Michael E Brown

More grips to say "take this stuff over there" to.

Ok, dumb gaffer question - why can't you use optical flats on a 3D rig? Does the same thing apply to filters and such in the mattebox?

Check out the new Arri open face tungsten fixtures. I was just reading about the Arrilight Plus 750, I thought they incorporated some nifty new features. They have learned lots since the Arrilight 1000. As the owner of several 1Ks in a rental stock (and replacer of melted ones), this looks like it will be a great asset. http://www.arri.de/lighting/europe_asia_australia_africa/tungsten_lampheads/arrilite_plus/arrilite_plus_750.html#_blank Key new points: 1) The awesome single ended HPL750 from the Source 4. Probably similar in brightness or slightly better than the 1K with less power draw. Single ended means cleaner beam already plus it gets the Arrimax style reflector, which from what I've seen lately is very good. 2) Aluminum housing - THANK GOODNESS! No more melted plastic goo on the floor and expensive replacements. For whatever reason, no one ever listens to the rental house (or reads the very clear instructions on the yoke) about leaving the top/bottom Chimera flaps open. Now I just have to worry about the Chimera getting cooked - but no melted goo! I personally dislike the Mickey Mole's steel housing, but I quite like the ETC Source 4 Par's aluminum housing - I think this one will be a winner. 3) Built in "speedring" basically for Chimera Video Pros. This is fantastic. Less items to lose. 4) Same accessory/scrim size as the 650 Plus fresnel. Genius. 5) Nice plastic handle on rear for adjustments while hot. I've got to give it to Colortran for putting these on fixtures as far back as the Cine Queen - but their plastic mix was lacking, which meant they cracked rather easily. The the handle on the rear of the Source 4 works quite well, so I would imagine this will be a nice addition with the advantage of modern plastics. Not sure about the single arm yoke, will just have to see about that. I have some Strand/Quartzcolor Bambino 500 fresnels (basically same as Arri 300 Plus) that are single sided and work very well - but we don't hang Chimeras on the front of them either. The brake disc style yoke looks nice. The new 2K fixture looks pretty nice also, with it getting an aluminum housing and the new reflector as well. No built in speedring for 2K though, bummer.

To do this the old fashioned way, you need a single - very sharp focused source. The key factor is a single point source - which means you also need a bright light. You can use (in order of effectiveness, which is pretty much based on brightness): 1) A moving head profile fixture (ex: Mac III, VL3500, VL1000). These fixtures are similar in concept to a leko mentioned below in that they can focus the light sharp enough to project patterns, or in your case - sharp enough to make a perfect silhouette. Only downside is most of these fixtures are 30 degrees or narrower (Mac III below is 55 degrees, but very expensive). This means you will need quite a bit of depth to achieve even coverage of a square/rectangle screen. Example: http://www.martin.com/product/product.asp?product=maciii 2) An ellipsoidal reflector spotlight or "leko" (ex: ETC Source 4). These fixtures can focus the light sharp enough to project patterns, or in your case - sharp enough to make a perfect silhouette. The 750w lamped Source 4 is pretty punchy, however renting a k5600 400w or 800w Joker with the Source 4 adapter makes it even better. The nice thing about these is that you can usually find 50 degree fixtures in any theater, reducing the depth you need. There are 70 and 90 degree lenses now, but I would questions the evenness of the beam having never used them. Example: http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.aspx?ID=20080 3) An open face fixture with black reflector installed (ex: Arri X series). These fixtures have a single lamp with a simple reflector behind it. The concept is the same as a Lowel Tota, Cyc lights, etc except usually with a different style lamp like a fresnel lamp or HMI lamp that is not as long. Many of these fixtures have the option to change the silver reflector to a black reflector - eliminating multiple points of light and making the beam very sharp and distinct. One specific fixture I know of is actually sold with the black reflector and called a "silhouette light". You can also cheat this effect by using a cyc light and either painting the reflector with high temp black or just covering it with blackwrap. A cyc light doesn't work quite as well since the filament of the average 1000w cyc is about 3" long, where the single ended lamps on their side have a square filament around 1". The upside is that these fixtures are extremely wide (100-130degrees), although the light will fall off on the edges - which can be very apparent with a large area. The other fixtures above will be even across the whole area, but require much more depth. The downside to these is really the brightness. With the black reflector, the efficiency of the light does way down since much of the lamps output (back 50% and some of the sides) is wasted. HMI fixtures like the Arri X Series aren't too bad due to the bright source, but a small or tungsten version might not do too well. Example: http://www.arri.de/lighting/europe_asia_australia_africa/daylight_lampheads/arri_x_floods/arri_x_12.html The other thing you need to think about is your screen. If the theater screen is a white front projection, it's probably useless for this. If it's a grey rear projection - that's perfect. You'll have to be very careful with your light placement in order to not see it through the screen. A thicker screen will hide the source better - if you can get your hands on a "low-gain" screen, they are usually very thick and block the source very well. The other option is to raise the screen (and actors some) above the light level, but then you may have perspective issues. I have found shooting through a white fabric to be a bad idea, you see the light source quite easily.

