Brian Wells

Lowel lights are older designs with high wattage lamps in open face heads -- which gives very hot fixtures that are difficult to control! You have to use gloves to adjust them and they must sit for 20 minutes+ to cool down enough to put them back in the case. There are better products available today. If the goal is to light good looking interviews, you'll immediately want some sort of soft source, such as a chimera softbox or a fluorescent. And, some lower wattage lights for back/hair light. For around the same price as the Lowel kit, you could get a Kino Flo Diva Lite and a small Pepper or Dedo and some small kit stands. At least those are lights you can grow with. With the Lowels, you will come to regret buying them when you realize how difficult they are to work with, how hot they get, and how expensive the accessories are compared to other brands. Also, the lamps are expensive! About $30 each!! The true cost of a light system is not the purchase price, but the running costs. With fluorescents and 24v dedolight, the lamps hardly ever need replaced. And when they do, they cost less. If you're on a budget the last thing you want to do is get a lot of lights that don't look very good and are hard to work with. I second Matt's idea of getting a fewer number of high quality lights, such as a Kino Diva and a fresnel or two.

Capt.Video- Thank you for your unique and creative ideas on generating patterned backgrounds using flashlights and construction paper.

Clearly, we have different definitions of "sharp" ;)

I have a DVX100 package with all the bells and whistles. Having this camera has given me the freedom to shoot whenever I feel like it. I have used it for music videos, commercial specs, a documentary, and a pilot. I'd say the investment has been worth it as it has paid for itself over time and given me a lot of enjoyment. Plus, it still has some resale value left, about $500 less than what I paid for it a year ago. Generally though, it is just an expensive toy for shooting personal projects. The company I work for provides SDX900's for us to use, so I may be a bit spoiled. :unsure:

So, you've actually gotten sharp, distinct edges that way? Or, maybe you THINK it will work? Based on experience, I would say that an open face work light with a metal gobo six inches from the globe would cast indistinct edges, functioning more like a scrim than a gobo. To get sharp edges, you need a light with specialized optics. (i.e. - Leko). Or, a LARGE cookie placed near the subject, as others have mentioned.

Dedolight has a projector attachment for their 150w light, but the price is pretty steep with a full kit going for around $1,100. LTM also makes a Focal Spot attachment for the Pepper 100w light at a more attractive price; full kits are going for around $300. BTW, your site inspires me to get a Konvas 35mm camera! Nice work.

Videography experience is not any sort of qualification when looking for an assistant job. I wouldn't even mention it. Tell them you have an interest in lighting. Knowing and following procedure for setting up standard grip equipment and occasionally some lights is more important than knowing how to use a camera. So, become familiar with the tools of the trade by reading some of the standard books (Lighting for Digital Video & Television and Mike Uva's Rigging Guide are excellent, for example). This is what will make you valuable. Knowing which leg an an arm should be positioned above on a C-stand is useful, for example. Yes, there is a "right" and "wrong" way, incredibly. Forget you ever had your hands on video camera, because that will not help you on crew gigs.

All I can say is it's about time to see some cheap HMI's. Prices have doubled in the last decade, which does not reflect rising costs. It reflects greed. Power to them, but this is a free market economy.

I'm sure if they were budgeted for union scale they would be contacting every below-the-line talent agent between NY and LA, instead of forums on the internet which naturally collect unwarranted criticism of their budget.

The manufacturer emailed me a price list, which I have attached here. In general, they seem to be about 50% less than comparable Arrisun's, but are not UL listed, and there is no US distributor. Truly not worth the effort. They could be selling these for a lot less, but I guess they're too smart for that. It will be fun when other Chinese manufacturers start making HMI's and the prices come down to a more attractive level. B) Check out the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. Most categories are much, much less! LIGHTSTAR.PDF

Video work requires relatively up to date computer hardware; try using a faster computer. On the software side of things, I would say that Adobe Premiere Elements offers a bare minimum of the types of tools required for precision editing at a fairly low price (around $100).

575W Par with Electronic Ballast is listed for ￥350.00 ($43.00 US). Obviously, this sounds too good to be true. But, what if it IS true? I, for one, would order three of everything they make! http://www.lightstar.net.cn/english/pro.htm

My personal kit is a small Kino Flo and Dedolight with various clamps and stands for mounting. If I could do it over again for the same money ($1500ish), I'd probably start out with a used 1200w magnetic ballast HMI and learn to light properly using bounce boards. Although, that light would be worthless for interviews, so it's hard to say. I think it all depends on what you're trying to light. Small lights won't help much for lighting in the daytime.

