deakins used a, "...Practical heavy approach...". AC also notes that the local crew, "...Was blown away..." by the lighting approach. The article is very clear that lighting with a "...Practical heavy approach..." takes as much care, skill and talent as any other approach to lighting. I would also suggest taking a look at Bobby Bukowski's work on the movie "Rampart". That flick was also shot with an Alexa and I think that Mr. Bukowski pushed the envelope, at least a little bit, with his lighting. Also, check out "A Clockwork Orange", shot by John Alcott BSC. It is my understanding that a good portion of the film was shot using practicals as the primary light source.

Guy, I am kind of in the same boat and am putting together a small lighting/grip/electrical package for very low budget/micro budget fictional narrative personal works and I will share what I have come up with. I am not saying that this is the industry standard way of doing things. I just think that it is the best way for me to go with the resources that I have. A lot depends on the lighting package that you have or anticipate using. Most of my package is tungsten. I have 5 750 watt fresnels, 4 (Up to)1K Par 64 cans, a bunch (about 10) of 650 watt open face lights and a bunch of standard medium base (E26)Edison house hold light bulb socket fixtures, from clamp work lights to high wattage 4 socket batten lights that I can put in any medium base bulb from CFLs up to 500 watt mushroom shaped (R40) flood lights and anything in between. One thing that I have decided to do, to help keep my kit costs lower and help simplify lighting on most locations that I would most likely encounter is to keep my lighting kit to fixtures with a max of 1000 watts (1K). With 1K or less I can safely use standard household 15 amp circuits to light most situations. The electrics part of my kit is mainly for spreading out the lighting over several circuits at a location. 15 amps can handle up to 1625 watts of light so I can put two 650s, or what ever up to 1625 watts, on one circuit safely. So in my kit I have: Electric: Stingers. I bought 10 25' 12/3 black stingers. I would like to get at couple of 50' and 100' foot 12/3 stingers as well. You will need to shop around to get the best prices. I would try to stay with 12 gauge cable. A lot of 14 gauge cables are rated for 15 amps, but I like have the 12 gauge for little longer cable runs. I am also getting some 8' light duty (16 gauge, 13 amp rated) extension cords (From a big box retailer) that I plug into the power cord of individual lamps. Since I am using mostly fixtures that are 1K or less, these cable will handle the power and having the extra, lighter weight extension cord makes it easier to arrange the lights around on the set (As opposed to running a couple of fixtures off a cube tap from a stinger just using the attached power cord). I also have 4 15 amp rated power strips. What I usually do is run a stinger from different circuits at a location to a power strip on the set. Then run the power to the individual lights from the power strip. To round out electric gear I also have cube taps, ground lifts or "Cheater plugs"(3 prong plug to 2 prong plug adapter) and some specialty supplies. Things like an adapter that screws into medium base socket and gives you a female plug, or a female plug to socket adapter, some "Y" sockets to put two bulbs in one medium base socket and so on. I also have 3 dimmers that I use. Grip: I am still working on getting my grip gear up to speed. To me, the starting point of grip gear is the grip (Or gobo) head. I have 4 grip heads and I am going to get some more. The ones I have have a five/eights female adapter that will fit on most any stand and have a single grip head. I want to get 2 or three of those and then get 4 or so double head grip heads. These are simply two grip heads attached together. These are useful for attaching a grip head to an extension arm (or any pole) and having the second grip head for attachments. The grip head is the starting point for most any grip set up and I recommend really researching what is out there is and what will fit your needs the best. The single grip heads I am using I found on eBay for a very good price. I bought one and tried it out and really like it. Like I said, I have bought more of them and will get even a few more. I got them from these guys. 2DreamMaker and is called the DMK E-Image Gobo Grip Head. After getting grip heads then you can go ahead and get, or make up sets of flags, scrims and nets, diffusion and gel frames, boom arms ect. Stands. Of course, it would be recommended that you get some C-stands. I am slacking in this and haven't put together a set of C-stands. Instead, I have been using regular light and medium duty light stands for my grip set ups. It works, but I really need to get some C-stands. Clamps. I have a couple of super clamps (Bogen-Manfretto) with a baby pin. I want to get some more and will look around for other types; probably some cardellini clamps, or the equivalent. I also have a couple of baby plates which are very handy. Other. Things like apple boxes, cribbing and the like you can get, or put together, as needed. However on thing that I think is essential for a grip kit is sandbags (Or shot bags). What I did is I got 12 inexpensive pre-made empty sandbags off of eBay and filled them myself. Shop around and get the ones you like best. Just some tips. I used sand from a big box retailer and I highly recommend using the more expensive "Play" sand (By QUIKRETE). I first used regular landscape fill sand, but the moisture content of this type of sand is too high and the sand bags froze solid when stored in my unheated garage during a Michigan winter. This made them useless to me as I need to use them in winter up here. The play sand is cleaned and dried and since switching to it I have not had a problem with the bags freezing. Another tip, when I filled the bags I put two heavy duty gallon sized zip lock storage bags in the bags, put the sand in and sealed the bags. I haven't had any issue with sand leaking out of the bags. I really can not stress how handy and essential I think having sand bags around are. Of course they are for making your stands more safe, especially when using lighter weight inexpensive stands, but I find new uses for them all the time. I really recommend taking the time and money (I think I spent MAYBE $120.00 total getting and filling 12 sandbags, well worth it) and making up some good sandbags to have around. The wonderful world of DIY PVC pipe gear. I just started doing this, and I am really sorry I put it off for as long as I have, but I am putting together some gear with PVC pipe from a big box retailer. Now I have seen those YouTube tutorials on DIY light stand made out of PVC pipe, and I am not going that far. What I have done is put together some simple frames using the stuff and I am very pleased with results. I put together two 4'X4' frames, two 3'X2' frames, a 6' wide backdrop top bar and made up some DIY flags with 1/2" PVC pipe and spent about $20 total for the pipe and fittings. Like I said I am very pleased with the results and the frames are going to be very handy. I have some pipe left over that I have cut and will keep around as light weight boom arms, or what ever. I am going to keep some 1/2" PVC pipe with elbows and T couplings, a PVC pipe cutter and some PVC cement around from now on. The stuff is just way too handy. Expendables and tools. You will of course need some basic expendables. Gaffer's, and other types of tape, black wrap, gels and so on. I also have a tool box of basic hand tools that I keep around on a shoot. This stuff grows all the time and you can put it together to your specs. Well, just some suggestions. Like I said, I work low budget, so a lot of folks may chuckle... but to each there own. If it works, it works, ya know.

