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Hi guys, new to this forum, I'm a London based lighting tech cutting my teeth in the industry. A year and a half working on sets, loving every minute. I love cinematography with a passion, and lighting is key. I'm hard working and diligent with a great sense of humour. Feel free to check out my credits and get in touch if you ever need a pair of hands. Josie http://thisbrightspark.wix.com/josiewilliams#!credits/cnec

Hi, I'm currently a junior studying at NYU. I will be graduating around January 2015 and I am trying to plan for my future afterward. Long term, I'd like to become a cinematographer but I'd like to get there through gaffing because I genuinely enjoy working with lighting. I figure I gotta start getting grip and electric jobs. I am pretty skilled working with most basic to intermediate grip equipment and lights and am able to run power from breaker boxes to distro boxes to lights while adhering to the ring of fire. I'd prefer to join a union as soon as possible in order to get consistent work rather than freelancing too long. I'd love to stay in NYC if possible but it seems pretty difficult to get paying work for legit productions and impossible to get union gripping jobs without being in the union. From what I hear and can tell it is extremely difficult to join Local 52 the NYC gripping union. Alternatively, I could move to LA. Joining Local 728 seems decidedly easier than 52 with lower union dues. Also, from what I hear, it seems much easier to get legitimate production work in LA. Does anyone have advice on how to start gripping in NYC and joining the union? How much easier is it to get work in LA and how difficult is it to join 728? How plausible is it to join 728 soon after film school? Thanks guys.

Hello! I'm planning for a student short and have just discovered the church we are shooting at has no mains sockets. The plan is to hire a 2.7kwa generator & run the (potentially 4x350w & 1x600w for a total of 2000w) lights this way. Is there proper procedure for grounding the generator/how should I go about this? Will using a 4-way extension cable for the lights be feasible or does this create any sort of danger? The company we plan to hire from has recommended that the generator be 20m or so from the building to keep noise to a minimum. Does this sound about right? Also, the estimated run time on the generator is 3hours, it runs on unleaded petrol. Is it possible to simply fill a petrol can up and have that ready to resupply or does the generator run the risk of overheating etc? I appreciate that some of these questions may sound like common sense, but having never used a generator before I'd appreciate any advice you can give! Thanks a ton, Scott

Hi Guys, This is a bit of a long one I warn you, but I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions people might have. I've reached a point in my career where I want to focus more purely on lighting and camera, and move away from the various ancillary creative freelancing jobs that have (till now) supplemented my film work. I'm pretty good at what I do now (and perhaps more importantly - I'm good enough) so I want to put together a small lighting and grip package that will allow me to gaffer on projects when I'm not shooting others (and basically just spend more time on sets). Now I am limited by the amount of space I have in the back of my ute (that's a "pickup truck" to my international friends!), but the following package is something I can get away with once I install some custom shelving. In terms of the lighting package my primary goals are speed, precision and control. Any time I can save setting up additional flags/cutters, means more time spent on takes (where it belongs), it's also more efficient - and I like that. Which is why I'm thinking I'd prefer these particular fixtures. The Dedo units offer more control than anything shy of a Leko, so it's easier to get the effects you want with them (having larger 650w units, and a daylight balanced 1.2k HMI version simply extends the scale of what I can do with them - relative to the standard 150w Dedos). I just picked up my first Area 48 Remote Phosphor softlight yesterday after comparing it directly to a Kino Flo Diva 400 (the standard softlight that I'm most confident and familiar with using) and it beats both the light output and colour accuracy of the fluoro unit by a considerable margin (by eye, I'd guess it's got about 1/2-stop more output), and the Area 48 offers the added benefits of being battery operable, lightning fast to switch from daylight to tungsten, and has no colour shift as you dim the unit (so your not having to add +green gels like you often do when you dim a Diva with tungsten tubes - so there's time saved there as well). Now obviously this kit is a fair bit different from the standard small lighting package you get these days - which seem to generally consist of a couple of HMIs, Blondies, Redheads, Tungsten Fresnels, Kino Softlights & a couple of 150w Dedolights. So what I'm most interested to hear, is whether people would actually want to bring in a gaffer with a package like this? I feel pretty confident that I could light everything that I'm used to lighting with a conventional small package, faster and more precisely with this package - but that's irrelevant obviously, if no one wants to hire me with a package they're not familiar with. So what do think guys, is this a solid package? Would you want to work with it? And if not, what would you want to be different and why? This is going to be a substantial investment for me obviously, so any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! Cheers, Mark (items in bold are the things I don't own yet) Lights: 1x 1.2k HMI PAR 1x 1.2k HMI Dedolight 2x 150w HMI Fresnels (capable of 5600k and 3200k, 650w tungsten equivalents) 2x 650w Halogen Dedolights + dimmers 2x 150w Halogen Dedolights 2x Area 48 Remote Phosphor Softlights (capable of 5600k and 3200k - they're Kino Diva 400 alternatives) 3x Z96 Small LED Panels Grip: 5x 40" C-stands + Grip Heads + Grip Arms 6x standard light stands of various sizes 2x 4'x4' Floppies + assorted blacks 2x Gel/Diffusion Kits 4x Umbrellas (white, gold, silver) 1x 2'x3' Digital Juice Flag Kit (nets, silks, black block etc) 1x 6'x6' Overhead Butterfly (with silk, and ultrabounce) 3x 4'x4' Diffusion Frames (216, 250, 251) 3x Scissor Clamps (for ceiling frames) 2x 2'x3' 4-in-1 Reflector Frames 3x Cardellini Clamps 6x Super Clamps 2x Magic Arms 10x Shotbags Power: 1x 3.5kw Portable Generator

Hello everyone, As the title says, I'm a gaffer from Germany, 22 years old and currently train as an event technician at the WDR studios in Cologne, Germany. Event technician is the official term for the apprenticeship, which includes studio work as well as live situations such as concerts and parties. However, most of the time I work as a gaffer in a studio environment. As far as i know the dual education system in Germany is somewhat different to most other countries, so here you can get further information, in case its important. So my contract will end in about a year and i feel like I need a new challenge, see how other people work in order to advance my skills. Anyway, what I wanted to ask you is, whats the best way to get this going? I know that I need to find a job in advance to get a working visa. How do you see that chances of finding an employer who is willing to put himself in the struggle of bringing me to the country? Whats the best platform to look for jobs? I'm glad for every piece of information on this topic as I feel kinda lost in the jungle the breaks open when you google for media jobs. Thanks in advance! Johannes