Lighting

XeFx309 · Post by **XeFx309** » Thu May 11, 2006 3:45 am

Im really new to lighting, and am interested in having my films lit well so they look professionally, well done. I found this on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Set-of-4-Lights-Vid ... dZViewItem

Is this an ideal lighting system I can use to create films? Im especially interested in the lighting gels, as I would like for my movie to be lit a certain color. Thanks.

UFProductions · Post by **UFProductions** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:41 am

A 150 Watt bulb isn't going to cut it I'm afraid. The set up is a fancy toy more than anything.

XeFx309 · Post by **XeFx309** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:28 am

Can you point me in the right direction?

Raptor · Post by **Raptor** » Thu May 11, 2006 3:08 pm

http://www.matthawkins.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9168
Just posted this in tutorials - nice looking performs well and low-budget......

a2e · Post by **a2e** » Thu May 11, 2006 8:35 pm

Right now I am reading the book "Set Lighting Technicians Handbook" by Harry C. Box (ouch I would sure hate to have that name!)

While the book is focused on professional set lighting and not low budget stuff like we do, it is still very informative. It covers every aspect of the technical side of set lighting as well as the technique and theory behind it. I rented the book from my local library, I recommend you do that same.

Mr.Anderson · Post by **Mr.Anderson** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:48 am

i have used many things as filters or jerry-rigged gels. I have used a blue plastic grocery bag, a yellow towel....thats something that can vary and be improvised. The light itself on the other hand, hell, I need one for myself. Im somewhat lost in that area, listen to these guys though.

Vamp · Post by **Vamp** » Fri May 12, 2006 7:08 pm

I wouldn't really suggest anything other than gels suited to the job. A plastic bag and a yellow towel are niether correctly colour balanced to CTO/CTB and aren't that heat resistent...But that's why rolls of gel go the equivalent of $120 here.

Epsilon · Post by **Epsilon** » Fri May 12, 2006 10:34 pm

What happens if the plastic grocery bag catches on fire and burns down your house? In reality, even gels have been known to burn over extended time!!

UFProductions · Post by **UFProductions** » Fri May 12, 2006 11:48 pm

Anything can be used for a gel, it may not be as good as the real thing, but it works just as fine. It's the same as using chocolate syrup for blood when shooting black and white, the audience won't know the difference. The thing to remember is using jury-rig gels for only a very short period of time to prevent overheating. I keep the really thin plastic table cloths in my kit for this purpose, they come in lots of colours and can recolour an entire room just by pinning it over a window.

Vamp · Post by **Vamp** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:20 pm

That's not true at all. Gels are specially colour balanced to 3200k and 5500k...You can't just use any type of material.

Mr.Anderson · Post by **Mr.Anderson** » Sun May 14, 2006 3:37 pm

Epsilon wrote:What happens if the plastic grocery bag catches on fire and burns down your house? In reality, even gels have been known to burn over extended time!!

These are the sacrifices we have to make....haha, definitely just kidding.

Anyways, I know those arent the best (The towel i used did get reeeally hot) But I only had 5 or 10 min of a scene left to film, and needed something quick, so i just grabbed what will work. If you have or can get gels, use them. If you cant, improvise.

UFProductions · Post by **UFProductions** » Sun May 14, 2006 9:31 pm

Vamp wrote:That's not true at all. Gels are specially colour balanced to 3200k and 5500k...You can't just use any type of material.

Yes, well improvised gels may not provide the perfection of the real thing, but if the effect works it doesn't really matter does it? I mean most of the people here aren't using real guns in their films, and it doesn't harm the final product. Nobody is going to care what you did behind the camera so long as whats in front of it looks good.

XeFx309 · Post by **XeFx309** » Fri May 19, 2006 3:18 am

Thanks for the advice so far, but can anyone give me any advice on what and where I can get the actual lighting equipment for now? Thanks.

scottspears · Post by **scottspears** » Sat May 20, 2006 4:41 pm

Not to pimp my site, but check out this article I wrote on putting together a low budget lighting kit: http://www.scottspears.net/Lowbudgetinglighting.htm

Regarding using plactic grocery bags as gels, well whatever works, but that just sounds unsafe to me. (I once used cardboard barn doors when the real doors were missing and at the end of take three, they burst into flames.) Real gels aren't that expensive. You can buy gel packs that have an assortment of gels for between $20 and $35. I think Bogen and somebody else puts these together.

A new company on the scene for pro lights is http://www.rostronics.com I've heard a lot of good comments about them. If I was starting out, I would buy one or two of their lights and put together a home kit to suppliment them.

Scott

BlakJakDavy · Post by **BlakJakDavy** » Sat May 20, 2006 7:00 pm

Some other things that help include turning on every light in the vicinity where you will be filming and using reflector boards to bounce sunlight through windows etc.

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