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Pool lighting from "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"


Ryan Emanuel

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Do you need people to be in the pool for the shot? Or just walking around it?

If just walking around and never closing in on it you could try an empty pool with diffusion gel/sheet over it. Under that diffusion blasting some strong blue-gelled light (not sure if setting up a few mirrors under there would help that wall-like blast). Lastly, getting fog machines around to further diffuse the light into more of a glow.

...That's how I'd do it with the stuff I own at least.

Edited by Max Field
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5 minutes ago, Max Field said:

Do you need people to be in the pool for the shot? Or just walking around it?

If just walking around and never closing in on it you could try an empty pool with diffusion gel/sheet over it. Under that diffusion blasting some strong blue-gelled light (not sure if setting up a few mirrors under there would help that wall-like blast). Lastly, getting fog machines around to further diffuse the light into more of a glow.

...That's how I'd do it with the stuff I own at least.

Extras will be in it Anchorman cannon ball style.

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You can achieve something of that effect by firing light straight down into the pool, but you do then need lights to be more or less above it. You can get away with standing something on a reasonably tall stand at the corner. Of course that then limits your framing, but it does let you illuminate a pool that perhaps isn't actually lit.

Naturally, be stupendously careful about not dumping the light into the water.

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10 hours ago, Phil Rhodes said:

You can achieve something of that effect by firing light straight down into the pool, but you do then need lights to be more or less above it. You can get away with standing something on a reasonably tall stand at the corner. Of course that then limits your framing, but it does let you illuminate a pool that perhaps isn't actually lit.

Naturally, be stupendously careful about not dumping the light into the water.

I was thinking about hydroflex HMIs in the pool, but I haven't worked with them before.

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5 hours ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Thanks!

I used HMI hydropars for a pool in Miami, the only problem was dropping scrims in them, I wish I had found an LED version though I’m sure some must exist. I think I was shown something but I wanted round globes...

If you were going 400 ISO, do 2x 1200 HMIs or 2x 4ks make sense in the water for a wide at 2.8/4.  I see there is still an upstage backlight, but the pool is doing a lot of the work.

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Here's some pool action from an under-resourced little film:

504789071_ScreenShot2020-09-26at5_18_22pm.thumb.jpeg.215884aee22c5fd96a9ddaf723c38033.jpeg
 

1433345596_ScreenShot2020-09-26at5_18_46pm.thumb.jpeg.971c60f9bf5886af6ad269ee7a96f385.jpeg

In order to keep as much of the city skyline exposed as possible, we were balancing the lighting to really low levels (about 1280 ISO @ T/1.6 if I remember correctly).

This meant we didn't actually have to add much to the pool, the pool's built-in lights didn't give us much, but I borrowed an LED scuba-diving torch from my dad, and we literally just popped that in the water at around it's lowest setting, and bounced it off whatever part of the tiles gave us the most even spread of brightness through the water, and this was the exposure we got from it.

We could have gone MUCH hotter with just the one little hand-torch. If you had three or four of them, you could get a really bright pool (if you work to similarly low levels).

Edited by Mark Kenfield
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On 9/25/2020 at 5:58 AM, Phil Rhodes said:

... be stupendously careful about not dumping the light into the water.

Given the inherent danger in using electricity in and around water, I am surprised  no one has yet mentioned that the National Electrical Code requires the use of GFCIs on all 15- and 20- ampere, single-phase, 125-volt receptacles located within 6.0m (20 ft._ of the inside walls of a pool (Section 680.22 (A)(4). This creates a problem for us because many movie lights (HMIs, Kinos, & LEDs) generate residual currents of sufficient magnitude to nuisance trip most GFCIs. 

The source of residual currents in these devices can be intentional or unintentional capacitance. Some sources of unintentional capacitance can be the spacing of components on printed circuit boards too close together, poor insulation between semiconductors and grounded heat sinks, and the primary-to-secondary capacitance of isolating transformers within the power supply.  A source of intentional capacitance is the use of RF filters to reduce the amount of high frequencies electronic equipment emits into the atmosphere. These RF filters can be a source of appreciable residual current on the Equipment Grounding Conductor that will trip most GFCIs.

If you stick with smaller quartz lights, you will be fine with the hardware store variety of GFCI dongles.  But, if you use HMIs, Kinos, and LEDS you will need film style GFCIs, like Shock Stops, that are specifically designed for motion picture lights. To prevent the nuisance tripping that electronic power supplies can cause with standard GFCIs, the Shock Stops trip on an Inverse Time Curve. And, to deal with the harmonics that electronic power supplies can generate that will cause most GFCIs to trip, Shock Stops include a narrow band pass filter with a frequency range of 40-70Hz. Attenuated by the filter, the high frequencies in residual current does not cause nuisance tripping. A more accommodating trip curve, plus harmonic filtration, equals nuisance free operation.  For more details about the use of GFCIs on set, see my white paper on the use of portable generators.

Guy Holt, ScreenLight & Grip, Lighting Rentals and Sales in Boston

 

 

 

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On 9/25/2020 at 4:55 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

Thanks!

I used HMI hydropars for a pool in Miami, the only problem was dropping scrims in them, I wish I had found an LED version though I’m sure some must exist. I think I was shown something but I wanted round globes...

https://hydroflex.com/equipment-rentals/lighting/

 

they have linear LED and Skypanels now.

 

 

 

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