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Is it standard to turn on any fixtures that are 10K and above by slowly via dimmer rather than having it energized at maximum voltage for safety to prevent inrush current? If so, would this apply to both Incandescents and HMIs?

We normally put 20ks on dimmer for this reason (but not always FYI). You don’t have to put 10Ks or T12′s (12K Tungsten) on dimmers unless you want to. Never had an issue with a hot strike with them. HMIs are always a hot strike and you don’t put them on a dimmer channel. The ballast will slowly bring up the light once it’s struck and you can always just leave the dimmer on the ballast at 100%. Anyhow, dimming for safety is not something you really have to worry about except for 20K Tungsten heads.

To be honest, never had an issue with a sudden surge in power except with lighting strikes and maybe AC units on our power. A surge which usually translates to a quick sudden drop in power for everything else can effect some lights. In particular HMIs which can be notoriously finicky.

How do you safely connect & disconnect 5 wire?

5 wire banded - Green is ground, White is neutral and Red, Blue and Black are the hot legs. Note that the ground (green) is reversed in the sense that the male and female side are opposite the other wires

When dealing with 5 wire (Ground, Neutral and 3 Hot legs) you always have to presume it is hot. A good habit to have! Make sure you have rubber soled shoes to insulate you from the ground. Keep your knees off the ground so that only your shoes are touching the ground. Thus staying isolated - NOT grounded. This is all just precautionary incase you touch a hot lead. Make sure you have some gloves on and disconnect in the following order:

First the three hot legs - Red Blue Black (order does not matter)

Second the neutral

Third and last the ground

If you unplug the neutral first, you might accidentally make some of the hot legs 220 Volts. This could blow up some equipment if it is still plugged in. Unplugging the ground first could create a very dangerous make some metal parts open hot leads as you unsafely unplug the wires.

Your ground is your safety. It is ALWAY the first wire you plug in and the last wire you unplug.

If you are dealing with connecting and disconnecting hot leads, make sure you have someone with you. You don’t want to get electrocuted while being by yourself.

As dangerous as it is, we deal with hot wires all the time and unplug and plug hot leads often. It is part of the job. Just be careful, methodical and do it safely. As an old school gaffer told me once as I was afraid to plug in lights outside during a torrential rainstorm, “don’t be scared, just respect electricity.”

I should note that the worry is that hot leads can arc - jump over the air - onto a lead to the ground (YOU!). This is not really a worry with 120Volts since the voltage is relatively low but arcing and nasty accidents can happen as the voltage goes up. So when you deal with higher voltages like 480Volts, always hire professionals!!!!!!!

What is a Best Boy?

The ‘Best Boy’ position is one of those weird position titles that always jumps out during the credits that most people have no idea what it is. Officially, our union now calls a ‘Best Boy’ the ‘Assistant Chief Lighting Technician.’The gaffer being the Chief Lighting Technician. And the best boy is the assistant to the Gaffer (or Key Grip) and in charge of the logistics of the department. While the Gaffer is on set lighting with the set crew, the Best Boy is working behind the scenes. They are in charge of coordinating and keeping track of all the equipment. Read: lots of paperwork. The Best Boy will run and schedule the crew (more paperwork). They are in charge when it comes to unloading of the truck, where to place the carts, company moves, and who will be on set and off set. In that regard, the best boy will often be in charge of rigging or de-rigging a set. It is an important and often very powerful position.

So where it gets to be a pain in the ass (as if it doesn’t already sound like one) is during big shoots - like night exteriors - where you need extra manpower and equipment. So let’s say we are doing a big night exterior on a Friday with condors (cranes with lights in them). Although we have our core crew of 4 Electrics, the best boy would probably need to hire an extra 4 crew members (to work a Friday night - good luck). He/she would also have to co-ordinate with production and transportation to get a 2nd generator as well as additional light and cable. What a hassle. Oh… the schedule has changed and now we are shooting the night exterior on a Saturday. Meaning he/she would have to cancel the 4 Electrics and hope they are available the next day, re-arrange all the equipment and drop off times. This happens more often than not. A good best boy is invaluable.

Since the best boy in essence runs the crew - it is the Best Boy who is often in charge of the hiring and firing. When I was starting out, I got a day on “Six Feet Under” (as a grip). I was in tight with the Key Grip and one of the core grips who got me on. But I never saw the Key Grip. I was not part the core ‘on set’ crew. So I was helping pre-rig a hotel. The Best Boy was telling us how to hang a big rag around the edge of a balcony when I (the new guy) chimed in that I thought it might be better to do it a different way than he suggested. Well, that was my last day on that set and I was never hired again by them. In retrospect as a young green day player I never should have said anything - obviously. I was scolded by my friend who got me on that show.

