Old fashioned oil lanterns rigged with electric bulbs ?

[Michael Totten]

I'm prepping for a shoot where several long scenes are lit only by oil lantern / firelight. I'm curious if there is a lighting house in LA that has pre-rigged lanterns for rent.

I think Nestor Almendros used this technique in Days of Heaven (I thought it looked pretty good...):wink:

thanks

Michael

 

[Ryan De Franco]

I am also curious about this. Shoot next weekend 29/30 in New York. If anyone has one laying around and wouldn't mind shipping it... or NY local, even better... just need one!

 

[Todd T]

Are you using them as practical lighting? If not (or if they are just going to be in the background) you might be able to use LED tea lights, or battery operated candles as the light source.

 

[Ryan De Franco]

Not looking to base the exposure off the lantern but definitely get a nice kick from it. I have another feature in November set in WW1 trenches and tunnels for which the lanterns will sometimes be the only light in the scene. Here is the David Mullen take...

From the end of the final day, doing some shots of Jack walking in the woods... The backlight looks almost like it is right above him, but it was actually an 18K HMI very far away on the roadway above the canyon, so the shadows it created through the tree branches were quite sharp. We had a lantern rigged with a quartz globe, I think 200w, run off a power drill battery hidden in his rucksack (you can see the zip cord going from the rucksack to the lamp along his arm if you look for it..) The real railroad lantern was abysmally dim, like a child's flashlight bulb in it, so it wasn't really usable.

 

[Todd T]

And Ikea sells these lanterns for $4.00 each

Or these for $8

You could easily stick a high power LED bulb hooked up normal batteries.

 

[Ryan De Franco]

I think Michael and I are both after a non-LED solution... color reproduction on LEDs is a discussion that could seriously derail this thread, but let's leave it at this, no LED is full spectrum, tungsten is full spectrum...

12V wiring for a 200W+ bulb in a sturdy work lantern. I imagine these are made by union electrics all the time, then sit in their garages until a buddy asks to borrow one.

 

[Michael Totten]

There will be moonlight augmenting the lantern via a 6K HMI, although it will play more as a dim/dark moonlight - not so punchy.
The Director want's the actors face & hands to be lit mostly by the lantern - so I'll definitely need more than LED's.

 

[Marc-André Gray]

If you don't care about sound you could use a coleman lantern those things can produce a tonne of light. But not sure how full of a spectrum they produce.

 

[Michael Totten]

If you don't care about sound you could use a coleman lantern those things can produce a tonne of light. But not sure how full of a spectrum they produce.

Coleman Lanterns make sound?

You are right though, some of the more contemporary camping kerosene lanterns make a lot of light. I could have one aged & give it a nice rustic patina.

 

[Nick Gardner]

I should think the easiest thing to do is just mount a socket for like a 300 (what the hell are the called frk?)bulb in one and run zip cord to a dimmer and or flicker box. You dim down a 300 bulb it gets nice and warm like a kerosene lantern. Frosted globes on the lanterns will hide the bulb, or failing that a cylinder of hampshire frost should do the same thing. I have done tons of torch/lantern/candle gags, and 99% of the time hiding a little zip cord is no big deal.

Nick

 

[Marc-André Gray]

Coleman Lanterns make sound?

You are right though, some of the more contemporary camping kerosene lanterns make a lot of light. I could have one aged & give it a nice rustic patina.

It's a kind of a hissing gas sound combined with a touch of "hot air ballon flame burning". On low it's pretty quiet but when you crank it up it can be really loud. But some might be quieter than others.