Attaching gels to Arri 650 Plus

[Josh Bass]

I'd never heard that about them being stronger reversed, but I heard to use the reversed ones to remove hot scrims from the lights (like little tweezers)

[Tom Morrow]

Good advice here... before I read these replies I came to the same idea myself of using background material clamps to hold gels onto the barndoors. Wooden clothespins sound even better.

Before I got the Arri light I was messing around with normal edison-socket 500w photoflood bulbs. Those were incredibly fragile, and literally every time I would try to make any movements while turned on they would instantly pop. But my understanding is they filaments just run too hot in those bulbs; that form factor is designed for a few hundred watts max and shoving twice the power through is a recipe for disaster.

The Arri GY9.5 bulbs seem better constructed.

[Garrett Low]

Originally Posted by Mike Watson

I had understood they exerted 47 pounds of pressure. I recently heard somebody call them C-74's, and I corrected him. He told me that when you take off the spring and turn it around, so that the long (typically handle) part was the jaws, and the short (typically jaws) part was the handle, it was stronger, and then because it was backwards it was a C-74. Clever, I thought.

Reversing the spring would actually decrease the clamping pressure. It's a simple lever, the longer the fulcrum arm is on the pressure side, the more travel but less pressure. Simple physics.

If you are gauging the force by how much you have to press on the opposite end, it is inverse. More force on the opposite end to open up the clip means less force on the other end where it is clipping.

-Garrett

[Nicholas de Kock]

I have seen an Italian light called Cosmolight that has gel clips included on it's barn doors, kinda genius & they work great. I would like to buy Arri lights but for life of me I don't understand why a well established company like Arri has not come up with gel clips built onto their barn doors like the Cosmolight.

Currently I use little metal clips you buy at a stationary store, I've always thought to myself that using wooden clothing pegs looks very unprofessional, it just shows you once a trend starts people forget that something looks stupid.

[Joe Lumbroso]

Nicholas, I can't imagine anyone considering a clothespin unprofessional. They are cheap and expendable (hence the use of the term "expendables") and unlike metal clips, they don't get hot. Besides, filmmakers should be less concerned with the appearance of equipment and crew then that of the picture. Function over fashion, baby.

[Josh Bass]

Unprofessional???? It's like an industry standard thing EVERYWHERE. I believe the Arri kits even come with a bag of them! The light manufacturer WANTS you to use them!

[Brian Drysdale]

The wooden clothes pegs are pretty much universal and have been for many years.

Although I do use electrical crocodile clips because I end up packing a number of gels together and the wooden pegs you get here these days aren't up to the job. These also work with the larger lights, especially if they're outdoors. There used be more beefy Russian wooden pegs which I haven't seen for a while..

[Kevin McRoberts]

Another name for them is "bullets," so called because Gaffers and PA's are sometimes seen with dozens of them clipped around their belt/shirttails/etc like Pancho Villa.

They can be used for so many things. Buy a bunch.

[Sigmund Reboquio]

the clothespin are barely noticiable specially in dark situations.

[Charles Papert]

I don't know if there's still any question about the professionalism of clothespins/C47's/bullets, but if it helps any...be assured they are the weapon of choice on every feature and TV show.

[Nicholas de Kock]

No doubt in my mind that they are the industry standard and that they work effectively but it's in my personal taste to avoid using them, I film weddings and presentation of my equipment is as important as getting great footage - personally I think they look stupid.

[Brian Drysdale]

On feature films and other productions, the retaining clip looks tends to be less important than what works and is cost effective. Use whatever works for you in your environment.

[Garrett Low]

Originally Posted by Nicholas de Kock

No doubt in my mind that they are the industry standard and that they work effectively but it's in my personal taste to avoid using them, I film weddings and presentation of my equipment is as important as getting great footage - personally I think they look stupid.

I couldn't imagine a 1K Fresnel would look very good in a wedding setting either. But for me, C47s (or clothespins) are in everyone of my equipment boxes. You also never know when you'll need to use them to pin back a bit of wardrobe that isn't behaving.

-Garrett

[Mike Watson]

I don't do wedding gigs, but I do work with "new to video" clients. Occasionally one of them will comment on my clothespins, and I'll tell them it's not a clothespin, it's a C-47. If it were holding a t-shirt on a cotton line it'd be a clothespin. This is a highly technical video instrument.

It gets a laugh.

[Martin Catt]

When I was a wedding photographer back in the film-only days, I carried clothespins, safety pins, a stapler, double-sided tape, gaff tape, and duct tape, and pretty much used them at every wedding. I've stapled many a member of the groom's party into their rented tuxedos when a seam split, an adjuster malfunctioned, or a zipper jammed.

The important thing is to use what works.

Martin