As far as big big big shoots. I was working on “Fun With Dick and Jane” and was hired as a day player for big night exterior to be in one of the condors. Out of many condors, many generators and much other equipment. We counted that we had over 25 electrics alone just for that day. Meaning the Best Boy had to hire probably 20 day players just for that day alone - and do 25 timecards as well. Ugh.

That same Best Boy hired me on a TV pilot. When I arrived on my first day, he announced he would be the Gaffer that day. The main Gaffer had injured himself the night before and was in the hospital. Often the Best Boy takes over for the Gaffer since they are 2nd in Command. But not always since they usually haven’t been on set at all and the logistics of a shoot can be such that they can’t just drop everything. But in this case the Best Boy was able to take over and Gaffed the rest of the show while the original Gaffer recovered in the hospital. And you can probably imagine what happened next. Afterwards, the DP really liked the Best Boy as a Gaffer and hired him to be the Gaffer for his next show which was… Avatar. The DP was Mauro Fiore and the Best Boy turned Gaffer was Chris Cullington. I still work with him once in awhile. A great guy!

‘non-lighting’ lighting

Just watched “Lion” which is fantastic and can’t recommend it highly enough. Maybe even the best movie of the year. Directed by the obviously amazingly talented Garth Davis and beautifully shot by Greig Fraser. And yes, beautifully lit. Unfortunately, I heard an interview on the radio here in LA with the director Garth Davis who stated: "I don’t built sets. I don’t use lighting.” This always really irks me when I hear directors (or even DPs sometimes) say that. In general, it is simply not ever true. Lights were used. But worst than that, they are dismissing the craft of lighting. It really is discouraging to be honest.

Using negative fill.

Just because you are not bringing a big movie light in for every shot and close up doesn’t mean it is not lit. Using bounces, solids and silks instead of lights for day exterior scenes is lighting. For night scenes, obviously there are practical lights (actual lights of the location/set) used in the movie that become your light source. How you block the scene with the actors becomes critical to make sure that they do it in an area with practical lights. Often with this technique you have to make sure all the available lights on the location are actually working and have the right or brighter bulbs in them. Just fixing non-working practical lights of a real location can be a huge job! Often you add practical lights to the location so you can get an exposure and can film “without lights.” And it is funny how big movie lights far off set that wash an area in light for an exposure is not considered lighting by a director. Just because you are using bounces, solids and silks instead of lights for daytime exterior scenes doesn’t mean you are not lighting. And I guarantee you that an occasional hand held LED panel or bounce card still snuck onto set. I didn’t work on the movie or know anyone who did but I have worked on many projects that “didn’t use any lights.” Regardless if you are not bringing any movie lights on the set, there is still a lot of prep by the lighting crew, art department and DP to pre-light a scene.

Obviously the director wanted to have a realistic non-lit look which is critical to the story. Not only for the feel but also to give the director the freedom with the actors. He doesn’t want to be constricted by lighting equipment while shooting his scene. Fair enough. And this movie should feel more documentary than glossy Hollywood. And the nature of the shoot and script in India was such that you really could not lug around a whole production crew with generators and lighting trucks. As such, you have to scout the locations and make sure that there is enough existing light to film in. Or shoot at a particular time so that the sun is just in the right place. And for interiors you work with the art department. For example, to add more practical lamps or add white sheers to the windows for a nice super soft and flattering look. All of that is still…. lighting. A minimal cinéma vérité look and lighting style - yes. But not non-lit.

The reason why this “no lights” statement bothers me is not only that it is false and dismisses what lighting is, it also sets an awful precedence for me and you. I guarantee that I or a DP will get a call for a commercial or film that wants the “Lion” look. Why? Money of course. Because they didn’t use any lights and it looked great. Therefore, I should need no lights or manpower. Or when I do ask for more lights or manpower, the producer will simple tell me that “Lion” used no lights or manpower and looked great. So it is just me and a bounce card for a nighttime interior and the final product looks like shit. It simply becomes an excuse for Producers to spend less money on lighting. Not an artistic choice. And it sets a false precedence for many aspiring directors and DPs thinking that they can get a great look without lighting.

Every shoot is simply unique…

Here is a fantastic interview with Greig Fraser about shooting “Lion.” What a nice guy!