Schneider has a UV-410 filter that cuts rays below 410 nm. Looking at the spec sheet for Osram's HNS lamps, they put out UVC at 254 nm and in some versions at 185 nm also. Something to be careful of perhaps is using wide angle lenses with real UV cut filters that have a special coating (as opposed to just clear glass, which also cuts some UV by nature). Apparently with lenses over 60 degrees FOV, the edge rays pass thought the filter at a different enough angle from the center rays to cause a blue shift on the edges. Probably similar to the effect of shining a light through a dichroic glass filter - the color will shift depending on the angle of the rays striking the coating. With a blue dichroic, rays that hit the coating at a 45 degree angle shift towards purple. What format are you shooting? If all the lights are this same type, you may be able to white balance the magenta cast out.

I would say it's dictated by the type of distribution system you have available more than anything else, except for a few special circumstances. If you only had single phase generators available, that's what the distribution was. Some small trucks still carry only single phase distribution so the flip side is if all you have is single phase distribution/cables - then you run the generator in single phase mode. That also means you can rent a smaller generator for a single phase truck (plus it's balanced, unlike hanging 2 legs off a 3 phase genset). Most choose three phase for the simple fact that with US standard connections - you can get 50% more power. Using typical 400a camlocks limits you to 400a/leg - so you only have 800a total available with a single phase system vs. 1200a with a three phase system. There are larger connectors (and super heavy wire) available, but the 400a camlock is the standard and pretty much sets the max current per leg. One reason to choose single phase OVER three phase is the example I stated first in this thread: your generator isn't large enough to power a large head. If you choose single phase mode, you get 50% more current on each leg - possibly allowing you to plug in a large HMI or tungsten fixture that otherwise would be too large for the genset at hand. Say you had a generator that was rated at 30a/leg three phase or 90a total but needed to plug in a 40a light. Switching the generator to single phase would now give you 45a/leg so you could plug that light in. Another reason to choose single phase OVER three phase is leg-leg voltage. If you have some older ballasts or xenon gear that really wants 240v instead of 208v - single phase would help. Now many companies send out buck-boost transformers with gear that HAS to have 240v like some xenon stuff so you can run it on 208v anyway.

If a rental company brings you anything but a 4 pole, 12 lead genset - they are living in the 80s. Probably towing it with a Mack truck also. Both the major brands (Burrell's LitePOWER and Multiquip's WhisperWatt/Crawford) used in production definitely have single/three phase switch selection. On MQs, it's usually located inside above the tie in connections. The switch has a lock button below the switch that keeps it from being moved while the generator is running. You can switch from single phase to three phase in about 2 seconds.

Ed, you are correct. I was simply pointing out that just because a light has a 60a plug, doesn't mean it draws 60a. That's the next size up from 15/20a plugs in the standardized world so there isn't much choice.

The 60a bates is oversized for a 2.5k, it's just the next size up in standardized plugs. With the genny running in three phase (3 pole) mode with a non-PFC ballast, it should be fine. The other option is to run the genny in single phase (2 pole) mode so that you get 50% more current per leg for high draw lights. PFC 2.5k is only like 23-24 amps - would not be a problem at all.

