IN-HOUSE LIGHT KIT - $5K BUDGET

[Nick Morrison]

Thanks guys. Dave, your Cool Lights setup sounds cool. If the CDM-150 is as good as you say, then it all makes sense. You have 2 spots, and 2 floods. Very portable.

Sam - that ARRI kit looks AMAZING! Wow. 11lbs? All in a pelican case? SOLD.

[Bernard Evans]

I highly recommend Kino Flos. Buy both 3200 and 5500 tubes and you are all set. (4) 4x4s or (4) 2x4s or any combination of those would be ideal plus add some C Stands and Stingers. I would stay away from all and any tungsten lights- tungsten globes throughout the U.S. will go out of production in the year 2014 and our film lights will now have a huge markup as they will be considered a specialty item. Don't get stuck having to pay a specialty markup for a BO 300 watt globe. Fluor, plasma and LED are the way to go.

[Nick Morrison]

Yeah we used Kino's extensively on our latest pilot, and I loved them. Our Dp Alex Baev would remove individual bulbs from the fixture and tape them to tables and walls, and the results were AWESOME. So versatile...we def are going to get a set of Kino's for sure.

But for small portable interview lights, the Cool Lights LED's and Daylight Fresnels look very appealing, too.

[Glen Powell]

tungsten globes throughout the U.S. will go out of production in the year 2014 and our film lights will now have a huge markup as they will be considered a specialty item. Don't get stuck having to pay a specialty markup for a BO 300 watt globe. Fluor, plasma and LED are the way to go.

It's been years since any globe I've purchased for any of my tungsten lights has been "made in the U.S.A." - they went out of production here years ago… They are made in Hungary, Taiwan, Mexico, China, and will continue to be made until the demand completely dries up, long after we're all dead. (Your assertion that Tungsten bulbs will no longer be made / available after 2014 in North America is somewhat misguided, I'm sorry to say).

Kino's are great, but if you want to do a lighting set-up you will occasionally need a hard light; LED's aren't quite there yet (CRI, throw, even spread, intensity), Plasma is cool but waaaaaay out of your stated budget. A tungsten fresnel is great to have in your kit even if you need to gel (and lose a stop or two) to bring it to daylight - even a 150 Dedo is great to give an edge to an interview lifting set-up or a product shot.

G.

[Bernard Evans]

Hey Glen, let me clarify for you- readily available SALES production in the US will end in 2014. This is being mandated by the US federal government as part of some energy bill. Of course, globes aren't made in the US, I never said that. Also, my original sentence never stated that they won't be available, I said they will be at a specialty price. ICG Local 600, Local 80 and Local 728 have all had extensive classes on this bill, on the use of plasma and LED lights for use in the future (2014) and on preparation for when tungsten globes will be inflated. (For example, Home Depot and others had to stop selling 100 watt globes by the end of last year and 75 watt globes by the end of this year- one of many small, but very big, changes to our industry). Please PM me or email me at bernardevansdp at gmail if you would like to further discuss/debate to not clog the OP. :)

[Craig Chartier]

For interviews I do like a good source four, I will put in a gobo pattern and hit the wall and add some blue or green just to make the back wall do something else. Hard edge , and with a hand dimmer makes this a tough to beat fixture for the low bucks. I have no personal time spent using the cool fixtures your looking at, however staying with one brand is not bad thing. At lease all your repair parts will be the same in the drawer.. Everything breaks. I've got Arri, Mole, Lowel, Kino etc,,, parts all over my garage. I would check out the replacement parts costs on some of the fixtures, such as cables or gel frames, knobs or yokes. LED dimmers and power supplies are what get you on those fixtures.