Life on Set

A good friend of mine has an amazing Instagram with fantastic behind the scenes shots. He really captures both the fun and craziness of working on film.

https://www.instagram.com/life_on_set/?hl=en

What a great eye and a great way to see some really cool production shots.

Check out Life_on_set on Instagram!

Color Choices

The movie Frozen analyzed as a color spectrum from the beginning to the end by Dillon Baker.

Probably one of the more fun aspects of working on a feature is to plan lighting and color choices that reflect the arc of the story. All very subtle stuff that most people probably don’t notice but I like to think that it helps the overall film. You’re part of the creative process. It is the fun part of my job!

So I recently stumbled upon this guy who has analyzed movies into a color spectrograph. Fun stuff and a very interesting way to look at a film from a lighting point off view.

What a cool and great idea.

Check it out!

http://dillonbaker.com/#/spectrum/

Whole lotta cable

My back hurts just looking at this.

Sometimes you kinda regret taking a job call when you show up and this awaits you. Whole lotta 4/O AWG, whole lotta banded, whole lotta spider boxes, whole lotta…. Luckily I did not take this call but a friend of mine did. From the Dark Knight. Was told that this was just one part of a huge multiple rig for a night shot. Big show!

Cable Addendum

Note that there are three neutral legs in the above run

And to answer the question of what exactly you are looking at… well, there’s a slight twist. There are two separate runs coming from the generator. One is for dimming and the second one for set. You can tell because of the double neutral of the first run on the left. That run has:

1 Ground leg

2 Neutral legs

1 Red hot leg

1 Blue hot leg

1 Black hot leg

Normally electronic dimmer racks require a double neutral due to how electronic dimmers work in conjunction with three phase power.

A 48 Channel dimmer rack with a double neutral Cam Lock input on the bottom.

Here’s an explanation I found on the web:

“It is because of the SCR/triac/SSR dimmers switching into the phase after the "0" crossing. The exact effect has been explained to me several times, but I can't repeat the exact technical explanation. As best I remember, it creates some sort of back load on the neutral that is slightly out of phase with the hot line. In any case, Dimmer manufactures post instructions in their permanent rack installations, to increase the size of the neutral wire. If I am not mistaken, different manufactures post different values. In my EDI rack it states 110% of the hot. In the Teatronics rack it states 115% of the hot lines. Camloks being for portable installation, and most feeders already being 4/0, which is the largest wire to fit into a standard camlok connector, it would be impossible to install a larger wire, and so the need to run the second neutral.”

Normally the neutral is the difference between the highest and lowest legs. Thus it cannot be more than 100% of one leg. Not worth going into too much explanation here. The main point to take away is that dimmer runs need two neutral legs. And that electronic dimmers do some strange stuff. Often a cause of issues…

The second run is a standard 5 piece cable run which will not draw more than 400 amps per leg. The run is only a 150’ to set which is not very long so it won’t cause any line loss issues. thus there is no need to double up any of those legs for the set power run.

One thing to note is that the dimmer run comes directly from the generator and not tapped off along the the main run that goes to set. Having dimming occurring on a non-dimming line can cause issues of lamps buzzing and pulsing. So we always try to keep those runs separate.

Remember! Alway hire an experienced electrician when running power. As a rule of thumb, always assume the power is hot. Wear rubber sole shoes, keep your knees off the ground, and take off all jewelry. When plugging power in, start with the ground, then the neutral and then the hot legs. When unplugging power, go in reverse order. First unplug the hot legs, then the neutral and then the ground.

Cable cable cable!

The trunk line for a stage. But why so many cables for one generator?

An extension cord (a.k.a. a stinger in film speak) is made out of three cables: the ground, the neutral and a hot leg. The hot leg with the neutral produces a 120 volts.

120 Volts outlet

Pretty much every plug in your house is a 120 Volts. And most lights we use in film are 120 Volts: a hot leg, a neutral and a ground. Easy breezy.

Some homes will have 240 Volts outlets which has two hot legs.

240 Volts household plugs - note that they have 2 hot legs.

If you look outside your home, chances are that the power going to your home from the electrical pole will have a metal cable with two black shielded cables coiled around it. The metal cable is actually the neutral and the black shielded cables are two hot legs - the ground is provided by a pole into the ground at your breaker box. Most homes, have 240 Volts available to them. Having a ground, neutral and two hot legs is called single phase.

In film, when using a generator or stage power, you will normally use a 5 piece cable run with three hot cables - this is called three phase.

5 wire ‘banded’ with Cam Lock connectors. Green is ground, White is neutral and the Red, Blue and Black connectors are the hot legs.

