16/4/2020 A Guide to Grip and Lighting gear
A Guide to Grip and Lighting gear
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We all know that we need light to be able to make films. And the light needs
to be placed appropriately to do what it does best; light for the camera.
So, to start off, we’ll look at the basic types of lighting gear you will come
across used to light for cinema, then we’ll break down what Grips is, and
what it has to do with lighting.
Lighting Gear
Other than the sun, you will need a source of light that you can control to
illuminate your scene and subject.
Fire is the oldest source of light and probably the most abundant after
sunlight. But it’s temperamental and difficult to manage. Plus, we live in a
modern world, so other than as a prop in a scene, we obviously won’t be
using fire.
In comes electricity. It’s fairly cheap, easy to control and easy to get. And
paired with certain elements, you can generate usable and controllable
light. This allows us to have different types of lighting equipment, which
we’ll now take a look at.
The most common types of lighting equipment are Tungsten Filament,
Halogen Quartz, Fluorescent, HMI and LED.
TUNGSTEN FILAMENT BULBS
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Tungsten Filament bulbs are as the name suggests, filaments made of
Tungsten enclosed in a glass bulb that is filled with an inert gas.
They are dirt cheap, can generate a decent amount of light, they are easy
to move around and very easy to control.
Tungsten Filament bulbs are probably the cheapest way to create light and
despite their inherent disadvantages, still give one decent value for money
when on a tight budget.
Their two biggest disadvantages are overall light output is not very bright,
and they are quite inefficient and generate a lot of heat. Although you can
increase the number of bulbs to increase the collective light output, this
also increases the amount of heat generated.
Tungsten lights tend to be very hard since they are usually very small in
size, so they often need to be used in conjunction with modifiers. For more
on hard lights, you can see this video that I created on the topic <
https://youtu.be/N2y-XA_aAYE> .
HALOGEN QUARTZ
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Halogen Quartz bulbs are similar to Tungsten Filament bulbs in that they
use a Tungsten Filament to generate light and are enclosed in glass filled
with an inert gas. But unlike regular Tungsten bulbs, Halogen Quartz uses
a different type of glass that has a much higher Quartz content so that it
can withstand much higher temperatures without breaking.
The filament is enclosed in a tube that is filled with Halogen specifically
which allows the Tungsten Filament to run much hotter without breaking
down (hotter than its melting point) and thus give more light.
Halogen lights are also relatively cheap for their light output and quite
common, but just like the regular filament bulbs, they are not very efficient
at converting electricity to light and generate a lot of heat.
Some of their advantages are they have very accurate and excellent color
rendition, they have a wide output from 500W to 2500W, and can be turned
off and on multiple times with zero wait times for warm up or between
switching on and off.
You will find these in use in most traditional construction flood lights and
security lights, car headlamps and in cinema, on the lower end of film lights.
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Just like Tungsten lights, Halogen lights are hard so light modifiers are
needed to soften and control the light.
FLUORESCENT
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Fluorescent lights are tubes filled with mercury vapor and the inside walls of
the tube coated with a fluorescent powder. When electricity passes through
the tube it excites the mercury vapor which gives off UV light. The UV light
isn’t particularly useful on its own, but when it hits the fluorescent coating
on the inside of the tube, the whole tube glows, giving us useable light.
Fluorescent lights, unlike Tungsten and Halogen, are much more efficient in
converting electricity to useable light. They also give off very little heat
compared and are fairly mobile. They also don’t need a lot of power to run
and you can run several banks of fluorescent lights off household electricity.
They do cost more than Tungsten or fluorescent lights but because of how
much more efficient they are, you need less wattage to get the same light
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output.
In most shoot setups, fluorescent lights are used in banks.
What is a bank of fluorescent lights you ask?
Well, one tube might not give you that much light to work with, so the tubes
are clustered into ‘banks’ of fluorescent tubes to increase the overall light
output. So, you may end up with a 4 bank or 6 bank light which means you
have 4 or 6 tubes per light.
Fluorescent lights are also soft lights by design unlike Tungsten and
Halogen lights which are hard lights. And when they are in a bank, you get
an even larger and softer source of light, which means you don’t have to
spend as much on modifiers to get soft, even light.
There’s also a newer type of fluorescent bulbs that are smaller, some as
small as household Tungsten bulbs. These are called Compact Fluorescent
Lights of CFL’s.
They are designed to replace traditional Tungsten Filament bulbs. They still
work the same as the bigger straight fluorescent tubes, just sized down into
a compact form factor. They are also incredibly efficient don’t need a lot of
power to run and give off a lot of light.
CFL’s are also soft lights by design, but because they are physically
smaller, they may not be as soft as the larger fluorescent tubes.
