Rob McGreevy

...I do a fair amount of best boy work, planning all the labor logistics is one of my specialties. So I'm going to follow up on Albion's most recent post and break down exactly what you're getting into with each lighting scenario. We already discussed the M-40 option, that can be a one-man job. 6ks can vary in size, some can be lifted by one person, others are heavier and require two. An Arrisun 6k weighs 60 lbs/27 kg, just to give you a ballpark. Your electricians will also vary in size, so keep that in mind. I can mount an Arrisun 6k solo if need be but it's difficult. Some people can't. Whether you can mount one solo or not, raising it on a combo stand is a two-man job. I highly recommend a roadrunner or other type of crank stand if you can afford it even for the 4k - it doesn't cut down on your labor requirements, you still need two people to move the roadrunner around, those two peoples' lives will just be a lot easier with it and your setups will go faster. You also need a guy free to run service power to video village etc., so I would go with a minimum two man lighting crew regardless. A maxi-12 is quite heavy and definitely always requires at least two people and must go on a crank stand if you plan to go up with it, a combo stand will not support it's weight and neither will your electricians. If you want to change the beam width you have to change every single bulb rather than just dropping a lens. More globes means more poop to break. It doesn't put out as much light as a 6k and still consumes more power - not a concern if the power company is dropping you a line, but the reasons to not use this light are endless. Not that I don't like maxi-12s, but they have their purpose and this isn't it - that fixture is a studio/night time light. As for power, if the power company is taking care of everything right up to the distro box than that's great, all the hard stuff is accounted for - just make sure they put the box somewhere where it won't have to move throughout the day, cuz if you don't have enough guys or enough cable to do that your life is going to suck. It can't be too close either though because the ballast is noisy even when set to 50hz and the sound guy will hate you. Just make sure you have enough head feeder to get the ballast tucked away and still have room to dance the light around as need be and you'll be good. Do cars travel on that street? If so park one in front of the ballast to block the noise and get cable crossovers just in case. As for your grip crew...correct me if I'm wrong but I believe in Europe lighting guys set their own frames over there? Either way you need a minimum of two to set anything up to a 12x12 if it's not windy. If it is you need more because two guys are likely going to have to stand on it all day.Then you still need at least one other free to run around and throw bags on stuff and hand out apple boxes etc...if you get a roadrunner those don't have mountain legs, so they have to be leveled every time they move. Add one more if you have dolly/jib concerns - laying dolly track is at least a two person job. If the camera's just going to be on sticks then you can probably safely nix the camera grip.

A 6k with a wide lens it will cover a very wide area - keeping in mind that the wider the lens the more punch you lose, plus the output lost from the glass itself...but with a 6k you'd still be getting quite a bit even with the super-flood lens in. If you went with an M-40 that's a lensless fixture, so you get to keep all your output, you don't lose any to the glass itself. An M-40 is also easier to lug around - lighter, few parts, and it can easily go on a combo stand. A 6k can theoretically go on a combo stand as well, but safely raising it can easily turn into a 2-3 person job, so depending on your man-power situation you may want a roadrunner for that. I'm going to echo David's post about tungsten, it could work but you need much bigger units to use outside during the day, tungsten is not at all effective in day light and as it's generally considered in inefficient solution HMIs with color correction is still more common - you can color correct big HMIs all day, you don't lose that much, you just have to make sure your gel doesn't absorb too much of the blue light and melt - best to skin it over a frame to avoid that. CTO would work, CTS is also a good option - a lot of DPs and gaffers I've worked for prefer it because it's less red and a little more "golden" than CTO, just another option to keep in mind. You can get creative too, on the show I just wrapped the gaffer and DP really like Bastard Amber for golden hour because it has a subtle pinkish tint to it that looked very of sunset-y. That may work better here in Texas where the sky can get quite colorful at sunset, figure out what color sky you like best and choose your gel accordingly. As for power Albion, needing a genny for anything bigger than a 2k is not necessarily true - keep in mind he's in Finland, they're on a 230V, 50hz power system with I believe C/F style power outlets, his electrical distribution concerns are likely quite different from ours. I'm somewhat familiar with how Europe's power system generally works, but not at all acquainted with the day to day specifics. I've heard it is quite common to have the power company come drop a line to a box for you over there, that being the case taking the genny out of the equation simplifies things on the electrical end quite a bit, assuming of course the grid power is reliable. Apart from that just know what the output connectors are on the distro box, the input connectors on the HMI ballast, make sure you have any necessary adaptors and you should be good to go. And of course make sure you have the necessary man-power - if all you have is one M40 and the budget is tight, one person can operate that light if need be - not ideal, but highly possible. If you go with a 6k you need more guys, there's no way around that. If the power company is laying all your cable for you then that's taken care of, if not then you probably want several guys to manage the distro. And ideally you should have a separate grip crew to move any frames around if you plan on using any - the bigger the frame, the more grips. That was much more than I intended to write, I hope you found it useful though.