A standard “three phase” run is 5 pieces of cable: the ground (green), the neutral (white), and three hot legs (red, blue, black). Each hot leg with the neutral creates 120Volts and two hot legs together creates 208Volts (not 240 Volts - don’t ask). You never use all three hot legs together FYI. So a three phase cable run gives you a lot of options.

5 wire banded going into a distro box. 100 Amp bates to a lunch pale to a stinger.

Sometimes you need to run more power than the cable allows or when running a long run you might have issues with line loss (voltage drops over distance).

4/0 AWG cable! This is heavy back breaking cable. Note that each piece is individual and not ‘banded’ together like the 5 piece ‘banded’ cable shown earlier.

4/0 AWG wire is the thickest (i.e. most copper) cable we have and allows for about 400 Amps at 120Volts (this is how we roughly calculate power in the film world). So if you have three 4/0 AWG hot legs, you could run up to 1200 Amps. Well, sometimes that is not enough as the generator might very well provide more than 1200 Amps of power. And to account for line loss if there is a long run, we often double up the cable. So for a single three phase run you might very well run 9 pieces of cable: 1 ground (you do not need to double this up), 2 neutral, 2 of each of the three hot legs. So a single run of power on a “big show” can get quite large.

The initial run of cable form the source to the set is called the trunk line. Once you get to set, the trunk line normally goes into a “spider box” which splits the run into your more conventional 5 piece cable runs.

A Spider Box. Trunk line comes into the Spider box and splits it into different runs.

Other solutions to run large amount of power over a long distance with minimal cable is to run a higher voltage run and use step down transformers. This is dangerous stuff and if you don’t know what you are doing, can kill you. When you find yourself at that level, you will be hiring an outside firm or a professionally licensed electrician to help you.

Remember, always hire experienced electricians when running power!!!

The SNOOT - a.k.a. Tophat

Little snoot on a little 200 Watt Pepper

The snoot is one of those wonderful old school alternatives to a Leko that most people have forgotten about. And if you really want to go old school, call it a Tophat. Take off the barn doors of a fresnel light and replace it with a snoot. Now you have a very nice and simple spotlight. Very handy if you want a little spot of light but don’t want to (or can’t) use a Leko.

Here’s a great example of using a Tweenie with a snoot to give a nice circular light to a sign.

Looks perfect and much easier and quicker than dealing with a Leko.

They come usually in a set of different sizes allowing you different size opening depending how large or small the spot light you want to be.

Great for little architectural lighting as well maybe a little eyelight or a flashlight type gag. They’re cheap and extremely versatile.

And in case you’re wondering, they are usually only used with and made for fresnel lights.

Next time you rent some lights, ask for a snoot set for some of your fresnels. Most rental houses will have them buried deep in the back somewhere…

NEGATIVE FILL

Negative fill is one of those lighting terms that always seemed so mysterious to me. It sounded so... dark. But it’s a pretty simple concept and a great technique to know about.

The point of negative fill is create contrast (read ‘more dramatic lighting’) by taking light away as opposed to adding it.

Usually we add light to a subject and we shape it so it looks nice and natural. But often we have issues with there being too much ambiance that we need to take light away. Usually we add ambiance with a big white bounce, so to take it away we use a black bounce if you will - negative fill.

Here’s an example of where to use negative fill:

Shooting a scene during an overcast morning

We are filming during an overcast morning and it just looks and feels really soupy and dull. Super flat to the point that our subject was completely evenly lit and melted into the background. Normally for a morning day exterior if needed, we would maybe add a little extra light from the front (through a bounce or an actual light) to give our subject some shape. Or we could add a nice hot edge as if it’s the sun coming up behind them. But in this case it makes no sense. The moment we add a front light or a back edge light, it would look weird. Where would that light come from if the sun hasn’t come out yet? It makes no sense and good lighting should make sense.

We don’t add light to this scene since the light would not be motivated.

You can’t make the key brighter and you can’t add an edge but we can take light away: negative fill. So in this case we bring in a 12’ X12’ black as close as we can without it being in the shot and now we finally have some contrast that makes sense.

It’s not ideal but it’s better looking than before.

Another scenario where we often use negative fill are environments that just have a lot of white walls in them. Imagine doing a scene with bright sun coming in through a window into room that is all white. Well, the light would bounce all around and it would look very flat. So in this case we would add negative fill to the opposite side of where the light is coming from.