I can see that and I hope that my post did not come off as snarky, that was not my intent. I am actually a big fan of DIY, but my M.O. is a little different. I use a lot of unconventional lights, but what I have settled on is to mix and match unconventional (And usually used) gear in whole to make up the lower cost DIY solutions. This building from scratch thing is not something that I am good at and, as noted above, doesn't add up for me. Those who are good at from scratch building projects would, naturally, have a different perspective. Now, I can see the need for all types of stands in a kit, lord knows that you can never have enough stuff to hang poop from but using this DIY solution as a total replacement for professional C-Stands is not something that I can wrap my head around.

The thing that I don't get about many DIY filmmaking projects is factoring in the time and effort of gathering the parts and tools needed to make it and then putting the stuff together negates the savings from just the sum of the parts. Maybe if I had a set up work shop with all the right tools I might feel differently, but I don't at this time. C-stands are not cheap, but making them would, for me, cost much more in my time and hassel then I think would be worth it. Of course, I have a good couple of rental houses near by so C-stands aren't an issue.

Wow, I bet those will be handy lights to have. Reminds me to check Craigslist latter and see what I can find there. I have seen lists of essential gear, like above, in other forums and such, and I have noted that everybody includes cube taps, but rarely mentions power strips. Would there be a reason for that? I work very low budget so I am usually stuck with location power, from the sockets. I first try to figure out the different circuits and run a feeder stinger from outlets on each circuit to a central place, if possible, then feed individual fixtures off of the power strips. I use 25 foot 12/3 stingers (I have 10 of them now)and the largest fixture I have is a 2K, but mostly work with 1K or less. Am I overlooking anything by using power strips? I use some pretty burly ones (I don't have them handy at the moment to check specs). Now I have done bigger shoots and call in the appropriately skilled individuals to access and distribute power for us, but bread and butter stuff is thin staffed, ya know.

I also have to say that I am gaining an appreciation for the PAR 64 cans as well. For pure footcandle bang for the buck, they are hard to beat. I got 4 of the fixtures from these guys for $85.00, with free shipping. They still sell 4 of them for $89.00 or so. Even with adding a bulb and a TVMP adapter I am still in for about $55.00 a piece for the fixtures. I have tested the photometrics of my lights recently and the 1000 watt PAR 64 can, with a very narrow spot bulb gives 100 footcandles (f5.6(ish) at 500 ISO) at 50 feet. With a 1000 watt wide flood bulb, It still gives 30 footcandles (f2.8(ish) at 500 ISO) at 40 feet.

When ya'll say "Ground lifts" do you mean "Cheater plugs" or a three prong to two prong adapter? I keep a handful of them with me at all times, that is for sure. Also have various electrical gizmos like socket to outlet adapters, outlet to socket socket adapters, medium base two head sockets and an inexpensive circuit tester. Also, lots of tape... of various types.

Looks like we stepped on each other Jon. Sorry about that. I love the idea of the paint bucket light. I do have a question though. Do you primarily use it with the top on, like a cylindrical china ball, or with the top off as a more direct light, or both? When I get some time, I want to put together one of those lights. As a directional light, with the top off, I thought using something like this might be interesting. Any thoughts on that? Also, What kind of photometrics are getting out of it the way that you use it? Thanks.

