Josh Holland Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 I was reading an older issue of AC and in it they had an article on the movie Tideland. The DP used aircraft landing lights adapted for motion picture use. The lights were Concords and Jumbos made by Iride in Rome, Italy. I've never heard of these lights and tried finding out more about them. Why are they only available in Europe? Are there comparable US companies that manufacture this type of light for film use? Is there any tech spec info on these lights? -Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Hartman Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 ACl's are often used in traveling rock shows. They are low-voltage lamps, so four of them are wired in series and permanently hung from one lamp bar. You can buy them new or as surplus from any company that does shows, BML, Phase-4, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timHealy Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 ACL's are used in film a lot depending on the DP and Gaffer. JD is correct about them being wired in series as they run off 30 volts. They are the same size as a Par 64 globe and very easily fit into a 12 light or dino light where each bank has 4 bulbs and drop is a specially prepared connector. The connecter then gets fed into just one normal 120 volt bulb connector. The special harness is wired in series so that 4 times 30 equal 120. Well that's the story in the US anyway. I guess in Europe one would need to wire 8 in series. I would like to do a footcandle test to see if the output of a 30 volt ACL is comparable to a 120 volt Firestarter or a 1k vnsp. Best Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 I believe that article also stated that Nicola Pecorini (the DP on Tideland) used the ones that were specifically designed for Storaro. If you watch "Flamenco" there are various shots of the lights themselves. And at the Terry Gilliam fansite there are some photos: http://www.phil.stubbs.btinternet.co.uk/pi...epix/tidfp3.jpg http://www.phil.stubbs.btinternet.co.uk/pi...pix/tidfp15.jpg and here's one from the unfinished "Man Who Killed Don Quixote": http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/rem...el/TGlights.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Holland Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 Yeah Jonathan. you are right. It did mention that Storraro Designed the type of lights. But looking at them, there doesn't seem anything special to them other than they are wired in series of four. The article indicates that there are so "unique" that they had to be flown in from Rome. Are the lights sold by Iride any different than buying ACL and mounting them in a PAR64 housing?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 (edited) I suppose demo'ing them for myself up against other brands of ACL's would be the only way to find out how "unique" they really are. Otherwise, I think they were just a preference for Pecorini...so naturally, they were flown into Canada from the manufacturer. Edited March 30, 2007 by Jonathan Bowerbank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Sargenius Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 I would like to do a footcandle test to see if the output of a 30 volt ACL is comparable to a 120 volt Firestarter or a 1k vnsp. Would be interesting to see these in there as well: http://www.bmlighting.com/catalog/mactechhpl.htm Bardwell&McAllister have put ETC's HPL lamps in various mini-brutes etc. Anyone had a chance of trying these yet? cheers, Kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Bill Totolo Posted April 2, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted April 2, 2007 Okay, nice lighting job but STRANGE movie. Anybody see this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted April 2, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted April 2, 2007 Okay, nice lighting job but STRANGE movie. Anybody see this? Yes, on DVD... but I ended up watching it on fast-forward just to get through it. Apparently the DVD is the wrong aspect ratio too, 1.78, when it was shot to be cropped to 2.35. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Holland Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 i think you will find that the ACL lights are the roundish shaped lights , the others look like maxi's or dinos to me . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 Apparently the DVD is the wrong aspect ratio too, 1.78, when it was shot to be cropped to 2.35. Yep, LOTS of people complained to ThinkFilm. Apparently the UK got it right with a Gilliam approved 2.25 ratio, whereas the rest of the world was stuck with the 1.78. Supposedly they'll be releasing the correct version soon. I loved the film, myself. Although, watching it in the theatre, it seemed a lot of the time the day exteriors were a little too hot for my eyes and hard to look at. Don't know if that's something they did to sell shooting Canada for Texas, but it was distracting at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Hartman Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 There is a mention of HPL(s) on this thread: http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...showtopic=20418 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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