And here’s a tip for you, we in film lighting HATE locations with white walls. Unless of course if it’s a look and supposed to be white. But given a choice, in dramatic narrative lighting, you don’t want white walls. As you will notice, film sets rarely have white walls. And often when we do shoot on location and the walls are white, art department will paint the walls a darker color. Or we simply not shoot a particular location because the walls are white. So next time you scout a location, take in account the color of the walls.

L & D

In the picture above is a bin of broken globes. Some of them cost well over a $1000.

L&D stands for ‘Lost and Damaged.’ A term you will become very familiar with once you start renting equipment. You rent the gear, you film your project and you return the gear. And then, more often than not, there’s a list of equipment that is either lost or damaged. This can get very expensive very quickly. A broken globe can run upwards of $3000 and missing film gear is NEVER cheap. Needless to say, this can get very contentious with you in the middle of the rental house and production. “What do you mean it’s broken? We never even used it!”

If you find yourself shooting on the beach or any extreme environment, some damage or a cleaning fee is unavoidable. Hard not lose some stingers (extension cords) when shooting a rainy night scene in the middle of a muddy forest. And sometimes the sheer stupidity of an untrained crew member can create a lot of havoc. Thumbprint on a globe that is not cleaned will break it!

However, often I have noticed that a rental house will do an extremely low bid for a job and then try to make their money back through extravagant L&D charges. An unnamed show I heard got a L&D bill for over $15,000 without any paperwork to back it up. And guess who gets the blame? Yep, you! Everyone blames you for ‘not keeping track of the gear’ even if you did! Sigh.

So it’s important to work with a rental house you trust. That you know will only report true L&D and not come up with a laundry list of dubious charges. Personally I use Cinelease here in LA and have yet to have an issue where I felt there was falsified or trumped up L&D charges. I don’t sense any pressure from the rental agents on the crew checking in the gear to find damaged parts.

Normally you will check out the equipment before you use it on your job. As you can guess, this is very important. Do a thorough job! Normally this task falls to the Best Boy Electric (a.k.a. ACLT) who does the count and checks all the equipment to make sure the count is good, that the equipment looks clean and works properly. The best boy will make sure the paperwork is correct so you don’t get charged for missing equipment you never got.

Another good tip to avoid L &D is to hire an experienced crew. You want a crew who knows the equipment (or admits it if they don’t) and treats the equipment with respect. Being rough with the rental equipment means you won’t get called back.

Sky versus sun

Two skylights during sunset. One facing west gets direct sun and one facing east only ambiance.

So I was working on a film shoot when, at sunset, I looked up at these two skylights and noticed what a perfect example of sky versus sun this was. Apparently the house was perfectly build in such a way that one half of the roof was facing west and the other half east. So during the sunset, the setting sun only hit the west facing window and the other window was only getting ambient skylight: one is orange and one is blue.

Although in film we rate daylight as 5600 K, there are obviously a range of values that represents daylight. The direct sun is often rated as 5600K during the mid day but ends extremely warm during sunset. It is mostly the sun that changes color while the sky will always be extremely cold and much more blue - as we can see by our own eyes. This difference in color between the sun and sky is important to keep in mind when you have to recreate daylight - either on a a set or if you are shooting daylight at night.

In general, create an ambiance that is cooler then what the sun is.

A dramatic scene that takes place during the early morning should have a very cold blue ambiance feel to it. The sun streaming in should feel warmer or neutral. A sunset scene will often have a super warm hard sun streaming in.

So how do you do it?

As an example, if we are shooting tungsten (3200K) we can create an ambiance by bouncing some open face tungsten lights onto a white card and gel it with either a quarter or half blue. Sometimes the grips have a daylight blue bounce (ex. 12’X12’ daylight blue rag in a frame) and you can bounce lights into that (with no gel) to get a very neutral blueish bounce light.

We then use a large Fresnel light as the direct sun (a 5K or larger) with no gel for a very neutral look. But for a sunset look we add Quarter or Half CTO to the Fresnel to accentuate the difference even more. Sometimes the difference is very minor or you have no difference in color between the ambiance and the direct sun light which gives it a much more neutral look (i.e. sitcoms).

All I am saying is that to create a proper daylight scene, you need to mix two sources: a cooler indirect ambiance light with a warmer direct light. To what extent you want that color difference simply depends on the scene and the tone of the movie you are working on.

Father’s Day

As some of you have probably noticed, I have not made any new posts in the last few months. Well, I have been a bit distracted with my newfound role as a proud father. This awesome little dude has brought me immense happiness. Wish everyone reading this to remember that outside of work, there is real life.

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