Evan Bourcier

Is that you turning up with a pulse .. or with gear.. what sort of stuff do you shoot.. Im sure there is a fairly big gap between high end commercials.. and mid F5 /C300/500 type corp shoots.. with inflation/house prices etc.. I think rates have gone down alot say over the last 25 yrs..

Honestly it goes either way. To be honest I've only been offered $2k/day once, and that was just me. Production company was supplying dragons and all that. Sometimes the $850-$1500/day stuff is with my c100, but usually we're just renting cameras.

Mixture of stuff, some work for ESPN/facebook, some random corporate stuff in Nashville, some music videos and like 3 minute web highlights on people for non-profits..

EDIT: Worth mentioning that as Adrian said I am East Coast, so the competition isn't very fierce. Also there are only a few good DPs that aren't just shooting high-end music videos in nashville I find, so I get called a good bit from there.

I'm actually really curious for more people to throw numbers into this thread, as based on what exists so far I feel like I'm some anomaly. I'm based out of Massachusetts but work around the country, and right now I'm usually around $850-$2000/day depending on how complicated the project is. I've been a DP for 4 years.

Ok - I just wanted to quickly ask about best practices with streaks and tips black hairspray dye. I picked up a can with a recent order of gels to play around with, and it seems pretty straight forward. I was just curious of any best practices/things to avoid. I tested it on a 75 watt bulb in my house and noticed some light smoke when I turned the bulb on, is that normal? Have you ever had issues cleaning off bulbs?

Related - are there any other odds and ends like this you love to have in your kit?

Thanks,

Evan

Appreciate everyones feedback! Definitely some interesting thoughts shared here, and I definitely see both sides of the coin. I do actually shoot my own projects a lot, so it's beneficial for me to have my own kit. I'm also a couple hours from the nearest rental house. I didn't realize actual Arri HMIs could be had as cheap as shared above, I've mostly seen joker prices. Why is an Arri 1200 watt HMI par $1800 while an 800 watt joker is $6500 on eBay? I'm sure there's some basic thing I'm missing here, as I've shot with jokers but never the Arri.

 

I haven’t had personal experience with the Chinese Arri knock-offs, but a HMI service tech told be recently that part of the reason that they are so inexpensive is that they are not power factor corrected, which would account for why Mark had difficulty operating them on portable generators but not on wall power. The harmonic currents drawn by non-pfc ballasts interact with the high impedance of portable generators to create voltage waveform distortion that can cause the HMIs to not strike.

 

Put simply, when you plug a non-pfc ballast into a wall outlet you need not be concerned about harmonic currents. The impedance of the electrical path from the power plant is so low, the distortion of the original voltage waveform so small (1-3%), and the plant capacity so large in comparison to the load of the one light, that the inherently noisy load of non-pfc HMI ballast will not affect the voltage at the distribution bus.

Left: Grid Power w/ 1.2Kw Arri non-PFC Elec. Ballast. Right: Conventional AVR Power w/ 1.2Kw Arri non-PFC Elec. Ballast.

 

It is, however, an all together different situation when plugging non-pfc HMI fixtures into conventional portable generators. As a comparison of the oscilloscope shots above indicate, the harmonic currents drawn by non-pfc ballasts can generate voltage distortion in the power stream. Given the large sub-transient impedance of conventional portable generators, and the fact that the original supply voltage waveform of conventional generators is appreciably distorted (a THD of 17-19%) to begin with, you have a situation where the return of any harmonic currents by a non-PFC electronic ballast (HMI or Kino) will result in significant waveform distortion of the voltage in the distribution system.

 

The adverse effects of the severe harmonic noise exhibited above left, can take the form of overheating and failing equipment, efficiency losses, circuit breaker trips, excessive current on the neutral return, and instability of the generator’s voltage and frequency. Harmonic noise of this magnitude can also damage HD digital cinema production equipment, create ground loops, and possibly create radio frequency (RF) interference. In other words, saving a few bucks by buying Chinese knock-offs can cost you a considerable amount of money in lost time or damaged equipment. For a detailed explanation for why this is, use this link for my article on the use of portable generators in motion picture production.

 

 

This article is cited in the 4th Edition of Harry Box's "Set Lighting Technician's Handbook." Of the article Harry Box exclaims:

“Great work!... this is the kind of thing I think very few technician's ever get to see, and as a result many people have absolutely no idea why things stop working."

"Following the prescriptions contained in this article enables the operation of bigger lights, or more smaller lights, on portable generators than has ever been possible before."

 

The article is available online at http://www.screenlightandgrip.com/html/emailnewsletter_generators.html

 

 

- Guy Holt, Gaffer, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting Rental and Sales in Boston

This info is really interesting Guy - so if I'm reading correctly you think these should be relatively safe on house power? Most of my non-travel jobs are house power, so I'd be willing to accept that as a limitation.

Also - saw you're in Boston, I'm actually based out of Springfield MA! Would love to connect some time, I've been working here for 4 years but know very little of the Boston scene. (And I could always use a good Gaffer!)

Hey guys! Been reading the forums for a while, this is the first topic that made me make an account though.

I've been watching to add some good daylight punch to my personal kit, and I love jokers but can't currently justify the cost. I found these Chinese knockoff HMIs on eBay and was curious if anyone has any experience with them. Obviously I'm sure they're nothing like high-end HMIs, I'm mainly just worried about safety with them.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2KW-HMI-Fresnel-HMI-DayLight-Lighting-Electronic-Ballast-Dimmer-Lamp-AS-ARRI-/261188319914?hash=item3cd0097aaa:g:-SAAAMXQhuVRSSDJ

Additionally, are there any other cheaper HMIs that you would recommend instead?

Thanks,

Evan