Ollie Bartlett

Cheers for all the answers guys, I think my plan at the moment is to tear 12 of the lights apart, just keeping the bulbs, holders, reflectors etc, and get the local metal working guys to knock me up some sort of ventilated aluminum housing for each 6 light unit (based pretty much on the original casing per light... just a larger version). I'm liking Michaels idea of keeping a few around though. I can easily imagine getting into a situation where i wish i hadn't used up all of my resources and had a few smaller lights still around to kick up some backgrounds. Is there any point in me trying to find some sort of solid diffusion, or will this just cut out more light than i can afford? Essentially... should i just go with sheets of gel if and when i need them, or is there enough of a payoff in just having something solid that i can slide into a frame on the front of each unit? Once again guys thank you for all your input... I don't know a lot, but 90% of what i have learned has come from this site and not uni. Much appreciation! Ollie

Hey there, Yeah sorry mate, when i put the post up it was pretty late so i guess that kinda slipped my mind. They're Strand Nocturne 500's, but unfortunately my DSLR has been lent out at the moment so cant provide my own pics... however, this should provide more info than i can possibly ever give. http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/lanterns/do...odanocturne.pdf As a side note, my ignorance will shine through here when i ask, whats the difference between an overhead cyclorama and a broadlight. Just tried doing some research but couldn't really find many answers (other than all the overhead cycs i saw seem to be hung, and all the broads seemed to be on c-stands). Cheers guys, and apologies for the lack of previous information. Ollie

:lol: i always thought Pat Butchers hair looked a bit shifty!

Hey there, I've recently been given a load of theatre floods, i'm guessing which were usually used for lighting backdrops... essentially, i've got 18x 500w theatre floods, and am trying to find a use for them. So far i've been using my redheads, with diff and if neccessary ctb for overall soft light but losing a lot of light in the process, then my arri's for any additional key, backlight etc... but i've been thinking about rebuilding the theatre floods into large soft banks of about 3Kw each (which as far as i know is the maximum output of any UK household mains). Does anyone have any suggestions on how i could maybe go about doing this? I'd like to get rid of the outer metal housings and mount 6 of them per frankenstein creation on some sort of metal bracket, just to keep the weight down, but am really unsure as to where to even begin. As well as this, is there any solid material that i could use as permanent diffusion, but thats A... not going to cut too much light (damn you M2!), and B... not going to burn, and how far away would this need to be from the bulbs themselves so as not to burn the diffusion itself. I think these softbanks are my plan at the moment, so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions its very much appreciated... in fact, if anyone has any better ideas for these lights use, then thats extra appreciated. People of cinematography.com... please help me put these things to good use... in fact anything so i can take them out from under my bed. Thats where old clothes are meant to go! Cheers people, Ollie

Hey, I managed to pick up an explorer flight case from calumet a couple of years ago. It cost 185 quid, which was a bit of a shock, but has enough space and padding for all the components of my XL2 to be kept separate and safe inside it (plus things like cleaning kit, stock, mains adaptor, polas etc. Plus side, its safe enough to use it for air transport, and since having it ive never once worried about the camera getting knocked while in the case. Bad side, its bulky and cant be carried over the shoulder, so not the most comfortable thing if youre walking around and dont have transport. Still, i can highly recommend going down the flight case option as opposed to the soft bag option... just one less worry in my mind. Ollie

Hi, Good choice... i have the same setup. you can get some really nice images out of the XL with the M2 ( a lot of light needed though). Try and get a broad choice of primes, something like a 24/28, a 35, a 50, an 85 and something like a 105 or 135. These will cover you for almost every eventuality of low budget film making. I like to keep a mid-range zoom handy as well, as it'll get you out of some tight spots if theres no time for track. You might want to check out www.lenses35.com. these guys will sell you an entire set of decent nikon primes, eliminating the need to spend ages sourcing lenses. Prices are reasonable but not great. Other than that you might want to check out bh photo's used section at www.bhphoto.com. you can filter it to just pick out nikons, theres a decent selection always on there and nice prices. A word of warning though... always pick something thats at least f2.8 or faster. As i said, you need a lot of light. Hope that helps, Ollie

Hey there, It looks like a crew of us from the UK might be shooting a commercial out in the US in the near future, however it seems like it would be cheaper for us to fly our own equipment to the states rather than hiring whilst we're there. With the expected shoot mostly being done at night, in winter, and in the mountains, we would rather take this option as it means we're not having to pay possibly extended hire rates due to unforeseen weather conditions. However, what are the complications, if any, of using 240 volt lights from a 110 volt power source? I take it some sort of step down converter would be needed, but does this limit the output of the light source in any way? As a side note (at this point anyway), what are the problems i should look out for if we decide to use our own camera kit, shooting pal and converting to ntsc. Poor poor questions, but we've got a shoestring budget, and never had to deal with these issues before. Cheers people, Ollie

lol... just entered a post and realised the answer had already been discussed (deleted and changed).... cheers guys

