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Building a Moonbox


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Hello all,

 

I am working on a student film in a few months with a decent budget courtesy of a university fund. Since we may be shooting on HD (director and DP still unsure (I may be gaffing)), some of the money can actually go towards different lighting methods that are not common to the university's rental house.

 

To make a long story short, one of the nighttime exteriors could use some nice moonlight and rather than using combo stands all the way up and angling our four 1200 HMIs down on the scene (the most pivotal scene of the film in fact), I was thinking about a moonbox.

 

I have heard and seen such a contraption and would like to know how one goes about building it in the most cost-effective way (we do not have any kind of a crane at the school). Furthermore, can we put those 1200s in there as the source? Thanks.

 

Pedro J. Padilla

Northwestern University

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I once saw a DP that instead of lights themselves, he hanged a white balloon and used it to reflect the light. He then pointed 2 HMIs (probably more powerful than 1.2k each - but in your case you can use 3 or 4) at it from the ground and came out with a beautiful soft moon light.

If you can´t get a balloon, try a thick white cloth.

 

I´ve never built a moonbox. If you can´t build one at the end, try this solution. Either the cloth or the balloon will definitively be easier to hang.

Of course it all depends on the size of the area to be lit.

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If you don't have a crane to hang the box, the best method for you will be determined by what resources you DO have to fly materials in the air and keep the rigging out of shot. If there are trees or structures to tie off to, you can suspend a ballon or frame of difussion material from above and pound light into it from above or below. Hitting a suspended bounce such as a balloon or frame from below gives you a little more freedom to shoot different angles, but you still have to hide the lights somewhere.

 

There are also a coupole companies that make/rent HMI balloons.

 

Usually moonboxes use bare bulbs instead of full lamps, for weight and spread. But there's no right or wrong way to do it, just whatever works (and is safe!).

 

You can make a moonbox frame out of lumber, speedrail, or complete frames. You can make a proper box with four sides and a bottom, or just three square sides like an inverted pyramid (you have to cover the angled gap between the sides a little bit). You can even use one square "ring" with excess fabric hanging below like a big bowl.

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