Par 64s for night exteriors

[DavidSloan]

Hey guys, I need to light a looong dark street, at night...the location has a row of street lamps but they give me no useable reading. I'm thinking of flagging off all of the street lamps, about 6 of them, and setting up a row of Par 64s. I never actually used Pars, I've used 2K fresnels for street lamps but I know that Pars are usually used for night ext work. Can anyone offer any advice on the use of pars?

 

Thanks

[Nathan Milford]

Make sure to pick up some TVMP adaptors as they usually come with pipe clamps instead of baby-pin recepticals, and get the right bulbs for your application.

 

General information can be found here.

 

Photometric data can be found here.

 

You can actually pick up par cans off of ebay for peanuts.

 

They're only 1000 watts though, not entirely useful in many night exterior situations unless you're planning on throwing them up in the distance to provitde 'random' points of light in a frame.

[David Mullen ASC]

The spot and narrow spot globes can put out an awful lot of concentrated light though.

[DavidSloan]

From my readings and speaking with other DPs, Pars seem to be very common for emulating street lamps. While they are 1000w they are supposed to have an incredibly long and powerful throw...sort of like a street lamp. I'd be curious to know if anyone here used them for night exteriors before. I know Ericson Core used Pars on Daredevil, a lot.

[Kevin Zanit]

I've used PARs on night exteriors, mainly for edge. I like them because they are so punchy without pulling a lot of power. Comes in handy for lower budget stuff that can?t afford a lot of the more common gear used in night exterior work.

 

Kevin Zanit

[Laurent Andrieux]

2 kW open face tungsten "blondes" is a good choice too.

 

I follow David about spot and narrow globes...

[Bob Hayes]

Par 64s are great. They are inexpensive, very small and compact. They look kind of like car head lights. By changing the globes out you can change the beam from a very narrow spot to a wide beam. They work great for lighting the sides of buildings, back lights anything. The down side is they are very hard to cut and scrim. I did a boxing show where I wanted to light with pools of light. We just hung Par 64s and pointed them down. You can get them with a collar which snoots the light.

[Luke Prendergast]

A few notes from working every day with PARs:

 

- 240v 1000watt PAR64s are much whiter than the 120v version. This becomes very important when using cool-end-of-th-spectrum gels. Congo blue on a 120v 64 is almost as good as blackwrap in the gel frame

 

- These 240v 64s are also much faster. You can get a very cool and random flicker chasing them at 999BPM

 

- A ray kit in either a 56 or 64 can that takes a 500w A1/244 globe will give a tremendous punch and very narrow projection angle.

 

- Barn doors are virtually useless with PARs in long cans.

 

- Given the rather rude means of shaping the light, luminance across the field can be quite uneven. Light frost or diffusion in the color frame helps.

[DavidSloan]

The spot and narrow spot globes can put out an awful lot of concentrated light though.

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I don't understand what you're trying to say...is this a good thing, bad thing??

[Laurent Andrieux]

david sloan : does the word "awful" mean a good thing, in any case ?

[DavidSloan]

No need to get patronizing there, sir...esp when your command of the English language is obviously flimsy. The adjective in question-awful-can be used in a positive light to communicate something of a great quantity: "an awful lot of footage," or "an awful lot of LIGHT!" Next time check your English before you go around making stupid comments.

Edited December 12, 2004 by DavidSloan

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

I don't understand what you're trying to say...is this a good thing, bad thing??

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it's a good thing if you need an awful lot of concentrated light. I find pars to be extremely useful on exteriors for washing buildings and making pools of light. An example would be if I have buildings close to the streetlights and have access to the roof. I can shoot PAR's down to the street to make a more concentrated pool of light. I then use another more precise instrument to provide an actual backlight on actors but the PAR's are good for that too if you get them far back.

[David Mullen ASC]

I only said the spot and narrow spot PAR's put out a lot of light in response to the comment that they were only 1000 watts. Yes, they are... but they put out a lot of concentrated light. I once lit a sidewalk at night with overhead pools from narrow spot PAR64's from a second story rooftop and I think I was getting f/8 or more in the center of the beams. That's great for the Robert Richardson burnt-out effect as someone passes under them, especially when combined with some diffusion on the lens. There's a reason why they are sometimes called "firestarters" though...

[DavidSloan]

There's a reason why they are sometimes called "firestarters" though...

Uh oh.

[Riku Naskali]

A few notes from working every day with PARs:

 

- 240v 1000watt PAR64s are much whiter than the 120v version.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The color temperature depends on the bulb, the ones I've used have always been standard 3200K tungsten/240V.

 

I have nothing more to add, pars are really easy to use, and as David said, they give a lot of light in the center of the spot. And yes, they get hot. You should use frames or something like that for gels, they will burn out quickly if put straight on the can.

[Luke Prendergast]

It says 3200 on the box, but it doesn't mean that's what you're getting, hence the '...are much whiter' comment

[Laurent Andrieux]

No need to get patronizing there, sir...esp when your command of the English language is obviously flimsy.  The adjective in question-awful-can be used in a positive light to communicate something of a great quantity: "an awful lot of footage," or "an awful lot of LIGHT!"  Next time check your English before you go around making stupid comments.

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OK. I may make language mistakes (in both writing or understanding) and my english may be poor, fare enough... You don't have to insult me ! (Unless you have an acception for "stupid" to be used in a positive light...

[Laurent Andrieux]

Uh oh.

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In France we call them "matches"

[DavidSloan]

I apologize. I didn't mean to insult you, but your post came off as snooty, and condesending...perhaps that too is a language barrier.

 

Thanks for the comments.

[Laurent Andrieux]

I apologize.  I didn't mean to insult you, but your post came off as snooty, and condesending...perhaps that too is a language barrier. 

 

Thanks for the comments.

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It's true I didn't imagine it could have been meaning something positive, so I was just asking (I actually even was sort of descreetly asking you what you'd mean without bothering esp David or anyone, congrats to my self ! :lol: ) I certainly was clumsy, but thanks you tought me this use of "ugly", I certainly would have sued much better if David had just used "bloody" or "f*****g", I guess (but it surely is not the way David writes) :D ...

 

EDIT > "snooty" ? Does it mean the same as "snotty" ? Well !!!! I thought I some how found out the ambivalence of my sentence "in any case", but ddin't imagine that !!! may be just "in a case" or "in some case" (or just another expression ?) would had been better ? Then... Sorry about that ! It's true my english is a bit approximative...

Edited December 15, 2004 by laurent.a

[Riku Naskali]

Whenever i see par cans floating around my past life comes back to haunt me.

I start looking around for my guitar case.

ROCK ON!

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:rolleyes: