Matthew Parnell

In reality most of this ad would have never been possible to achieve on the budget this one has if it was shot on film. People are quick to romanticize film, but the reality is film shoots and the look of film also relies on ‘film’ budgets in lighting and gripping to support it. Spend the same on a digital shoot and you can get a lot more bang for your buck.

As Chris said, ‘Poly Silk’ is usually what is used. Gridcloth is also a pretty durable option, with options of 1/4, 1/2 and Full. You can also purchase Magic Cloth, or Halo Cloth, which is the beautiful heavy diffusion used on chimeras.

We order by the roll, and often have a couple of rolls of most ND gel in the truck, which is usually enough to do things on the fly. If it’s a substantial job window gelling job needing more than a roll or two we will order more beforehand in advance. if it’s going to be a location we keep returning to, we often will get sheets of acrylic/Perspex in the desired density custom cut to fit the window. it’s also worth noting that most ND gel also comes in 5’ wide rolls, which helps with getting coverage on windows.

If I was to pay for an electrician to build this for me I would make sure that there was- -fuse protection to protect the electronics and user in case of a short circuit fault. -the chassis of the dimmer was earthed, again for the safety of the user. -the PCB was secured to the chassis in a more secure manner. -Given how small the enclosure is, I would probably request some vent holes be put into the chassis to help with convection cooling. -an on/off switch was installed- this helps you keep track of levels if you are just saving the lamp for a short period, or turning the lamp on to its set level on a cue.

If it’s a case of you having v lock batteries around and wanting to make use of them, there are a handful of different dual v lock systems out there, which use two v locks and a boost/regulator chain to give a 24v output. A lot of those are good for 10 amps with decent v-locks.

Personally I prefer linear. 50% is 1 stop down, 25% is 2 stops down, 12.5% is 3 stops down etc. Log curves allow for greater dimming resolution at the lower end of a lamps output. With a linear curve, the difference between 3% and 6% is 1 stop, and the difference between 50% and 100% is also 1 stop. Say your dimming resolution is 8 bit. For that one stop difference between 3 and 6 percent you only have about 7 steps of intensity in between, but between 50% and 100% you have 128 steps. The log dimming curve gives you more resolution to play with at the bottom end of your dimmer, and less resolution at the top end, where you really don’t need 0.4% incremental steps between 50% and 100%. Ultimately if you are running lamps in 16 bit mode, the argument for log control becomes moot because you have 655 or so increments between each percentage point.

There are a couple options- It’s best to run them off high capacity Deep cycle batteries. Camping/UPS batteries work pretty well. A car battery could work at a pinch. There are a couple different options to do it- Use and inverter to give you mains AC voltage, and just run the power supply as usual - this is pretty inefficient however. Directly power them by matching the battery voltage with your lamps (ie 12v lamps in the dedo from a 12v battery or 24v lamps via 2x12v Batteries in series). In this configuration I’ve also previously used a DC motor controller to provide dimming.

Normally when I run spacelights I chuck a dimmer curve in the console that limits them to somewhere between 85-90% (this depends on the dimmer itself, if the voltage of the stage is on the high side, I may go a little further). The 10-15% reduction doesn’t tend to affect the output much, but does increase lamp life a lot. Bringing the lamps on and off softly does also help. I find transporting with globes in the head, though often unavoidable, adds to the problem.

In Australia for a handful of reasons we tend to go a bit overboard when wet weather hits. - Heads are covered with either Hogsmesh, or an umbrella. -Ballasts are elevated and ideally placed out of the weather, or covered with an umbrella, or hogsmesh. -Distribution boards are elevated and at least tarped. -Electrical connections are elevated. If not a weather proof type they are also covered/taped. The power on nearly every film set in Australia is RCD (GFCI) protected. Our power distribution equipment has RCDs or ELCBs built in as standard. Our safety code also stipulates the use of plug in type RCDs if in a building without RCD protection (this is getting rarer since safety switches became mandatory in all new builds and electrical upgrades). You can buy Hogsmesh from Barbizon and John Barry Sales in sydney. Most gaffers and rental houses generally will gladly send out some wet weather gear like Hogsmesh with the hire if you ask.

Unless they are specifically designed to, like Quasar Tubes or some domestic LED replacement lamps, MOST LED units will not dim using traditional dimmers. Makes about as much sense electronically as putting a TV on a hand squeezer to control the brightness. There is so much electronics in between the power input and the LED emmiters themselves, in most cases a dimmer at best will cause the power supply unit to work rather hard before going into a fault mode, at worst do catestrophic damage to the heads.

The male plugs have two flat edges and two rounded edges. On the female there is a raised Kino Flo on the mould of the plug. On the heads- The Kino Flo on the mould will line up with the middle of one of the round sections. Narrowing it down to two options to try (much like usb you always get it wrong first time) On the ballast- When plugging in the ballast rounded sections go top and bottom, kinoflo on the mould will be at the top White paint pen marks can help to line them up as well if that doesnt help.