I think it's possible the M18 can do the job for you, I've encountered a few scenarios where using one outside during the day was helpful. It all depends on your set up and what the sun is doing, of course. I tend to think that controlling the existing light with diffusion or reflectors is the best option if you can, but if the light is going to either hide behind those trees or a building for most of the day then you may need to use a light - of course a bigger light would better if you were able, but if an M18 is all you can afford I've seen that work just fine for mediums and close ups. If if you can though I would shoot the wide first when you have the available light and establish that look, then for tighter shots try to match what it was doing with lights when the sun later goes behind trees/buildings or whatever... The Rag Place does make muslins in a few different shades of blue, as well as blue grid cloth diffusion. They're not that common and may not be readily available as rentals items as far our as Finland but you never know till you ask... fabric stores also sell muslin by the yard, I've never seen blue personally as I think that's a specialty film item, but you never know. My other thought though is if you can afford an M18 and two 1.2ks, can you not instead just get one 4k? if power's a concern then that's understable but in my experience when you're trying to imitate the sun one large source typically yields better results than several smaller ones...I've gotten away with just an M18 when logistics required it, but if I'd had my druthers I'd rather it have been an M40 or larger, had the option of moving it closer or further away to get the effect I wanted while still maintaining the punch, and then bounced back the light from that on the fill side as needed.

I actually also agree with Stuart (Allman) in regards to renting over buying - consider my advice relevant if you feel you must buy, but ultimately I recommend renting at least initially. The main reason is when you're first starting out you should be trying lots of different instruments to see what you like and what works for you. Eventually after some experience with the gear many gaffers and DPs will wind up buying the ones they use on almost every shoot, that will save money in the long haul. But until you know what that go-to fixture is for your personal preference, renting is probably the way to go. But if you must buy, buy something simple, versatile, and reliable. An Arri kit isn't the be-all-end-all, but it's a very good start.

Arri is slightly better than OK, they are currently the industry standard for lighting. I don't know that I would make eco-friendly one of my conditions for buying a light...it's admirable, and in my personal life I recycle and donate to environmentally friendly causes. But from a professional standpoint the reality is we don't work in one of the more environmentally friendly industries, there's just no way around that - a big film set can burn hundreds of gallons of diesel a day for the lights alone and probably kills an entire tree for one day's worth of call sheets. That being said, all four lights in that camtree setup can all be plugged into one circuit, which apart from being eco-friendly is also very convenient if you're drawing from house power and don't know how the circuits are laid out. However, they look to basically be off-brand Litepanels, and I'd be careful buying stuff that's off brand in general but especially something like an LED which can have serious color accuracy issues if it's not made well - even Litepanel has it's issues there and one of those costs the same as the whole camtree kit, there's probably a reason for that. I wasn't able to find any photometric specs on that link provided so I couldn't compare with anything industry standard, but I'd be willing to bet based on the price it's probably not as good as something professional-grade. I know it gets pricey buying legit film lights, but there's very good reason they cost what they cost. I think you're on the right track starting out with tungsten, as a novice it's going to make your life easier and I'll give you one reason why that no one else has mentioned yet - if I'm on set and a tungsten light goes wrong I take it to the truck and I grab my continuity tester and my wire strippers and I fix it. If any other type of light goes wrong I send it back to the rental house and get a new one. But ultimately you have to decide what your needs are based on what you want to shoot? The Arri kits are good and the one you're looking at is pretty versatile, but they're designed for interviews, talking head type stuff. You can use them for other stuff, but if you have a specific need you may look into buying a specific light with that purpose in mind.