Hi there, Im having a few weeks in New York (woo-hoo) towards the end of september / early october and im just wondering if anyone in the city might have a project going on around that time where they'd be brave enough to let an english guy on set to help out for a few days. I dont necessarily want any money, just looking to see how stuff works on the other side of the pond and hopefully find some cool people in a city that i hope (one day) to move to. Doesnt matter what sort of work it is (although not knowing the city im probably not going to be a good coffee finder!).... its more about the experience and meeting people for me. Anyway, if anyones interested in some helping hands, post back or PM me or something. Cheers people, Ollie Bartlett

Hi guys, Ok heres the deal. im shooting very soon in a confined space using a load of redheads and fresnels. Were trying to make it reasonably dark (in terms of lighting) with only a few touches of light dappled around the room, and so, maybe rather foolishly, ive wired a load of dimmers onto all my tungstens. Unfortunately this changes the colour temperature of the light to an orangey / red hue as soon as the dimmer is in use, and so how do i then balance (video by the way) during a scenario when we also have fully powered tungstens in use? should i use the manual balance, or should i try to correct the output of the dimmed lights using gels (and if so which), so i get less power but the same CT? Of course saying all this, as fate would predict ive also just found a bunch of lower power lamps in a box. should i forget about the whole dimmer situation and just change lamps when i need? As with all my topics, confusion is rife, but many thanks to anyone that replies. Ollie Bartlett

hi there, cant seem to upload (3.5mb) it but put your email address in a reply and ill send it over to you. ollie

ok lets me get this straight, because id be using a 3200k white balance, a full or half ctb would give me the desired effect from a tungsten if stopped properly. id only need to add the extra ctb if i was shooting with a 5600k balance so that the colour temperature of the lights matched the balance (im not sure that this sentence even makes sense). just out of interest, why has the person on the thread i pinched the info from recommended an additional 1/4 plus green to the mix? what effect does this additional tone give to the light when blended with the CTB? ollie ps im setting up the lights, gels and cam in my living room right this second as a test so ill let you know how it goes. cheers david

hi all, ok, heres my conundrum. ive been asked to shoot an interior night scene and replicate the light so as to look like moonlight coming through the window. i only have tungsten lights to use and am trying to find a solution. i may have figured something out by scanning these forums but i would really appreciate it if somebody could tell me if im heading in the right direction. tungsten runs at 3200k and so i can replicate 5500k by using a full CTB gel. then... i add some 1/2CTB and 1/4 plus green (ontop of the full CTB) which will give me a decent moonlight tone. as i said, i have no idea if this works but its what i can figure out from this, the most hallowed of forums. any advice would be very much appreciated. cheers guys, ollie

hi there, i know its not strictly an SD question but im an SD person (at the moment) and so ill ask it here anyway. ive just invested in a matte box to use with my camera and 35 mm kit and im trying to shop around for filters. i really didnt fully appreciate how expensive these things actually are, and so im wondering if anyone might know of a manufacturer of 4x4 filters that produces reasonably good glass without the very high cost (im uk based if that makes any difference to anyone). also, it seems pretty tough to get my hands on these things to check out what certain filters actually do and what their results are, so if anyone has a good suggestion of a starter kit style thing (just a few of the essentials as something to get me to grips with their function and to start the ball rolling) then id be very very appreciative. cheers people, Ollie Bartlett

hey Michael, in answer to your questions: 1: it only ever happens outdoors (specifically in a field or forrest, city is fine). Indoor WBing has never caused a problem. 2:havnt tried the CTB, or at least not a specific blue with a mind to finding the answer to this problem. 3:colour matrix settings are all fine. i usually only alter them after ive white balanced. 4: i cant remember. it has loads of settings but ill check today after work. 5: white balance sheet is white. 5 more nuggets of info for all you would be digital detectives.

cheers for the reply guys, im probably totally missing the point, but wouldnt green light reflecting onto the white surface whilst white balancing cause another tone to be prominant? ie blue filter on white when balancing gives a warm tone afterwards, yellow or orange filter when balancing gives a cool tone afterwards. why would green reflection then cause a green tone? surely it would partially remove the greens from the image as it would recognise those slight greens as actually being white.

hey there, my first post here so a big hello to everyone. ok here's the deal. whenever i try to manual white balance outdoors, especially in a field or forest, my images always come out with a green tint, forcing me to use the outdoor preset on my XL2. i cant figure this out as surely it cant be caused by light bouncing off the green surroundings, although i only believe this due to experience white balancing blue to give a warm tint and balancing orange or yellow for a cold bluish tint. Noobish question i know, and i should know the answer to this problem by now, but its always been too easy to just flip to a preset rather than confronting the problem. cheers guys, ollie