How close a match do you require? Is it a color critical situation, or are you also working with natural light or have a litttle creative latitude? If you have creative latitude you will be surprised at what you can get away with if you get them close, if its color critical then you will need to spend a bit of extra time dealing with it. Generally speaking, putting CTB on Tungsten lamps will attain a better color match than trying to put heavy (full or stronger) CTO on HMI lamps. Heavy correction on HMI tends to accentuate the peaks and troughs in the lamps spectrum and can have some interesting, and difficult to correct results. Naturally CTB on tungsten does come at a cost in terms of stop. You may be able to meet half way and start with a 1/2 CTO on your HMI, then CTB your tungsten to match. It would probably easier to correct your colour temperature first, then when matched, fix your green bias with +/- green on the HMI Head. There really isnt magic formula. Especially with HMI. Lamp to lamp you can have large variances, 2000 kelvin and 1/2 value swings in green from a new globe to an old globe are not unheard of. Make sure you have a comprehensive supply of correction gel, and most importantly have fun! If you can go with a tungsten balance, it may be worth checking the rental house you are getting the M18 from to see if they stock the coated Tungsten balanced 1800w Globes Osram make.

Sorry I didnt realize youre after the old old style Arrisun 12 sealed beam globe. Good luck with that.

Filmandvideolighting.com has Koto 1200 SE Globes for US $170. If you stick with brands like Koto, Osram, GE and Ushio you should be fine. Globes shouldnt be used with physical damage. Once youve seen a HMI or larger tungsten lamp explode, youll understand why.

Speculating here, but perhaps to achieve the light pointing down, using a head and lamp type that many not allow this to be done safely otherwise?

From the vantage point of a lamp op, you see DPs, often early in their careers come from a low budget background where they do everything, and don't really 'get' what a good gaffer offers. The most successful approach tends to occur when the DP and the gaffer start with a discussion about what the DP wants to achieve, and then they bounce ideas off one another about the best way of doing it. Sometimes, if the DP has a specific plan in mind you might just go with that. Other times the gaffer might suggest something that delivers the same result but is more flexible, or quicker, or cheaper, or just plain better. The trick here is collaboration and utilizing the talent and skills of the people around you. A good gaffer is going to be your best ally on set. They provide a second set of eyes, a very large bag of tips and tricks, a vast range of experience, and can let you focus on telling the story rather than getting distracted by the mechanics of lighting a scene.

Check out James Neihouse on instagram. We was the curator last month of the ASC instagram and is a legend in the world of IMAX and filming in space. Probably one of the more interesting months on the ASC feed. I think I remember reading something about C500s being used.

If you don't have any white wardrobe or props, you could consider staying with the white, ideally lighting it well above key and using a Luma key instead?

I'd class both as being silent in normal conditions.

1/4 Silk(also known as a voile) or Hi-lite are perfect for these situations. Both are very different. The hi-lite is a little like Hampshire frost in that it softens off how hard the shadows are, but doesn't do much in terms of contrast. Hi-lites are heavier and a little less manageable in the wind than a 1/4 silk. I find the 1/4 silk allows a fair bit of hard light through, so it doesn't drastically reduce light levels, but makes things less contrasty and fills the shadows a bit more.

Also roll your gel to its smallest size. So when you grab a piece of rolled up gel that's 2ft wide, you know that it will be at least 2ft X 2ft in size. Nothing worse than grabbing a piece of rolled gel that's 3ft wide, getting to the lamp only to find its 1ft long and useless for the task.

I think it has a lot to do with many manufacturers rationalizing their product lines as demand reduces for tungsten lamps. I contend that using a 240v lamp at 230v is somewhat advantageous. Assuming the perfect supply, running a 240v lamp at 230v renders a theoretical drop in output of only about 4%, or less than 1/8th of a stop, and very little in terms of mired shift. What you gain is an improvement in lamp life, which is handy if you have a couple hundred lamps hung in a studio. Add to this the fact that despite having a nominal voltage of 230v, many countries, like here in Australia have a historic voltage of 240v, and our actual supply voltage usually sits much closer to 240v(metering 245v isnt uncommon if close to a substation or transformer). As a result 230v lamps have a rather limited lifespan.

If you're working outside of the States, in some countries like Australia, the U.K. or Europe often 'grip lighting' ie bounces, overheads etc falls under the scope of the electrics department and the Gaffer.

An issue arises from resonance that occurs when running some lamps arround 1000hz. The resonance destabilises the arc and affects the output of the lamp. To solve this issue ARRI allows the output frequency to be adjusted to a frequency that avoids this resonance. They offer three options of adjustment. Firstly Manual gives you total control of the frequency the head is run at. You first set you dimmer level, then adjust your frequency to achieve stability. Auto-Manual gives you control of the frequency, but the electronics in the ballast provide additional correction if you do start to get resonance. Auto-Scan does all the work for you.

Yep. Definitely local techs in Australia that can handle repairs and maintenance on both brands. PM me if you need details. I think I remember reading somewhere Barbizon having a 5 year warranty on ARRI gear. Both brands are reputable. Have used both with M18s personally I prefer the ergonomics of the ARRI. Ultimately they do the same job. It's worth mentioning however that in my recent experiences the lamp hour meter only works when using ARRI ballasts.