The make up on Brando, who was in his forties at the time, to make him look like the sixties plus Don Corleone. The make up was done by the great make up artist Dick Smith. It is my understanding that Smith used a specially designed dental appliance to push out, and down, Brando's lower jowls, thinned his hair and applied an aging technique called "Stipple" to give the skin a wrinkled look. The way the story goes is that in testing of that make up they found that a prominent top light really sold the effect of the make up and they went with it. If you look at pictures of Brando from "The Godfather" you can see that the top lighting gives prominence to the top of his skull, brow ridge, cheek bone and jowls. In that make up, under that lighting, Brando's appearance is, IMHO, almost skull like and very effective. That type of lighting also shadowed Brando's eyes, which Willis has been noted as saying that he liked as it gave an air of mystery to the character. The story continues saying that Willis got a lot of poop for the shadowed eyes from the studio suits because of the break from standard convention ("We gotta show the eyes...", "...The eyes are the window to the soul"...blah, blah). Now, that is the story as to how Gordon Willis developed his use of top light, and it is a good story. However, he uses beautiful top lighting in the movie "Klute"which was released before "The Godfather". I recently re-watched the Willis shot movie "The Drowning Pool", a Paul Newman potboiler thriller and Willis again deftly used the top lighting. I love Gordon Willis's work.

Jon, that link shows, "Content unavailable". I would love to see a pic of that light in use. Thanks.

You know, a 30 inch DIAMETER china ball seems to me to be big enough to accommodate two of those 250 watt halogens, but I would definitely test it out before I used it on a shoot. I would set up a rig like that outside and let it cook off for a while to see how hot they get.

Yes, I've seen interviews with Willis where he mentions that he developed the top light in response to Brando's make-up needs for the role. So, how high of wattage bulbs are you comfortable using in a paint bucket rig? I find that pretty interesting. I may have to rig something like that up.

Oh yeah, I can understand budget constraints, that is for sure. For halogen lights, I found these 250 watt bulbs on eBay, from this seller (Linked seller just in case the item description times out). They seem to me to be the same that are sold at Filmtools for a much higher price. I think they would work well in china balls. I tested the photometrics of those halogen, in a reflector scoop like noted above, and they gave 320 FC at 5 feet (f8/11 split at 500 ISO), 70FC at 10 feet (f4/5.6 split at 500 ISO), 30FC at 15 feet (f2.8 at 500 ISO) 15FC at 20 feet (f2.0 at 500 ISO), 10 FC at 25 feet (f1.4/2.0 split at 500 ISO), and 7FC at 30 feet (f1.4 at 500 ISO). They can be screwed into any standard medium base (E-26) socket (rated for the wattage), and are very handy.

You know, you might want to contact some national Vietnam Era Veterans associations and see if they could put your request out to their membership.

I have gone back and began re-watching and studying as many of the films shot by Gordon Willlis ASC as I can. I am amazed by his cinematography. What I really want to know is how he achieved that signature top lighting. I have noted that he seems to use a variety of fixtures, of varying quality of light, but there is a very specific directional soft light that he seems to have used in multiple films that just knocks me out. I was wondering if anyone knew what type or types of lighting fixtures he used to create that type of lighting? I was wondering if he just used variations on the "Chicken Coop" type of light, with various types of diffusion, drapes and other light modifiers or something else? I have never used a "Chicken Coop", but they seem to be pretty unwieldy contraptions. Second, using modern lighting gear, how would you suggest recreating light like that today? Thanks, Dave.

Oops, in "...From my tests, 1/8 still leaves a tiny bit of green and 1/8 is too magenta for my tastes...", I meant to say, "1/8 still leaves a tiny bit of green and 1/4 is too magenta for my tastes...".

I bought some of those Alzo 27 watt daylight bulbs and I have to say that I was kind of disappointed in them. I do think that they are pretty close to 5600K, but they also have a pretty prominent green spike. You will need to add at least some 1/8 or 1/4 minus green to counter that. (To your tastes of course. From my tests, 1/8 still leaves a tiny bit of green and 1/8 is too magenta for my tastes. I would like to be able to stack a 1/16 on a 1/8 and see how that looks, but I can't find 1/16 minus green). My biggest issue is the light intensity. Don't be fooled by that "Equivalent light output" hype about the CFLs. I did photometric testing of the Alzo 27 watt CFL, directly out of a reflector scoop light, and got 30 footcandles (FC) at 5 feet (f2.8 @ 500 ISO*), 7FC at 10 feet (f1.4 @ 500 ISO) and <5FC at 15 feet (>f1.4 at 500 ISO). I tested a 100 watt soft white incandescent bulb in the same fixture and got 50FC at 5 feet (F4 @ 500 ISO), 15FC at 10 feet (F2.0 @ 500 ISO) and 5FC at 15 feet (f1.4 @ 500 ISO). Even doubling up these bulbs in a china ball may not be enough light to really do much when trying to match to daylight from windows. *F-stop settings are closest match from analog meter readings.