[Glen Powell]

Hey Glen, let me clarify for you- readily available SALES production in the US will end in 2014. This is being mandated by the US federal government as part of some energy bill. Of course, globes aren't made in the US, I never said that. Also, my original sentence never stated that they won't be available, I said they will be at a specialty price. ICG Local 600, Local 80 and Local 728 have all had extensive classes on this bill, on the use of plasma and LED lights for use in the future (2014) and on preparation for when tungsten globes will be inflated. (For example, Home Depot and others had to stop selling 100 watt globes by the end of last year and 75 watt globes by the end of this year- one of many small, but very big, changes to our industry). Please PM me or email me at bernardevansdp at gmail if you would like to further discuss/debate to not clog the OP. :)

I guess my point is that the legislation is often misinterpreted - incandescent bulbs will be restricted if they can't reach a lumens per watt threshold, and the legislation exempts several classes of specialty lights, including appliance lamps, rough service bulbs, coloured lamps, stage lighting, and plant lights. Stage lighting is one of the key points - so while regular household incandescent bulbs may disappear from U.S. shelves (and good riddance I say) Film lights will continue long into the future. Even more so since the countries that surround the U.S. will continue to make / sell them for years to come. And aren't they already at a special price?
My second point is that the alternatives that we need aren't yet mature enough for everyday use - and certainly don't fit in the OP's budget. A single new Plasma light would burn through his budget, and one light doesn't make a kit.
So trying to steer him away from a tungsten fixture with a doomsday end of world scenario isn't all that helpful - even if the globes double or triple in cost over the next ten years, they'll still be a bargain compared to the alternatives. Plus they have proven track records of working in pro environments; when three manufacturers of LED lighting at N.A.B. admitted that their fixtures "Aren't good enough yet", well I'll stay away for now...

[Nick Morrison]

Hey guys thanks all for the feedback. Yeah, I currently have two Arri 300's and an Arri 150 and a Medium Rifa. At Astronaut we are debating what packages to get as a team. I think I am going to round out the Arri kit with a 650 and possibly a 1k or 2K. Then we'll get a Kino Coffin of some kind. And then for sure a set of those very intriguing Cool Lights.

That would give us a very flexible hard edge Tungsten package, a good set of Kinos, and a flexible/portable set of LED's as well.

I'm excited! Thanks all.

And...I need to look into that Source Four. Would I get similar punch/use from an Arri 1k?

Thanks again everybody.

[Christopher Mills]

+1 on minus green on LED lights... they mostly seem to have a green spike.
My Cool Lights ones came with a plastic filter that does the job nicely.. when I add a sheet of tracing paper diffusion to the light it is a great soft key that I can use with 12volt power.. and sometimes as a fill light in a daylight exterior interview setting...
though there are now some chinese ones with no brand name, but twice as much punch from 12v dc

while I have and use a mixture of Cool Lights USA LED panels, Kino FLo, Rosco and other CFL lights for the EPK work I do,
The go to kit that I can also rent to other people with a minimum of worry is the Arri Kit...
I find the LED panels to all be fragile enough that I have to hover over anyone using them at first.. and an irritation I have is that the threaded receivers for t-nuckles are so soft that they immediately cross threaded, and I still need to put helicoils in the thread to re-inforce it..

[Nick Gardner]

I need to look into that Source Four. Would I get similar punch/use from an Arri 1k?

The source 4s punch above their weight. With no lens, the hotspot with a 750 globe is brighter than a 10k fresnel at equal distance. They are screaming punchy. If I had one light to light a whole movie with it would be source 4 pars. In fact, I did a whole movie where 90% of it was lit with source 4s hung from the ceiling, and then bounced into Celotex and bead board for return.

A fresnel has a different quality of light than a par, so they do different things. That being said, you can still do a nice venetian blind pattern and get a hard cut with a source 4. As far as frsnels go, It goes like this - Desisti best lens, then arri, and mole richardson suck in comparison. You can not beat the desitis for precision of focusing, even field illumination, and defined pattern.

Actually, if you are considering arri tungsten units, look at desistis. They are a little cheaper, better lenses as I said, and they are made of stainless steel. They are great lights.

Nick