Hanging china lanterns non-destructively

[Brandon Whiteside]

We are shooting in a restaurant and I was wanting to bring up the ambient light because we are in there at night. In my mind it seems pretty hard, but does anyone have any tricks to mounting these to a ceiling without drilling? It is not a drop ceiling. :(

[JD Hartman]

Well gaff tape certainly will work. The only time it will take paint off is when the paint is loose to start with. Another option is the 3M Command adhesive strips and hooks. What about simply bouncing a few fixtures into the ceiling?

[Brandon Whiteside]

I never thought of the 3M stuff! good idea. The bounce could work too.

[Rob Featherstone]

I lit a fairly wide scene with paper lanterns.

 

We rigged two heavy stands and ran a climbing rope between them.

 

We then made a zip cord line that we clothes- pegged to the rope and dropped the lanterns from it.

 

We had to do a little rigging but it worked very well.

[JD Hartman]

The suspension rope is another good idea. No danger of paint damage. Nothing to buy either. Just a couple of sturdy stands, sandbags and rope (or sash cord) of the appropriate weight.

[Ryan Thomas]

You can always just use paper tape too...don't use gaff tape. Rope is a pretty good solution though, if there are things to tie it off to.