There are two big issues with improper load balancing: 1) Gensets are designed with an engine large enough to turn the actual generator to rated load at xxxx-RPM. If you severely unbalance the load, you end up with a motor that is larger than required (for one leg) and it's theoretically possible to overload that leg. The engine will keep up with the increasing load on one leg since it's 2-3x overpowered, but that one winding will overheat and burn out, catch on fire, spew fireworks, etc. Now, your over current protection (and all those fancy electronics) should prevent this from happening but there are all sorts of variables here also - adjustable breakers, shady single/three phase switch overs with common breaker, etc, etc. 2) You could theoretically snap the drive shaft from serious vibration by severely unbalancing the load. This would be more common in a 2 pole generator vs a 3 pole generator but it could happen either way. You would need to be doing something stupid probably like running 800a on one leg with zero on the other(s). But this is something manufactures warn against so it's worth noting. Your example is pretty unbalanced and really you would have to plug most of the Kinos into one leg. That would just be bad planning on dropping boxes. Say there are 3 units here, 3 units there, and 25 units over there - some people's first instinct would be to run a lunchbox to each world from each leg. That would give you a situation similar to your example. A better plan would be to run a box to each of the trio groups that came back to a splitter on one leg (6 units total) and two runs from each of the other legs over to the 25 unit bank (12 and 13 units each). That's about as good as you are gonna get without silly cables going everywhere and would give you approx 24a, 48a, 52a. That said - 13a, 103a, 11a on a 400a/leg genny is probably not going to bother it at all - may not even throttle it up much. It's still a bad practice - if you wire it correct now, you are more likely to wire it correct when you are pushing the limits of the genny. Tripping main breakers or blowing fuses makes you look dumb, esp when the schedule is tight. The fact the Kinos are non-PFC doesn't affect this situation any more than the fact that they will pull more current than a PFC unit.

Stuart's point was not about the breakers - he specifically mentioned the actual outlet. As you said, most breakers are 20a now but with 15a receptacles as the NEC allows over rating the breakers for circuits with multiple receptacles. Only in commercial buildings (and maybe garage/shop areas) will you see 20a receptacles. Each outlet on a duplex receptacle can supply the full rated current. In the case of a 15a receptacle, if you needed to plug in 16a - you could plug 12a into the bottom outlet and 4a into the top outlet and stay under the 15a rating while taking advantage of the 20a circuit breaker. However, I have found there to be no difference between quality 15a/20a hardware except for the ability to accept/reject 20a turned blade plugs. 15a and 20a Hubbells are identical except the direction of the blades. Same goes for Hubbell outlets. The original reason for creating a difference in these plugs probably came about before this standard. Manufacturers were trying to keep you from plugging in a 20a plug into a 15a outlet - which at the time, also had a 15a breaker. Now, this probably does not hold true for the $.35 cheapo outlets at Home Depot. I wouldn't plug 15a into any of those.

What time period and county does this scene take place in? That should tell you what kind of effect and colors you need. In the US, I've only seen an ambulance with blue lights once. And that may have been on TV. Most are red and white. Older time period would dictate a rotating or flashing halogen effect. Newer or current time period would dictate flashing strobe tubes or LED. Flashing halogen is easy. Setup some 2Ks gelled red and maybe 1Ks in white on the windows hooked to a dimmer set to chase. Or have two electricians run them up and down on hand squeezers in sync. For rotating, you could use the same fixtures above and just the guys rotate them back and forth. However, older light bars almost always rotated constantly in one direction. It might look better to have someone else cut the light after it passes and reset in black. Don't forget rotating lights would also cause reflections from other surfaces they would hit also. For strobe, a couple of large stage strobes like Martin Atomic 3000s gelled red and white would do. You can set those to strobe on their own without a controller via the on board controls. Very bright! LED would be fairly easy except for the programming - rent a 6' Color Kinetics ColorBlaze and a controller. Setup a red/white chase and or strobe. May need to take meter readings to determine if you need a second fixture.

Look at the Kamio from Kino Flo http://www.kinoflo.com/12VDC%20Systems/Kamio/Kamio.htm Excellent light, and it can clip right onto the lens (among other options). Very nice light quality. It hooks up like the Mini Flo fixtures. There is a baby 12v ballast, which can hook to a battery or an AC adapter. Like all Kinos, you can swap the lamp from tungsten to daylight. Basic kit is like $850 plus lots of rental houses have them available.

I also think you would be ok with the sidearm. You probably have to worry more about the speedrail flexing from the torque than the steel sidearm bending. You could slide a fitting onto the speedrail a couple feet above the sidearm and use a ratchet strap to take some of the weight from the sidearm if the flex is obvious. Alternatively, I have rigged a section of speedrail straight down and put a speedrail to junior reciever adapter on the end. Either drill one of the set screw holes into the speedrail (so the screw goes into the speedrail instead of just pressing against it) or again use a ratchet strap to ensure the fitting does not slide off. Of course, snug safety cables on everything.

I don't see you having much choice with this. If the peep hole has to be in the shot at the same time, you need a real peep hole. If the hole is not in the reverse shot, stick up a Rosco LitePad and tape off a small circle in center to approx light level needed. Spotting a light onto a 1/2" or 12mm area is going to be very hard. Plus, if you have the space to hit the area with a light and the actress does not obstruct it, you probably have room to just shine the light at her face. Putting an LED in the hole is a good idea but it would have to be so small and battery powered - not sure what is available that size to be realistic. Why not have the art dept replace the entire door with a cheap one and put a real peep hole in it? Then swap real door back after the shoot unharmed.

Couple other people I talked to said they were great, and lots of great reviews of the lensless M18 also. Apparently they are selling well also, Arri says they won't have any for 5 weeks.

That photo is of a 200w, specifically the Joker News 200. Noone touched on the different type of Jokers for you, so let me go over that. All Joker 200s have the same head, just different reflectors. All can become the "Bug" light for Chimeras. The Joker Bug 200 has a normal, fixed focus Par head that uses lenses to adjust the beam angle/shape. The Joker News and Joker Evolution are zoomable par fixtures that have no lenses. The lensless models have a small range of 16-45 degrees. The News version has a fancy zoom feature that allows you to easily slide a lever and change the angle. The Evolution is basically the same thing but it rotates only on the reflector mount, requiring you to loosen the (probably really hot) mounting screws. The Evolution is the least expensive of the bunch and was designed for budget reasons. The Evolution kit is $1000 US cheaper than the normal Joker 200. The regular Joker Bug does not have a particularly pretty beam, but can put out some serious, narrow light if needed. The News and Evolution don't put out quite a much from the reflector, but is a smoother beam that doesn't require much of anything to look ok - you can shoot it right at a subject if needed (strong shadows however - ok for news, not ok for most everything else). One thing noone has thought about is that office windows, especially high rise buildings are often tinted - many VERY tinted. Who wants to look/feel the open sun all day? That's the reason your Diva is almost bright enough and a 200w par would be great. The Diva 400 puts out around 80fc at 6ft, where the Joker puts out 700-2100fc. You'll probably want to soften that up some but you have the choice of making it as soft as the Diva (and a bit brighter) or using somewhere in between to kick things up. The Joker bounced into a 4x4 of something would be pretty nice. The photo you linked to is def the Joker News 200. It looks like they are shooting (pun intended) the poor guy right in the face with no diffusion, hence how they are able to get some decent exposure outside. While I think the Joker 200 would be a good option inside, unless it's less than 6ft and shining right in your subjects face - it's not going to cut it. In that case, I would agree with the others and say a standard 1200w par is the minimum outdoors. I have a couple 200w pars in my rental stock, and they are very popular so lots of different people find them useful. Many times they go out with Kino Flos and bigger HMIs and are used for highlights, backlights, fill, etc. I would not worry about the power factor of these lights unless you need to plug a whole bunch of them into a single circuit, house or generator. 2.6 amps vs 1.6 amps for this situation gets a big fat "who cares" from me.

Thanks for the feedback. Arri says 70% brighter in all their literature, but a comparison of photometric data shows pretty much double the output of a 1200w all around. Did you tie in power or did you plug them into some house circuits in the skate park? Did you use the M18 lensless fixture or the AS18? Your comparison seems to indicate the lensless model, just wanted to clarify. I'm a bit concerned that the 20 degrees of the M18 would not be narrow enough for some uses. The conversion kit to AS18 is only $300ish (no lenses).

