Basic lighting package for Raven

[Kevin D'Haeze]

I know this question is loaded. There are so many kinds of production scenarios and location variables, it's impossible to consider them all. But I'm curious what you'd consider a good "base lighting package" for the Raven. I'm coming from experience with lot of other camera ecosystems, but new to Red. Every camera system seems to have its own flavor of what kind of lighting it likes to "fead the sensor". I assume the Raven is no different.

So the question is... what is the minimum lighting package you'd bring with you - something sufficient for "most" interview type situations, with the flexibility to bleed into more dramatic lighting. Of course adding more lights on a case-by-case basis would be needed. But I'm talking about a core kit, so to speak.

Just to give you an idea of where I'm starting, I've been a fan of the Fiilex units, with the P180's, P360's, and Q1000. My thought was to stick with that lineup. I also have a family of Zeiss lenses @ f2.0. I'm all ears for those who have had boots on the ground in this department. What's the minimum package you would bring with you on a typical interior shoot?

 

[Nick Gardner]

4 x 1x1 LED panels - Daylight
4 x source 4 pars with dimmers
2 x 300 fresnels
2 x 650 fresnels
4 x 24" chinese lanterns
Pig noses, cube taps, bare bulb gags
Milk crate full of practical bulbs from 25 watt up to 120 watt, and weird ones like marconis, and clears and whatever you think looks cool.
dimmers x 4
8 25' stingers

If you can afford it, add a 1200 and a 575 hmi pars.

You asked about lighting but here's grip as well -

4 x c stands
24x32 floppy solids 2
24x36 silk
18x24 single and double nets.
Stands for your lights
6 sand bags
4x4 piece of celotex bounce
2x2 piec of celotex bounce
roll of trick line
diffusion and color correct gells for lights
2 x large pieces of duvateen
8 #2 pony clamps
2 x cardellini clamps
2 x butt plugs
2 x baby plates
Black wrap

90% of that crap will fit on one cart. If you know you are doing an interior interview and probably don't need everything, leave some stuff at home. But that amount of stuff is manageable and will cover a whole lot of ground. It's all also mostly cheap. Some of the chinese 1x12 leds are really good. You can buy used mole or desisti fresnels for not a whole lot more than the chinese arri knock offs.

That's more crap than I would take for a one man band type shoot, but if there were at least two of us we can deal with that amount of crap.

Nick

 

[Kevin D'Haeze]

Thanks for the response... I always like hearing about other people's workflow, since we all have a unique approach. Can I push your thought line a little further? What would you take as a travel kit?

 

[Bob Gundu]

For travel it's really hard to beat lights like the Westcott Flex LEDs.

 

[Tony Ditata]

The litepanels Astra is a really powerful and versatile fixture to have in the kit. Those flex lights Bob mentioned are amazing as well and you can't beat their portability and endless mounting abilities. I may need to pick one or two of those up myself.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

I highly recommend renting and testing. I know everyone loves LED. Size, weight, efficiency are all great. But i have seen some nasty results, so I would recommend sticking with proven entities. I've had gaffers pull out some DIY panels and they needed to be gelled and even then I didn't think the spectral response was very good. but some of the newer stuff is impressive but expensive. If skin tones are a high priority, I highly recommend testing the various technologies to see what achieves the skin tones you are going for. Nothing will destroy them quicker than contaminated light sources. Never go by specs only. go with your eyes followed by some scientific analysis. I still like tungsten, even gelled for daylight. not for every situation but just in general. they are just not efficient (although sounds like new tungsten tech on the horizon).

Portability becomes a big factor. If you travel a lot you may need some of the easy pack sources such as the Wescott LEDs. As for grip gear there was a link to a key grip's website that showed how he packed a ton of useful stuff into a single case. One man band is hard when you are trying to do real lighting. As Nick said, even two people offers you the opportunity to bring more useful tools.

 

[Billy Jim]

....As for grip gear there was a link to a key grip's website that showed how he packed a ton of useful stuff into a single case....

I missed this. Does anyone have a link?

 

[Björn Benckert]

I usually usually rent one or a few of the Area 48 led fixtures. When only having a few lights. Their spectrum of light is amazingly better then the other leds and they come in quite handy soft cases / bags that I can strap together 3 and 3 or even 4 and 4... that way I pay less when flying

 

[Phil Holland]

@bob - Nice looking frames there Bob! Totally agree on those Flex lights, using those more than I expected. I'm picking up some Astras next week for a gig and my 2016 kit. Been using my bigger Nila Boxers a lot too. Pretty much all my main gear is LED or CFL with a few tungsten sources in there now. I rent HMIs as needed for the most part.

 

[PatrickFaith]

Has anyone done any LED (r/g/b peaks) histogram analysis to the new Standard OLPF peaks (filter r/g/b peaks)? I'd really like some LED's that were aligned to the Standard OLPF.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

If you want tungsten it's hard to beat a Lowell tota and chimera bag. You can put up to 1k lamps in them and get whatever size chimera you want. A few of these pack up very small for travel.

Not a lot of film people use totas but I love em

 

[Nick Gardner]

LEDS can definitely be problematic. Testing is important. I always felt a little wrong about using LEDs on real talent until I did a movie where we had day for camera and make up tests. I shot our lead actress with natural daylight, hmi, led, and tubngsten and then had the DIT match them all. Leds looked great (granted I had already determined that these needed 1/8 minus green). Haven't felt bad about it ever again.

Nick

 

[Martin Stevens]

I love my daylight balanced Mole Richardson "Quantum Dot" LED Fresnels.

 

[Kevin D'Haeze]

For travel it's really hard to beat lights like the Westcott Flex LEDs.

Nice looking stuff! I kind of forgot about the Wescott Flex, and would definitely be great for a travel kit... is your key light on the right side of the frame also a Flex?

 

[Bob Gundu]

Nice looking stuff! I kind of forgot about the Wescott Flex, and would definitely be great for a travel kit... is your key light on the right side of the frame also a Flex?

Yup. It's in the softbox.

 

[Tom Buckler]

Yup. It's in the softbox.

1x1 Westcott softbox? I'm trying to figure out the best diffusion for the smaller 10" panel.

 

[Bob Gundu]

1x1 Westcott softbox? I'm trying to figure out the best diffusion for the smaller 10" panel.

These are the 10x10.

 

[Mike Quill]

Bob, how is the throw on those Wescott Flexes as compared to say Kinos?

Yup. It's in the softbox.

 

[Stephen Lovett]

These are the 10x10.

Hi Bob, thanks for posting this. I've got a couple of the 10"x10" daylight panels I'm quite happy with them, but am looking for a better softbox that the bolt together "x" frame that came in the kit. So just to verify, the 1x1 westcott softbox will work with the 10" panels? And what are those stands btw. I'm doing more travel gigs, and I love my beefy baby's but travel friendly they aren't

 

[Kevin D'Haeze]

So glad I asked about what you all are using... great community here!

BTW, B&H Photo has a pretty killer price going on the 10"x10" right now, for both the full kit and the light w/o bracket + diffusion. I just picked up three of them that I can tuck in my Pelican case. The Pelican 1510SC Studio Case has a laptop and power cord sleeve built into the lid, so I can slide three 10"x10"s in the laptop sleeve, and put the mount brackets in the power adaptor sleeve. Pretty amazing to have that kind of lighting in essentially the lid space of a carry-on case! So in theory, when I have to really pack it small for travel, I could have one Pelican case (Raven, monitor, batteries, charger, lights) and one tripod/light stand bag and be good to go for many quick scenarios. That rocks. I also picked up some of the D-Tap cords, so I can ditch the power cords completely when on the road.