Eric Soto Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 (edited) Hey everyone, so I am shooting a music video in a few weeks and I am going to be setting up lights for the most part as the budget does not allow for me to have grips on set. I am going to have access to a skypanel s60-c and I would like to have top lighting, in a goal post setup. I do not have much experience with this kind of setup and I want to make sure I do this properly and more importantly safely. I have 13ft of height to work with, and I am going to have a performer acting as a statue on a platform that's about 2 feet in height and the person on the platform is at most 6ft. I am looking to create a top down lighting set up, the light being directly above the statue, or at least having it above the statue, in a beauty light setup, for more medium close ups. I won't be able to rig any lights on the ceiling.So any suggestions for how to set this up would be appreciated. I've been given a budget to rent stands and here are the options from the local rental house Double Wind Up Stand T12 Crankovator Stand Triple Riser 2k Stand 2k Roller Stand Thank You. Edited January 6, 2019 by Eric Soto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Hey everyone, so I am shooting a music video in a few weeks and I am going to be setting up lights for the most part as the budget does not allow for me to have grips on set. I am going to have access to a skypanel s60-c and I would like to have top lighting, in a goal post setup. I do not have much experience with this kind of setup and I want to make sure I do this properly and more importantly safely. I have 13ft of height to work with, and I am going to have a performer acting as a statue on a platform that's about 2 feet in height and the person on the platform is at most 6ft. I am looking to create a top down lighting set up, the light being directly above the statue, or at least having it above the statue, in a beauty light setup, for more medium close ups. I won't be able to rig any lights on the ceiling.So any suggestions for how to set this up would be appreciated. I've been given a budget to rent stands and here are the options from the local rental house Double Wind Up Stand T12 Crankovator Stand Triple Riser 2k Stand 2k Roller Stand Thank You. * I found another rental house that is a bit further away from me but that I would be willing to drive to get the gear. I realize that there are videos online on how to do this goalpost set up but I just wanted to confirm with anyone who has experience. They have Mini Mombo Combo stands, with and without wheels, so I just wanted to know if the safer bet would be to go with the stand without wheels. This place also has speed rails and pretty much any clamp I would need. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 6, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 6, 2019 Unless this is a really small goalpost rig with a really small light, you really need a grip crew to do this safely, and even then, there will be limits to how high and how long a span you can safely achieve with a heavy Skypanel in the middle. Plus there are safety cable issues and support of the base, etc. (don't skimp on sandbags). At least consider a lighter light like a LiteMat 4L or a Kinoflo. But even with nothing up there, a speedrail cross-pipe is dangerous if it can fall down. Could you mount a white card on the ceiling and hit it with a Leko from one side instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Unless this is a really small goalpost rig with a really small light, you really need a grip crew to do this safely, and even then, there will be limits to how high and how long a span you can safely achieve with a heavy Skypanel in the middle. Plus there are safety cable issues and support of the base, etc. (don't skimp on sandbags). At least consider a lighter light like a LiteMat 4L or a Kinoflo. But even with nothing up there, a speedrail cross-pipe is dangerous if it can fall down. Could you mount a white card on the ceiling and hit it with a Leko from one side instead? The thing is halfway through the video the light changes from a warm look to completely red. I found out that I will have an Arri 650 and a 1k, so I could put a red gel on them and rig on them up but I don't want that strong of a light, and I don't know how to rig diffusion on a goalpost. I could also rent either the S30, which would be lighter in weight or I could rent the Select30. But I have a natural reaction to want to rent a Skypanel over the Select30 if I have the budget to do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Emanuel Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 You won't be able to fade from a warm look to a completely red anyway on the s60 unless you have dmx. If you have no crew, you have to forget about the s60, and find something more practical. Davids suggestion of the bounce makes a lot of sense. Are you going for hard light or soft, if it is soft you have to do a ceiling bounce or litemats. If you have no crew the you can probably get one litemat on a goalpost, in a reasonable amount of time and get a PA to help you stem it up, but it wont be that soft. If you haven't rigged a goal post before, an s60 is not the place to start especially if your speedrail is 12+ feet. Though a goalpost is a simple rig, if the question of what stand to use comes up then I wouldn't recommend putting more than 10-15 pounds on it. Canada might have different terms but you should be asking for 3 riser combo stands with casters. Please please please get safety chain. Another metric you didn't mention is how wide the frame is ft/meters aka how wide the goal post needs to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted January 7, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 7, 2019 I hate to clobber the product of a reputable company, but Skypanels are outrageously big and heavy (and expensive) for what they are. At least a few alternatives exist. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 You won't be able to fade from a warm look to a completely red anyway on the s60 unless you have dmx. If you have no crew, you have to forget about the s60, and find something more practical. Davids suggestion of the bounce makes a lot of sense. Are you going for hard light or soft, if it is soft you have to do a ceiling bounce or litemats. If you have no crew the you can probably get one litemat on a goalpost, in a reasonable amount of time and get a PA to help you stem it up, but it wont be that soft. If you haven't rigged a goal post before, an s60 is not the place to start especially if your speedrail is 12+ feet. Though a goalpost is a simple rig, if the question of what stand to use comes up then I wouldn't recommend putting more than 10-15 pounds on it. Canada might have different terms but you should be asking for 3 riser combo stands with casters. Please please please get safety chain. Another metric you didn't mention is how wide the frame is ft/meters aka how wide the goal post needs to be. The speelrail is going to be 12 feet. I want the light to be softer than harder. When you are mentioning a ceiling bounce, how would you set that up? The height of the space I'm shooting in is 13ft. The look I am going for is having this character surrounded by light from above and for it to be creating almost a spotlight like look from above and surrounded in darkness, in wider shots. Also I'm not going to transition from warm to red in real time, so I don't need to be using a dmx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Conley Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 S60 is about 50lbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 7, 2019 Premium Member Share Posted January 7, 2019 Litemat 4 only weighs 6 lbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Hartman Posted January 7, 2019 Share Posted January 7, 2019 (edited) You could span 12 feet, but I would use iron pipe and not speedrail. Additionally, I'd set it up as one would a menace arm (except upside down), effectively making an element of a truss, increasing the strength. The reality is, for a crew of one, who hasn't done any sort of rigging before, this is above your experience level and a hazard to everyone on set. Edited January 7, 2019 by JD Hartman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 Litemat 4 only weighs 6 lbs. unfortunately, no Litemats available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 7, 2019 Author Share Posted January 7, 2019 You could span 12 feet, but I would use iron pipe and not speedrail. Additionally, I'd set it up as one would a menace arm (except upside down), effectively making an element of a truss, increasing the strength. The reality is, for a crew of one, who hasn't done any sort of rigging before, this is above your experience level and a hazard to everyone on set. Agreed. I'm just trying to figure the most effective way to get a sort of, softer than harder, flood of light to the subject, while they are surrounded in darkness. The director knows for certain that he wants a warm and red look, but he wants the option of possibly trying other color combos, so that's why I needed an LED with RGB control. I have access to Arri tungsten lights but I would have to buy gels and in my mind it's better to have as many options as possible, opposed to whatever gels we end up buying, especially if the budget allows for good quality lighting. My only options from the rental house for full RGB are the Skypanels and Select30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD Hartman Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 If you manage to get it rigged up and don't hurt yourself, anyone else or any of the equipment, how will you provide the DMX control to the SkyPanel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 If you manage to get it rigged up and don't hurt yourself, anyone else or any of the equipment, how will you provide the DMX control to the SkyPanel. Well, not that I'm going to rig the SkyPanel, seeing the overwhelming suggestion not to do it (rightly so) because of a lack of a crew, and its weight, I was assuming I wouldn't use DMX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Schuurman Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 (edited) you're in toronto and there's no litemats available? 2d House, AE, Ontario Camera, and Whites all have them to rent. Or look on Shuttershare for private owners. I have one I can rent to you but I'm in Hamilton. You mention being unable to rig to the ceiling, but do you have any photos of the ceiling you're shooting in? Is it a drop ceiling? just white painted drywall? if you're not hazing it up then your best bet is to use a source 4 like David suggested, you may need to put a bounce up, or just shape it right on the ceiling. only thing you probably can't do that way is skirt the whole thing to minimize the falloff. If it's a drop ceiling you could maybe pin up some duvetyne . If you have the budget for a skypanel, which is like $250ish/d you could probably hire a grip to help and rig up a cheaper light. Edited January 8, 2019 by David Schuurman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Soto Posted January 8, 2019 Author Share Posted January 8, 2019 you're in toronto and there's no litemats available? 2d House, AE, Ontario Camera, and Whites all have them to rent. Or look on Shuttershare for private owners. I have one I can rent to you but I'm in Hamilton. You mention being unable to rig to the ceiling, but do you have any photos of the ceiling you're shooting in? Is it a drop ceiling? just white painted drywall? if you're not hazing it up then your best bet is to use a source 4 like David suggested, but you may not even need to put a bounce up, just shape it right on the ceiling. only thing you can't do that way is skirt the whole thing to minimize the falloff. If it's a drop ceiling you could maybe pin up some duvetyne . If you have the budget for a skypanel, which is like $250ish/d you could probably hire a grip to help and rig up a cheaper light. Yes there are litemats available but as I've mentioned I am looking for RGB control. Also I don't think I mentioned being unable to rig to the ceiling, I just need the ease of being able to experiment with different color combinations. The director wants to option to choose on the day of the shoot so I don't really know what other option I have aside from renting RGB lights like a SkyPanel or a Select30, or to just buy a bunch of different colored gels for the Arri 1k and 650w lights I already have on hand. Thanks for the offer to rent though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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