Are you thinking colors for shooting/slashing across the background? If so, anything bold and rich IMO is prefect for that - sometimes you have to decide what matches when you see the location's decorations. Blues, Magentas, and Purples always look great. You need a powerful fixture with super saturated colors, probably would want to use one of the 650s instead of the smaller ones. I wouldn't bother with full CTB since it makes a tungsten light basically worthless. It cuts most of your light out when you need it the most - competing with daylight. I would look into gelling the windows with ND/CTO when needed so you cut the daylight down and your tungsten lights will be more effective. For outdoor shooting, you need more output than any of these lights has anyway. Now, I'm a Lee Filters dealer but I'm sure all the brands have something similar to Lee's pre cut lighting packs. These packs have a bunch of 12x12" cuts of various gel that lets you try them out without buying full sheets or rolls. The Master Location pack has lots of color correction and diffusions along with some colors - 36 cuts I think. You might want to check those out. http://www.leefiltersusa.com/lighting/products/packs/category:Lighting%20Packs/ Also check with your local expendables dealer for partial gel rolls, these can be had for way cheap. Full CTB can have a usable life measured in minutes if placed close to a hot light. Using larger cuts like 24x36" in a frame will lengthen the life, but make it a pain to carry around. So if you plan to use lots of something like that close to the lights, you might want to look into a partial roll. Even clipping the gel to the barn doors instead of using the gel frames on the lights will help lots.

Good points. I will update my profile.

Guy, we already use a 60a 240/120 transformer like you guys do. We didn't go for the modified windings like you did since we usually get around 124-125v/leg around here on house power so the extra boost would be a bit much with tungsten fixtures. Probably would be nice on the Hondas but they are so quiet we hardly ever need to put them too far away. I spoke with a Honda engineer a while back when I first heard of 6500s being modified, and they had some pretty good reasons not to do so, so we left ours alone. To each his own. I'm would be interested in something significantly larger than even 7500w in a "portable" size. Oh well, it's not too hard to tow the 25K around.

Stuart, as gaffer and rental company owner - I'm well aware of standard outlet ratings and how HMIs work. The non-ALF or non-power factor corrected 1200w ballasts already pull 16-17a which run on regular outlets all the time. I'm more curious if the Arri ratings are accurate, real world experiences plugging the lights in, and what they look like.

Have any of you guys (and gals) used one of the Arri 1800w pars yet? I'm considering a few as my market rents 1200w pars like crazy so they don't have to use generators. I think the 1800w could be popular also. Plus you can pop a 1200w lamp back in it and just use it as a 1200w fixture. The head itself doesn't cost much more than the 1200w head - it's the Arri 1800w ballast that costs a bunch more. The lamp is expensive because it's new, about double the 1200w lamp. I'm particularly interested in the M18 lens less version. I'm curious how well this works (I've heard the 12/18K fixtures work well with the same reflector design). I'm also curious what my customers would say about not getting any lenses and being limited to a minimum 20 degree beam angle. Arri claims up to 70% more output than a 1200w - but comparing data sheets the 1800w seems closer to twice the output in most cases, which is impressive. If you've used one - which ballast did you use? Arri's ballast is considerably more expensive than the Power Gems ballast, and Power Gems claims their ballast uses less than 17a instead of the Arri's 18a. Doesn't seem like much, but I think this could end up being a big factor with older buildings/breakers. I'm generally curious how often a customer will be able to plug in this kind of amperage draw into a wall outlet without any issues. It's close to a 2K tungsten fixture, which people plug into the wall all the time. The last thing I need is vidiots calling all the time whining that the breaker keeps tripping.

I don't think they say much about it really. They are just trying to copy the Honda. It is a true inverter generator, so it keeps voltage and freq pretty well in my testing. I have not gone as far as putting an o-scope on it, most of my more demanding customers ask for the Honda's by name anyway and I don't worry about them. I wish Honda would make an EU12000 @60db, 500lbs, 4 wheels. I could use that thing all the time. That rock bottom price was a clearance deal. Full price was $599, at which point I would consider something else personally. They can be had on eBay for cheap, but the origins are unknown. Even at $299, it's not worth it to me to mess with it really. I don't think the muffler is as much of a problem as general case sound proofing that the Honda has.

You may have looked at a multi fixture kit. A single Diva 400 kit is $1100, the Arri Softbank I is $2800. However, the complete Kino option would be at least $1000 more expensive than tungsten Arri. Nothing wrong with the Arri tungsten stuff, I have quite a few of them :) If you want a few more options, you might consider the Softbank IV kit also, which is my most popular rental kit. It's a 1K w/ Chimera, (1) 650, (1) 300, (2) 150. You would need to add another 650 to the mix, but the 150s are nifty little fixtures. Very small and light - easy to rig up on a suspended ceiling when shooting in corporate offices, etc. If you decide to look at a used kit - check to see if the case has wheels or not. Arri only started putting wheels on the kits a few years ago. They do help to get the case around, plus you can tell how old the kit is.