A major disadvantage of Fluorescent lights is flicker, especially with
household lights. The flicker is especially evident when you’re shooting at
frame rates that are not in sync with the electricity frequency of the region.
For example, if you’re shooting at 30fps or 60fps but the physical location
you’re in has a electric frequency is 50Hz, you’ll see a lot of flickering in
your video.
To eliminate this problem, fluorescent lights for film use an electronic ballast
to control them.
Another disadvantage of fluorescents and CFL is poor colour accuracy,
especially with lights meant for household use. The chemical composition
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of the phosphor coating in the tube directly affects the colour of the light.
You might sometimes get colour casts and colour shifts from cheaper or
older fluorescents.
HMI
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Hydrargyrum Medium-arc Iodide, or HMI in short, is a type of light that was
developed specifically for film and entertainment lighting applications.
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An HMI bulb contains mercury vapor mixed with other metal halides
enclosed in a Quartz-glass bubble. Electricity is passed through the mixture
in the bulb by two electrodes which excites the mercury vapor mixture and
it creates an arc which generates an intensely bright light.
HMIs lights are some of the brightest lights you can get for film lighting and
are usually the go-to source of light for most productions because the light
output is at a temperature of 6000K, which matches daylight very closely.
They are also really bright compared to the previous lights, which means
that fewer individual units are needed to generate a lot of light.
HMIs range from 500W to 20,000W and are powered by ballasts because
of the high voltages needed and most are powered by standalone
generators.
Older HMIs were powered by magnetic ballasts which had horrible flicker
when shooting at irregular frame rates, but these were replaced by
electronic ballasts which are flicker free.
Many modern HMIs can comfortably shoot up to 10,000 fps and higher.
Unlike all the other light sources, HMIs are the heaviest and bulkiest. They
require a few minutes to come up to temperature when they are turned on
and once turned off, and they must cool down for at least 10-15min before
turning them on again. If you don’t give them time to cool, the bulb could
blow and the ballast could possibly get electrical damage.
HMIs also emit a significant amount of harmful UV light, they need UV
treated lenses and UV treated bulbs especially if they are open faced. So
cheap knock off bulbs are a definite no-no.
The biggest downside to HMI bulbs is are significantly more expensive than
any other types of bulbs.
LED
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LED, short for Light Emitting Diodes is an old technology that has only
recently evolved to a point where LEDs can produce enough quality light to
use on a production.
LEDs, like the name suggests, are tiny diodes that emit light when
electricity passes through them. They are incredibly efficient, converting
over 75% of the electricity passing through them to visible light.
LEDs are monochromatic by default, which means that they can only emit
one wavelength of light, which translates to one colour.
So, to overcome this, manufacturers will often put together Red, Blue and
Green LEDs to recreate white light that has the full spectrum of colour.
LEDs can either be daylight or Tungsten balanced, switchable between the
two, or have variable temperature and colour control by using the individual
RGB diodes to achieve any colour on the spectrum.
The main advantages of LED lights is they are often small and lightweight,
that they don’t need ballasts to control them, they can be powered by
batteries, and often don’t get as hot as other types of light.
Because of these aadvantages, they are becoming increasingly popular on
productions to light smaller and tighter spaces.
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They are also getting brighter while still drawing a fraction of the power
needed by HMIs, Halogen and Tungsten lights, and are now beginning to
replace Tungsten and Halogen bulbs between the 100W- 400W range.
LEDs come with many more advantages such as
They put out soft, even lighting with almost zero UV artefacts and
contamination.
They are dimmable, down to almost 5% brightness with near zero colour
shift.
One light can output different temperatures and colours without the need
for gels.
Excellent dimming by means of pulse width modulation control.
They have a long lifespan and are environmentally friendly (No mercury
or other toxic metals that can leak in case of an accident).
They are light weight, quite rugged, and hardy, with no risk of explosions
incase of accidents unlike HMIs.
The biggest disadvantages of LED are the costs involved for the amount of
light output one gets, and the technology still isn’t able to affordably
produce as much light as some of the high wattage HMIs.
Light Fixtures
We’ve covered the different types of light that can be used on set. Now let’s
cover different types of light fixtures.
There are two common types of fixtures: Open Faced and Fresnel.
Open Faced fixtures are just a bulb inside the light housing, a reflector to
direct the light one way and a clear glass panel at the front to protect the
bulb. They do not have lenses attached to the front of the light and cannot
be focused. Open Faced fixtures are often used to create hard light that
casts hard shadows.
