Best light for film

[Brian Drysdale]

How much power can you draw on your electricity mains? People may make suggestions, only to discover that it's impractical in Bangladesh.

Are the "indoor" scenes during the day or at night?

[Jakaria Habib]

Well, almost 60% of the indoor shot are night sequence.and i have a lot of location to shoot for.so, portability is important.

regarding taking help from dp, you will be surprised to hear that most of them in our country do not have educational background in this sector and they still prefer the old school technology.so, i want your help friends.

[Brian Luce]

Originally Posted by Perrone Ford

Arri | Daylight 12KW/18KW HMI Fresnel Light Kit (190-250V) | B&H
Retail of $33k is gonna go through that budget pretty fast...

$2500 for the bulb. Gulp.

[Andrew Dean]

Let me start by saying that I'm really only a wannabe when it comes to lighting. I've spent a fair bit on crappy lighting in the past and last year i dropped $5k on cool-lights gear. I've used it a fair bit at the direction of experienced DPs and have learned quite a bit in the process. My goal was to be able to drive up and have "everything you need for an indy film" in my truck, and mostly i've achieved that goal. I know how to use my gear, but expect there to be a proper DP waiting to tell me what to do when I rock up. With that in mind, this is my perspective...


For $7k you can get a nice, versatile indoor kit. For outdoor stuff? You could be pushing it.

Here is what I bought:

=== 4x cool lights 150w cdm fresnels.
cons: The build quality of the metal casting and the mounting bar is kinda low. The output is slightly warmer than advertised. (Less like noon-sun and more like late afternoon going into golden hour... 5000k?). The light from the fresnel has a hot spot in it.

pros: So far they've held up to quite a bit of abuse, so the build is a non-issue. The light color is quite pleasing on faces when set to daylight, and I find mixes very well with sun and "true" hmi sources, so that con is also a pro. Very high lamp life. No Heat on talent. Insanely low power draw.

overall: I LOVE these fixtures. They are a great size, cool on the talent, somewhat focusable and the bulb life is such that I can do crazy things like run them for 9 days straight in an installation. They have enough punch to do a pretty kickin key, a powerful hair light or slitted down with the barn doors a light fill. They output something around the light of a redhead (a little less, but daylight... and way more than a redhead gelled for daylight), but draw only 150w. So they are *very* generator friendly. For the price they are a no-brainer. The versatility you get from 4 of these at $2k is well worth it. I'd buy again in a heartbeat. I pull them out on every indoor shoot.


=== A 4 bank cool lights non-dimming portable fluoro (similar to kino diva)

cons: i wish it acted more like a case light and snapped into its own case. My lollipop is kinda mangled. I think i read that there were some crappy ones - perhaps i got one of those.

pros: hell of a lot of light for the price. Up close its nice and soft, and you can pull it back far enough that its actually fairly hard from a distance. So far its been 100% reliable and I'm still on my first bulbs hundreds of hours later.

overall: Its a big enough fixture that I tend to only pull it out "as-needed" but she's been a workhorse and produces a fantastic amount of light that is also very pleasing. I'd buy again in a heartbeat.


=== 2 cool light LED 600 panels

cons: green spike out of box, and LED lights are kinda weird by the nature of having 600 tiny sources.

pros: very handy size, not much color shift when dimming and drink 55w of power! This means i can run them for a couple hours on a 7ah lead acid battery.

overall: I pull these out on every shoot. I cut some minusgreen filter that i permanently mounted to the barn doors and now my LEDs are a nice daylight source thats pleasing on faces. They are a super portable light and because I can run them off battery, they are first out when shooting in the unknown. They weigh very little and I use the battery as a "sandbag" so its a great commando solution. You can also have people carry them around on walking shots. They aren't going to do anything against sun, but i've found them a very versatile unit that myself and my DPs reach for again and again.