Enthusiastic is not exactly the word I would use to describe my reaction to the cost of 40 degree louver's made for the film industry. $(@#! is more like it. So, I've been thinking about making one myself out of poster board. It was a rainy day today, which gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out. Using the dimensions on the vendor's website for the 40-degree spread, I cut five strips of thick black paper 24" long and 2" high. Then, I cut some shorter strips about six inches long with slits in them half way through the paper spaced 1.7 inches (rounded up from 1.68) across. There were also slits in the longer strips. Then, I put it all together. Assembly took about 20 minutes. Afterwards, I added some velcro strips to attach the eggcrate onto the light. Here is my paper eggcrate: Many of the cuts were "eyeballed" and not perfect. Still, I am confident that if I took the time to properly measure and cut each piece that this eggcrate would not be as crooked! Even with all the kinks, it appears to be quite effective. Here are the results: I know this paper eggcrate will not last forever, but I don't think a fabric eggcrate would be much better. And, with less than a $1 in materials, I can build several hundred of these for the same price as one fabric eggcrate made by someone else. I suggest anyone looking into fabric eggcrates for their softlight to consider making one yourself before buying the expensive pre-made ones. Instead, put the money you would have spent into something that matters, like retirement!

Were you hired to make this? Or, was this just for fun?

This must seem like a rather silly question, but how do I learn to light with HMI's? Are there any resources that come to mind? Sure I follow AC magazine and look at the setups there on big films. But, say if I wanted to shoot a daytime scene in a small room (12x12 for sake of discussion) with motivated light from a window and use some poly board or a Kino Flo for fill, what size of HMI would I put outside the window? I mean, how do you know what to ask for? Obviously experience, but in lieu of that what are some resources for learning this stuff? If it came down to only having a single unit, would you see more utility (generally speaking) in a Par or Fresnel? 575W or 1200W? Thanks.

Once again I will post this frame grab from an Andromeda DVX100: http://www.reel-stream.com/magik_test.php/...c.tif?type(jpg) Stunning quality from a "DV" camera. Makes you wonder, "what will they think of next?"

Good for you and good luck, Dan!

What about a Dedolight? They are dimmable and could possibly resemble a flashlight from a distance. I find that real hard to believe they were using a flashlight in the daytime. I'll check out the scene you mention because it doesn't make sense. Flashlights are not usually bright enough to be useful in the daytime! Could they have used a fully spotted 200W HMI Dedolight or something?

Hard to load, but fun to use. The only real problem with the A-Minima is the short mags; 200' is only five or so minutes of film. Eclair also made a compact S16 camera about the size of the Minima for a lot less money. Might look for one used and save about 15 Grand. Nathan Milford is the resident Aaton expert in the US. Might look him up on here for any specific questions.

The portrait (#4 from the top) is probably my favourite. If you had some more lights, I'm sure you would have embellished the shots more (perhaps added a kicker on his left side, an eyelite, or something?) Cheers.

HVX *should* capture more information, particularly in 16x9 mode, even in miniDV, compared to DVX. Cheers.

I only recently became aware of the existence of this intriguing product from Lowel. http://www.lowel.com/scandles/ Seems like it could be put to good use inside of a lantern (200w of flo tubes is a LOT of light without too much heat!) and hung off a boompole for the "chimera-man" approach to lighting complex scenes... Just thought I'd share. B)

Sounds like a good plan, assuming the HVX does a better job... But... The modified DVX captures significantly more highlight detail than the HVX200 in addition to having a full stop more sensitivity than the HVX200, with less noise, and several hundred more lines of resolution than the HVX200. For less money. I'm not saying that is a reason to buy it, but it is good to know before spending more money on something that does less in certain key areas (resolution, noise, sensitivity, dynamic range). Resolution Charts: http://forum.reel-stream.com/viewtopic.php...09a7ad9bc870f0f Dynamic Range Tests: http://www.reel-stream.com/headline.php?id=99 I'd have to add that selectable framerates and portability are among the very few compelling reasons for me to use an HVX200 over this system -- if I had to pick between the two.

Indeed, it sounds like magic. What is possible is to output the RAW chip data into a computer via USB and end up with uncompressed high resolution video that is better in every way (dynamic range, noise, sensitivity) than any of the current 1/3" chip HD cameras. Just look at the frame grabs and resolution charts on their site and you'll see why some folks are excited about it. www.reel-stream.com