Night Club Tips

Kirk Sade · February 7, 2008

I'm shooting a music video on S16mm and we're shooting in a night/dance club...I've scene a few club scenes here and there and there is always a "search light" type that flares the lense every once in a while...how do I go about creating that?

what about any tips on shooting a vibrant, colourful night club scene?

I appreaciate your time in advance

Xavier Plaza · February 7, 2008

I'm shooting a music video on S16mm and we're shooting in a night/dance club...I've scene a few club scenes here and there and there is always a "search light" type that flares the lense every once in a while...how do I go about creating that?
what about any tips on shooting a vibrant, colourful night club scene?

I appreaciate your time in advance

I guess you have to search in this forum i don't know where but this kind of "search light " have been discuss before, i believe Claudio Miranda told us he use this kind of light in one video called "some girls" by JC Chasez. I think it was a 10k mole richardson, that's what i remember anyway take a look in olders post.

http://www.claudiomiranda.com/jc.html

Xavier Plaza

Chris Keth · February 7, 2008

Anything big and hard will do it fine. I've done it pretty well with a par can with a firestarter in it.

Chayse Irvin ASC, CSC · February 7, 2008

A mini9 with all very narrow spot bulbs would look pretty cool. Throw some atmosphere in the air and dim it up and down, pan and tilt... that would look really cool.

James Brown · February 7, 2008

A mini9 with all very narrow spot bulbs would look pretty cool.

Hi,

Whats a mini 9? Is it similar to a Source 4?

Regards, James

Chris Pritzlaff · February 7, 2008

Its a nine-light fixture similar to a maxi brute only it uses smaller globes - Par 56's I believe - someone correct me if im wrong

They are used frequently as punch lights for concert venues

Jaron Berman · February 7, 2008

flaring the lens shouldn't be hard with just about any light, but if you're going for a visible beam effect, Mole has beam projectors... or the Joker 400 with beamer attachment, shooting thru a Source 4 Leko. Added bonus of this setup is that you have a LOT of light with little current draw, and you have beam shaping built-in. If you want even more control over the beam, for just a few bucks you can add a variable iris for the light.

Xavier Plaza · February 7, 2008

I found it

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/in...claudio+miranda

hope helps...

Xavier Plaza

John Hall · February 7, 2008

Sounds like you're talking about moving light fixtures, like the type you'd typically find in a club or at bigger rock shows.

These are 'spot' lights that can pan and tilt 360 degrees. They have a colour wheel in them so you can 'dial up' different colours.

These lights can be programmed to do a 'club' type light show, and you just have to adjust the pattern to occasionally flare the lens with one.

If you're shooting at a real club they probably have some of these fixtures already installed, probably Martin MAC 250s or something, and you could easily utilize them for your shoot. If not you can rent them for probably a couple hundered a day.

These lights are controlled using the DMX protocol. If it's a big enough club, they may have a lighting director who programs the lights using some decent control hardware and software, and perhaps he could even help you program your patterns. Smaller clubs may just have an automatic controller that plays perecorded patterns in time with the music.

If the latter is true, you may need to rent a control console, someone experienced enough to operate it, or you could use one of the PC based systems out there, I can give you more info in a follow up post if you would like.

Xavier Plaza · February 7, 2008

Sounds like you're talking about moving light fixtures, like the type you'd typically find in a club or at bigger rock shows.
These are 'spot' lights that can pan and tilt 360 degrees. They have a colour wheel in them so you can 'dial up' different colours.

These lights can be programmed to do a 'club' type light show, and you just have to adjust the pattern to occasionally flare the lens with one.

If you're shooting at a real club they probably have some of these fixtures already installed, probably Martin MAC 250s or something, and you could easily utilize them for your shoot. If not you can rent them for probably a couple hundered a day.

These lights are controlled using the DMX protocol. If it's a big enough club, they may have a lighting director who programs the lights using some decent control hardware and software, and perhaps he could even help you program your patterns. Smaller clubs may just have an automatic controller that plays perecorded patterns in time with the music.

If the latter is true, you may need to rent a control console, someone experienced enough to operate it, or you could use one of the PC based systems out there, I can give you more info in a follow up post if you would like.

That's a great light, i work with this lights last year in a couple of projects... rocks!!, but you have to take time to explore how it works and what kind of effects could be make, but that's only time (pre-production)

Andrew Brinkhaus · February 7, 2008

When I was on the set of "Never Back Down" the DP was using pars shooting down to the floor for the club scene, with a few 9 lights in the front above the DJ table, which would blow out the club, because of the haze. He mounted some mirrors on the ceiling, which would bounce some additional light around. Everything was very hard and spotty, the atmosphere really made everything stand out. A few molebeams were used, which they just panned around the club across the floor. You can see the effect in the trailer, maybe it is something you are interested in simulating.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/...ckdown/trailer/