Jump to content

Lighting without electricity in an isolated location


Recommended Posts


Hello everyone,


I am planning to shoot in a very isolated location, accessible only by foot (after a few hours of walking, and over uneven terrain).


The location is a small abandonned cottage in the North of England. There will be a working fireplace and the room should appear to be lit by this source, and a few candles only.


I need your advice/experience on finding an appropriate way of lighting the scene without electricity. I have thought about battery-run torches & triple-wick candles, and push-processing.


I will be shooting on super 8 tri-x film (200 ISO) with a 4008 beaulieu camera and Schneider 6-66mm lens (max aperture: 1.8).


Let me know your thoughts!


Thanks a-million,


Jayne


Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my experience wich is more technical than artistical ther are several way of lighting depending on the budget and the rental possibilities. I work in italy like gaffer and the rental prices are very good.

triple-wick candles and others stuff like that are good like in frame light handled by actors and also on the extraframe, i've done for a work in a cave 2 round plates 1 feet diameter with 8/10 large candles, like the church one, with soft and hard lee reflector only in half of the circonference.
Anyway i will try to rent a very small generator like 1.5kw that can be transported by hand, using little fresnels like 300/500 or photoflood that are cheaper, they can save your life and also can emulate fire with dimmer or moving little flags or blackfoil shadowing the objects. In italy one day with this material i pay 100/150 Euros
If you are very very fast you can use a little hmi like Arri sungun 125 with dc battery ballast and 24V block battery pack but its about 25 minutes for battery
I will figth for the little generator!

If all of this sound crazy you need a lot of candles triple or the church big ones and a lot of white bounces, also stripes of hard and soft gel reflector rosco R4 or Lee
At your iso you need 30fc to be on 2.0, like a 300 fresnel 12 feet or 650w 20 feet away More or less
Pushing on super 8 i'ts a lot of grain but could be an artistic idea.

I'm sorry but i'm thinking and writing in english so i don't know if you understand me =)

Leonardo Brocato

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your replies!!! Leonardo your detailed response was perfectly understandable and very helpful!

A generator is too much trouble and I've already ruled out that possibility.

Most people suggested battery-run LED lights. Let me know if you have any suggestions on types/brands.

Thanks again,

Jayne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

To be honest there's only really three things to think about with LEDs.

 

There's the super high-end stuff - Arri L-series, etc - which is probably considerably too expensive for a super8 shoot.

 

Then there's the middling sort of range, Litepanels and so on. Litepanels themselves are unconscionably expensive (around UK£1000 apiece), but there's also...

 

...all the cheap Chinese imported stuff which you can find all over ebay. I suspect the only difference is reliability and consistency, inasmuch as if you buy several litepanels over a long period and they'll probably be quite well colour matched and last quite a while. But then you don't really care about colour on a monochrome shoot.

 

I made my own, but I'm like that...

 

P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

to be Honest arri L7 the T version is very very good but not the best for candles.

If you try with battery led beware of the loss of power, the battery goes down slowly but the led is more intense and change color, just check it regularry. Search for leds with best CRI (Color Rendering Index) and soft it a lot and color it with gels to match with candles, you can also put a gel 1/4 minus green to cut away green of led....... and bring the church candles plates!!!!!!!!!! (i'm a huge fan of these)
The led is like an HMI with strong edges but few power, the firelight is very very soft and gradient.
let us know your choice

Leonardo Brocato
Gaffer :Rome/Italy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agree that small LED or fluresent fixtures could work - I've use camping fluresents in the past and I quite like this fixture:

http://www.litepanels.com/language/pages/micro.php

but its expensive for what it is...

 

Or maybe use gas camping lights if audio is not an issue:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Campingaz-Lumostar-Plus-Piezo-Lantern/dp/B001P80GT6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363268973&sr=8-1

 

Small generators are very small these days and could perhaps still be considered:

 

http://www.seddondirect.co.uk/Generators/productDetails.asp?productID=638

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I have decided to explore the gas light avenue - its funny that you mention it Phil.

I will start a new thread specifically about using these lights, feel free to contribute if you have any experience.

It would be really thrilling to be able to go 'all flames' for this shoot (candles + gas lamps + lots of reflectors)!

Best,

Jayne

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Just want to toss this in here as others mentioned LEDs... you shouldn't overlook the F&V stuff. To be honest they look better than the LP stuff and are far cheaper.

 

Also a new product announced itself on the news thread: Hexolux. I just peaked at their website, and even though they don't have a lot of punch, they do have paper CRIs that will make the jaws drop on both Arri and LP. I'd love to get a chance to play around with those.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...