Light kit consisting of 3x lights for under $5k for day ex, day in, nite ex, and nite in does not exist...that being said you're better off using grip stuff for day ex anyway and not even using lights, you can't afford a big HMI on your budget. Arri makes good little tungsten kits, I'm not sure what they're running these days but a soft bank 1 kit would be a good start...probably around your budget range. Just keep in mind that it doesn't stop there - you're going to want stingers, dimmers, spare bulbs, tape, bullets, gels...not to mention grippery items such as flags, c-stands, bags, and at least some rudimentary rigging stuff. There are pretty versatile kits out there, but there's still only so much you can do with just a light; all lights need support items to really work and it can get pretty crazy when you get into all that - something worth considering for any novice looking to get into buying stuff. Not trying to dissuade you, just helping you figure out what you're getting into.

One huge advantage of lensless Pars is they are huge labor savers - you no longer have to carry around a big heavy lens case that needs to live next to the light at all times. This makes a big difference to a gaffer and his crew when you start talking about throwing up 10 HMIs at once and you don't have 10 cases to drag around with them. Also, here's something DPs don't always think of but gaffers and best boys definitely do and it's worthy of consideration - it's more space on the truck that you can pack other useful things on. For example the feature I'm working on now - the original order called for a 2.5k system, but by nixing that we were able to instead fit two M-18s in the same space on the cart. Assuming budget isn't a concern you can double your fixture count by ditching the lens cases. You get more light output from these heads as well, something all DPs and Gaffers are concerned with. Not inherently, I've metered an M-40 and an older Arrisun 4k side by side just to see the difference - with no lens there's not much difference, but that's the key word: no lens. When you drop a wide lens in which most gaffers tend towards, you lose several stops - not so with a lensless, there is no glass to absorb light output. Some might say the beam is still not as attractive as a Par with wide lens in it, but so what? How often do you see any Par used directly and not either bounced off an 8x or shot through diffusion? With the lensless system you'll still have more punch after you do that. The only real disadvantage is that they are more in demand and therefore more expensive, but in regards to that Adrian also makes a good point - lenses are expensive and they are the most common part of the system to break., who knows how much L&D has been avoided over the years by taking out M-series lights over older Arrisuns? That stipple lens that so many DPs are so fond of will cost more than the entire monthly rental of the fixture if it goes.

Here's something I've been wondering about...during my days working at a rental house I was always told that when it came to balancing loads on a generator, no more than 50 amps apart was recommended - that came straight from the genny manufacturers we dealt with. I never questioned it and have always applied that formula anytime I've been in charge of a generator on set. That being said, I've worked a number of big shows with genny ops, and I've noticed that they don't seem to apply that same formula - for example, there have been times when we would have only an Arrimax up on lines 1 and 2, and absolutely nothing on 3, and they never seem to think that that's a concern. The frequently don't even bother to let us know we need to balance until we're over 100 amps apart. I figure the genny ops know what they're doing, do they know something I don't? These are different gennies, typically bigger tractor mounted plants...is that the difference? I'm working as a best boy on a feature right now with a Litepower 500 amp, just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing - Guy Holt, would love to hear your feedback if you're around.

I don't think you'll get much out of the Maxis in broad daylight, I know they're big lights but they're still tungsten and they just won't do much when up against the sun. I worked on a feature where the DP kept trying to use 12-lights during the day just because we didn't have big HMIs and they were the biggest guns we had, but it almost always failed and almost always wound up being shiny boards instead. Hell, for one set up we even did better with the one Joker 800 we had over using the Maxis outside during daylight. I'm personally usually of the opinion that if you have the sun you should find a way to use it, it's the world's best looking light.

Good to know about the CRI thing, I suspected something was a bit off, I'll keep it in mind when using them in the future. I like the idea of putting it on a dimmer to create a flicker...I've thought about doing something similar in the past but was hesitant for worry of damaging the electronics...not something you guys worried about?

Thanks Alex, judging by the video you showed me the Maverick looks like a pretty viable litepanel replacement...I see you're up in Dallas, where are you getting the Cineo fixtures that you're using? Our lighting package on this movie is coming from MPS, they told us the only Trucolor fixture they had was the LS and it was shipped down from Dallas just for us (which kind of makes me feel bad since we didn't use it :/ ). Maybe what they meant was it was the only one available, I don't know...I've also noticed that the Austin guys don't always seem to be totally appraised of what's in the full inventory up in the Dallas office, so maybe they do have that stuff and the guys down here didn't know.

I've used the rosco pads too, I like them...when I used them the DP provided them as part of his personal kit, and he only had the basic package - so no dimmer and no battery option. So I was constantly having to adjust output by throwing various layers of black paper on it, and it was always a pain to find AC power for it. But they really worked great for a lot of what we did and I can definitely see myself using them a lot more with the battery/dimming options available. The main drawback I found was at one point we needed one to be tungsten balanced, and when we CTO'd it it looked green. We put a little minus green on but that wound up looking even weirder. Any suggestions for that? Would CTS maybe look better? Or would you recommend not color correcting it at all and just using a totally different fixture for tungsten scenarios?

Thanks for all the reviews on the trucolor, that's very good info to know...still for me I think the main drawback would be it's overall size and weight. I know that in theory it's about the same size as a litepanel, but at least the one I looked at came in a big-ass, heavy case for just one, whereas a double litepanel case can easily be carried around one handed by the smallest person on my crew. Also, the added complexity of it was a bit of a turn off for me as well - I know litepanels aren't necessarily the highest output, most color-accurate fixtures, but they're great in a pinch. I always like to have a bi-color one standing by on a premie stand with a chimera and battery on it, to be flown in on a moment's notice as a general all-purpose rescue light when the cameras are about to roll and you just need something...I don't think I could get that from the trucolor, with the ballast and everything that comes with it it's just too cumbersome to serve that purpose. But it's good to know what other people think about using them, I could totally see myself using some of their bigger fixtures for other purposes someday. Also the matchstix could have saved my ass a few times on this shoot I'm doing right now...can anybody tell me if they can be battery powered? Do they have on-board ballasts? If the answer to both of those questions is yes than they are a dream fixture that I would want on every shoot.

Lekos are also a good option - they're a little pricier than PARs, but you'd be hard pressed to find a cheap, plug-in-and-go type light that produces a cleaner, stronger beam. They're also extremely versatile if you have a good lens selection to determine your spread, and can be shaped even further with the leaves or a gobo - these things are punchy, on a cloudy night with a bit of black wrap you can make a bat signal. Depending on your needs you could also use a Dedo - much smaller, but very easy to use light weight fixtures with barndoors, flood/spot controls, etc. - some of kits even come with projectors to sharpen the beam even further. PARs are great because they're punchy and cheap, but they're basically point-and-shoot lights, control-wise you can't do much to them that doesn't involve grippery. But Adrian is right, any light will give a beam if you know how to get it - I recently worked on a show where we did shafts of light with zip lights...if you get the position and the angle right, shoot it through a window and it's perfect. It all depends on what you want. And yeah, you'll totally want some haze.

Well, it became something of a moot point anyway...I was under the impression the rental house was providing the TruColor HS which is roughly Kino Celeb-sized, but what they actually had was the LS which is LitePanel-sized...we already had Lite Panels, so we dropped the TruColor to open up budget space for other stuff. Still though, kind of a cool fixture...I don't know that the LS is worth the hassle for that size of a fixture, but some of their bigger stuff is intriguing - particularly their version of a spacelight looks cool, I'd really like to see what that thing's like on set.

Hmmm...that's a bummer...how involved is that process?

yeah...I've checked out their specs page and it seems pretty good...output actually exceeds that of the Celeb and I like that it's lighter weight too. I feel comfortable that it will do that job, was just wondering if anybody who's seen it in action had anything to say about it.

What can anybody tell me about the TruColor HS in comparison to the Kino Celeb? I'm gaffing a feature and my DP really likes the Celeb. I've worked with it before as well and I'm a fan, but unfortunately the rental house we're going through can't provide it. They're offering the TruColor as a replacement which neither of us has ever worked with,and in an effort to appease my DP and make sure we're getting the right thing I would love to hear some feedback as far as output, color accuracy, light quality etc. is concern in comparison. Thanks.