Fresnel fixtures have a lens at the front of the housing to focus and direct
the light in various ways. A Fresnel lens is the most common. It’s a type of
lens that is divided into concentric circles. It evens out the light and allows
one to vary the beam of light from spot to flood by moving the bulb closer or
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further away from the lens.
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50>
A fresnel lens
Fresnel fixtures also accept other types of lenses that modify the beam of
light by intensifying, widening or narrowing it more than a regular Fresnel
would.
If you want to know more about the different light fixtures and why they are
the way they are, then this video < https://wolfcrow.com/an-overview-
of-the-different-types-of-lighting-fixtures-and-why-we-need-them/> is a
must-watch.
Now that we know the different types of light available on set, they need to
be rigged and setup to light what’s being filmed.
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This is where the Grip comes in.
Grip
But first, what goes on in the Grip department?
The definition varies slightly depending on which part of the world you’re in.
In the US, the Grip department takes care of all rigging needs on a set.
In Europe and Australia, the Grip and Grip Department is only in charge of
rigging the cameras and other equipment the camera will directly use like
cranes, tracks and stabilizers.
Let’s look at some key players in the grip department.
The Key Grip
Key Grip is the person in charge of setting up equipment to support the
camera(s), crew and lighting equipment.
The Gaffer
The Gaffer is the person in charge of all electricals on set and as such, all
lighting fixtures are under him.
How the Key Grip and Gaffer work on set
The Director will communicate his vision to the DOP, Gaffer and the Grip.
The DOP will then discuss with the Gaffer and Grip on how best to light and
move the camera to get the needed shots.
The Gaffer and the Grip will then convert all this information into lighting
positions and equipment needed to support the camera, lights and to shape
the light.
The Gaffer’s main job is to do the actual setup of the lights and electricals
on set, and make sure that all aspects of the electrical department are
working as they should.
They need to have extensive knowledge of all things electrical such as how
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much power they need on set, whether or not to bring generators on set,
what to do in case of emergencies, and so on and so forth.
In any case, the key takeaway here is, in terms of lighting, grip is defined as
the equipment that is required to support light fixtures and modifiers.
The C-Stand
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The C-stand is the do all be all stand on a production. The C-stand, or
Century stand in full, is constructed with heavy duty metal, consists of a
collapsible base and two riser columns and a baby pin on top.
In addition, a C-stand includes a gobo head and a gobo arm, which provide
the ability to articulate a light modifier without moving the stand itself. The
legs of C stands are designed to be nested, so many stands can be placed
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next to each other and take up very little floor space.
The gobo arms on C stands make them especially useful for placing lights
overhead in situations where a regular light stand would be visible in the
shot.
To know more about C-stands in detail, read my article on the anatomy
of a light stand < https://wolfcrow.com/the-anatomy-of-a-light-stand-
part-one/> .
The Magic Arm/Noga Arm
A Magic Arm, or Noga Arm is a piece of mounting equipment that has a ball
head on both ends to allow movement in any direction, a mounting stud on
one end, a pivoted joint in the middle and a mounting plate with a stud on
the other end to mount a small piece of equipment.
It’s like an extra arm that you can attach anything with a standard ¼’’ thread
to and it allows you to mount small sized equipment at impossible angles.
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It’s very useful for mounting field monitors on cameras, and mounting small
lights or mics in very awkward angles.
Clamps
Clamps make up a big portion of any grips arsenal of tools, and there are
several different types, but we’ll look at 3 common types that you will
definitely find on any set.
The A Clamp
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This is probably the most common type of clamp on a set. It’s simply a
large metal peg with rubber tips to protect what it’s clamping.
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It’s used to clamp relatively thin stuff, like gels to lights, sound blankets,
flags, reflectors and thin bounce boards. They are the do all clamps on a
set and advisable to have a few on hand.
The Cardellini or Vise Clamp
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This is a vise jaw clamp that opens between 2″ to 6″ depending on the
model, and the other end is typically a stud. Cardellini makes many
varieties of the clamp.
I’ve found these clamps to be extremely versatile of lighting work.
The Mafer Clamp
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Also known as a Super Clamp, it’s two hinged metal jaws that can bite
down on pipes, poles and other round mounting points with ease. The jaws
have a rubber pad on them to make sure there is no slippage once
tightened.
They sometimes come with baby pins welded to provide mounting points
for lights and other equipment, or they can come with snap-in receivers to
take spigots with threaded studs.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to lighting and grip
equipment. If you want to learn my nine (and only nine) suggestions to buy
to light short films or feature films, watch this video <
https://wolfcrow.com/9-important-lighting-and-grip-tools-for-low-
budget-film-lighting/> .
I hope you have found this article useful in understanding basic lighting and
grip gear. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.
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