Light recommendations for hotel interiors?

[Nick Hope]

Eric, I'll work on that soon.

Nino, I wasn't for a minute doubting what you said about the light. Just trying to get as many inputs as possible and I really value what some of the experienced shooters on the Vegas forum have to say. Thanks for the tip about the Tiffen filters. Do you know if they make them at 72mm circular to screw straight onto a Z1?

Anyway a "15 hour shoot" turned into 4 full days of hard work. No doubt our inexperience with some of this type of work didn't help. But sadly towards the end of the last day my Z1 died with a couple of important shots still to get and a tape stuck inside.

[Nino Giannotti]

Originally Posted by Nick Hope

Thanks for the tip about the Tiffen filters. Do you know if they make them at 72mm circular to screw straight onto a Z1?

Anyway a "15 hour shoot" turned into 4 full days of hard work. No doubt our inexperience with some of this type of work didn't help. But sadly towards the end of the last day my Z1 died with a couple of important shots still to get and a tape stuck inside.

I’m not sure what filter sizes is the contrast filter available, do a search on the Tiffen site. I use a matte box so all my filters are 4x4.

When I switched to the Z1 my main concern was the reliability of the small camera. The tape loading mechanism doesn’t looks very sturdy. This is why if I decide to continue working on these travel resorts projects I will use the new Sony PMW-EX1.

After 20 years and hundreds of hotels resorts we got the production down to a science, including where the sun will be at any specific time of the day. On the average for a full video (4 to 6 minutes) we allocate one week for the shooting. This includes 2 days for travel, four planned shoot days including a half day to shoot local attractions, and the fifth day is to relax do some clean-up shots if necessary. The producer plans the shoot in minute details. It’s just two of us; occasionally we hire a local to help us move things around particularly with large properties. These are very relaxed shooting with on the average 8 hours day. Everything is like clockwork, we move across the property from one end to the other with a minimum of wasted time moving from the different locations. While I’m setting up a shot the producer moves to the next one making sure that everything is ready for us. The property management and staff are fully involved in the production and ready to give us any assistance that we might possibly need. Doing your homework in advance goes a long way for a smooth shoot.

[Eric Lagerlof]

Nino, consider yourself lucky... A producer who schedules with the needs of the shoot foremost, wow.

You do highlight a topic that is not mentioned on this, often equipment-oriented, board. Time-of-day is one of the most important considerations for lighting that has to include sunlight. Both intensity and color-temp wise, for smaller productions, knowing when and where the sun is can save you a lot of trouble.

[Nick Hope]

The fluorescent bulbs in my light 4 x 55W light are Osram Dulux L 954, which are "daylight" (5400K I think).

I want to get some gel to make them match tungsten lights such as the 12V dichroics that are common in hotel bedrooms.

It looks like "Full C.T. Orange" is the one to get (Rosco swatch book says it converts daylight to 3200K).

How should I attach it to the barn doors? Stationery clips? Clothes pegs? Or is there something better I should use?

Also the inside of the barn doors are polished aluminium and they actually have a slightly pink tinge. I'm thinking of spraying them matt black to avoid unwanted reflections. Would you guys advise this?

[Richard Andrewski]

Originally Posted by Nick Hope

The fluorescent bulbs in my light 4 x 55W light are Osram Dulux L 954, which are "daylight" (5400K I think).

I want to get some gel to make them match tungsten lights such as the 12V dichroics that are common in hotel bedrooms.

It looks like "Full C.T. Orange" is the one to get (Rosco swatch book says it converts daylight to 3200K).

How should I attach it to the barn doors? Stationery clips? Clothes pegs? Or is there something better I should use?

Also the inside of the barn doors are polished aluminium and they actually have a slightly pink tinge. I'm thinking of spraying them matt black to avoid unwanted reflections. Would you guys advise this?

On many of these types of fixtures, ours included, there is a protection film on the mirrored barndoors. You just peel that off when you get the unit. They should never be pink. Most of our customers appreciate the mirrored barndoors but it does change their characteristics from a barndoor to an "intensifier" which increases the size of the light output. Thus, when you really need barndoors only a black surface on the inside really helps better. Soft light is tough to flag off though. Its hard to actually get a useful sized barndoor on a flo for practical reasons. Much better to use eggcrate filters to cutoff light spill to the sides.

[Nick Hope]

The results of the first two of these shoots are now online and I've started a new thread with the links and for feedback.