Well it was a while ago so I may not remember all those details...and the project being long wrapped it's of course no longer relevant, just something I've been curious about ever since it happened...but I'll do my best to recall what I can. We were shooting at a football field. It was a 500 amp Lite Power genny set to single phase. We ran 100ft of 2/0 to a main distro box at the 50 yard line. From there it was 150' of banded into a snake bite, then 100ft of 100A to a lunch box, and from the lunch box I orginally used a 60A cable to the 4k and a stinger to M18. These lights were on a lift at the goal post, we mirrored this set up on either side of the field. We also had two M18s burning in the announcers booth, that was a 50' 100A to a distro box underneath the booth, ballasts on the ground, head cable up to the booths. Load balance was beautiful, almost dead even between the legs. This was the initial set up, the ballast that went down was I think a power gems unit, don't recall the exact model or year but it was an older one. The one we replaced it with was an even older Sunray ballast. Because I used to actually work at the rental house that supplied the ballast I'm well aware of how shitty those models are. And since they are only cam-lok in, we wound up having to rent a couple extra sticks of banded to supply it with power. Once we had it burning I put a meter on the line. Wish I could tell you the exact numbers but I don't recall, but amperage-wise it seemed like a pretty normal draw for a crappy old Sunray ballast, and factoring in the step up to #2 cable my line loss calc told me we should have been in the clear...but shortly into shooting we lost the light. It was only that light, and once I heard the buzzing from the lunch box and traced the VD back to the genny and cranked it up we didn't have any issues the rest of the shoot (we shot at that field with that same set up for almost 2 weeks). So it really wasn't even much of an issue, it took 5 minutes of trouble shooting and we were fine...it's just been bugging me ever since because I have yet to figure it out.

My understanding of this (and please correct me if I'm wrong) has always been that the inverse square law always applies, but it's also proportional to the spread of the beam from the source. So you have a beam of light, and the amount of light being emitted never changes. But the beam spreads, so at a certain distance the same amount of light is covering an area 4x as big, so it appears to be 4x less bright. It's the same amount of light, but it appears to be less because as it travels from the source and spreads out more it has to cover a broader and broader area, until the spread is so wide there appears to be no light at all. There are still photons traveling, there are always photons traveling. But once the spread gets wide enough you don't see them anymore because they are spread so thin. So the falloff is happening, but if the beam is very concentrated it will be a greater distance when it reaches the point where it has to cover 4x as much area and therefore cause that inverse output relationship we've all come to know and love. I've pointed 5 degree source fours directly at the sky, and on a cloudy night you can make a bat signal. It'll reach, but it's much dimmer - that's how long it takes the beam on those to really spread an appreciable amount and cause noticable fall off. As I understand it this principle even applies to lasers, it's just that lasers are so concentrated it takes forever for the beam to start to spread and thereby use the same amount of light to cover a wider area. But I've seen weaker lasers pointed at great distances, and you can see them start to spread and the ouput get weaker as that happens.

So, here's a scenario I ran into recently...I was best boy electric on a feature, and one of our 4ks went down (bad ballast). We grabbed a new ballast from the rental house, same fixture. This new ballast had only cam-lok input, no 60A bates option. So we grabbed a few extra sticks of banded and hooked it all up. Shortly into shooting, the light went down. In addition, one of the lunch boxes started buzzing really loudly - the same buzz you get on a hand squeezer when it's turned to a pretty low setting. I traced the problem back to the genny and found that voltage had dropped to 108v - still enough to power the M18s with their shiny new Arri ballasts, but enough of a drop to kill the older 4k and turn the lunch box into a resonating chamber. I cranked up the knob on the genny and the problem was solved, but I'm still left wondering - what happened? The genny was never touched, why the voltage drop? I know that with the older ballast power factor-related line loss could have been involved, but we also sized the cable way up to banded #2 instead of 60A, so I'm still a bit flabbergasted on what happened...any thoughts? Also hi, I'm new to the forum :)