=== cool lights 575w "HMI" fresnel:

cons: i got an early beta model. Its ballast is insanely loud, the head squeals like a pig.

pros: its a lot of light - roughly that of a blonde but off 575w and daylight:

overall: First off, I'm aware that i got a beta and the new ones aren't noisy like mine. I mostly use it punched through windows, so the noise isnt an issue, so I don't *think* that has colored my opinion. However, my opinion overall is "meh". Where the 150s feel like a bargain, the 575 seems... i dunno. My reaction to this fixture isnt really rational, since its still super cheap compared to an arri equivalent. It just seems like the dollar per lumen should scale *down* and not up as you get brighter. That obviously flies in the face of reality and maybe even physics... but its my kneejerk. I guess I really want a CDM 575 and 1.2k for price/value/bulb life. When you need the punch, the 575 is nice. I mainly use it through a window or in a huge space, or as an outdoor fill when its a little overcast, so for me its more of a specialty fixture. When i need it, i'm really glad to have it, but buying again I'd have a long think about the cost to return its offering me. I'd probably end up buying it again because... there really isnt anything else with an equivalent daylight kick for a similar price.


So this is all a bit obtuse from your original question (especially once you cited $70,000 as the budget. hehe). But perhaps my experience may help.

For $5k you can get a lot of tungsten fixtures. Or you can get an assortment of cool lights daylight fixtures like mine. Or you can get a basic arri tungsten fresnel kit or 1 or 2 small arri hmi fixtures. Some people would absolutely opt for the arri as a more long term solution, and they could be right. I opted to maximize bang-for-buck and I think its worked out so far.

The reason i say $5k is you really need to spend quite a bit on support gear. You need stands. Good ones. superclamps, grip heads, flags/reflectors (can be foamcore), and craploads of decent extension cords. The support gear can eat up a shocking amount of the budget, but you need it. Lights without a way to rig them is useless. Outdoor scenes at night? You'll probably need to get the lights up high (or at least one big one), so make sure you have stand/rigging/creativity to pull it off safely.

The great thing about the 150/575 watt cdm/hmi is the power requirements are so low. You can run all my cool lights off a small honda 2000i generator (which perhaps you should budget for? heh. i LOVE This generator! its very quiet, weighs about the same as a old sewing machine and produces power cleaner than most wall outlets! Seriously, check out these gennies, they are fantastic.).

The low power usage also means that if i can find a single good a/c point in a house, i can load it up with most of my lights without worrying. I can also run spaghetti messes of daisy chained extension cords without any dramas. The same thing with redheads and blondes would be a huge hassle and usually require a proper gaffer be around to handle the power side.

If you are doing intimate scenes at night and shooting on something with good low light response, my kit can handle it. A porch with some people, no problem. A medium garden space? Yes, if its ok to be moody. If you are lighting up large spaces? I don't think you'll be happy. That said, a clever DP has made my gear do amazing things at night, but it requires skill and talent and that definitely isn't included in the purchase price.

There are a lot of indian companies selling clone grip and lighting gear. I'd certainly look at what they have to offer, as shipping overseas is really costly. I'm happy with my cool light purchase and given there is nothing like it at the price range, i'd buy it again. That may or may not be the most raving endorsement, but hey.

I dunno if that helps. I have a headache and I touch-type so I kinda am just rambling on the forum until the panadol kicks in. Sometimes i find that if i answer one of my long-winded responses it chums the water and other people chime in with great info, so ill risk the sharks and put this out there, fwiw!

I hear your pain regarding "trained" DPs. They are out there, and some even have born instincts for lighting. My advise is find one of those people, hire a transvestite hooker to lure them into a compromising photo and use that photo to keep the DP around and working with you. Of course, you could always just pay them well and treat them with respect... but this is the video industry, so nobody does that. We'll call the "dignity and pay" a "plan B" fallback if the industry-standard tranny-hooker-blackmail-photo doesn't pan out. hehe.

Cheers, and good luck!
-a

[Jakaria Habib]

Dear Andrew,

Thanks a lot for your generous reply.It is really helpful.Now, i have got some idea as to what sort of lights needed in certain situation.thanks a lot

[Mohamad Faiz]

salam brother jakaria.... bought your lights yet??? maybe you could try buying frm china, the name's DYNACORE... it's quite reliable and it produces good batteries using sanyo cells could try it not bad i dare say..... you can check em at dynacore-china.