Thanks Chris. How bout the flourescents? I'm talking run of the mill office building lights, somehow rigged to be plug-in-able.

I read the 'make your own china ball' piece on the site (thanks, George for writing it) and yes, there is that flamable issue with the paper Chinese Lanterns but for the the dollar, couple bucks for a lantern, a couple of bucks for a light fixture with a rubber coated clamp on the other end, a 250+ bulb and you are in business.

Yeah, you've got to be carefull with the bulb touching the paper (make sure you can cut the power in a second and have a fire extingusher is possible. I always have on a set) but for bang for the buck you can't beat it.

My DP found these poles that are spring loaded and you can put them up near the ceiling in a room if the walls aren't far apart or in a hallway and just hang your lights off it like an overhead grid in a studio.

This saved us a ton of time and made lighting so easy and since we were able to make fast changes it made my set-ups so much faster.

What we do is light the room with China Balls and then use traditional film lights (like his Lowel kit) for the actors and special lighting. This set up has saved us loads of time and loads of money on lighting kits. For me, it's great to change set-ups fast because that's the way I like to work.

That said, I printed out George's idea on making a 'non-flamable' china ball and I think the next run to Home Depot I might check out the parts needed.

(God, who would have throught that we'd all end up at Home Depot so much? :) )

China Balls can give you a great dynamic, 'non-directional' lighting. It defuses the shadows BUT what we've done several times is use a little black-wrap on the opposite side of the ball to increase the output. I've also put up a flag on the other side (silver side facing the ball) to increase the light production.

As I said above, in most situations we light the entire set up with some China balls to get the light levels up in the room and use Lowels or such to light the actors as needed.

Oh, the other good thing about cheap China Ball Lanterns (we buy them by the stack in Chinatown) is that if it gets scortched-- toss it.

RE: Florescent lighting: I remember seeing a site where some guy talked about throwing up a couple of Florescent lights with minus green gels on them and raved about the results. Can't remember where I saw the link but I'd bet it was here somewhere.

How much and where did you get those spring loaded poles?

I used to use those a lot when they are on grip trucks. I have forgotten the name of them now. Cat poles? aww nuts.

But those DO come in handy for a quick overhead backlight in a tight spot. It's better sometimes than even trying to hand a light off a c-stand arm off the side, especially if the camera is going to be moving in this tight space.

I think the flourescent article you're talking about is at www.film-and-video.com. Click the articles link in the navigation bar. It has been mentioned several times in various threads here

I'll ask my partner what they are called but I know he saw them in the B&H lighting catalog after he had bought them .

We are doing this set up in a long hallway that is really narrow and these things saved our cookies for sure. There was no way to light it other then have a light behind the camera and bounce it off the ceiling but with these we can put them out of shot.

Are you guys talking about the autopoles? That's the only thing I found that matched the description of poles with springs or whatever.

I had some questions about them. They seem like a cool idea, but they look to be around 60-70 dollars each? And in addition, you need a clamp of some kind to attach a light to one, and the clamps were selling for around $176?

Most of the ideas above are great and I have tried using worklights and have been successfull. I would like to purchase a pro set one day but until then I am rolling with my worklights. Just to add I found on this site one day a guy who sells umbrellas and softbox attachments for cheap on ebay http://www.stores.ebay.com/id=2995770

I got a few umbrellas, softbox and mounting arms from this guy and was surprised at the quality of the product at that price. I have also made my own softboxes with material, PVC pipe and velcro. It looks very pro. and most people can't tell that I did not spend $500 plus for them and I get great results.

Marcus

Marcus:

Details, man, details!

How did you attach the DIY softbox to the worklight? What material did you use?

What parts did you buy from 2DreamMaker?

Thanks.