Preface
Companion Web site
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Set basics: Your first barbecue 1
Job descriptions of the lighting crew 1
Director of photography 1
Gaffer 2
Best boy electric 3
Electricians 3
Rigging crew 4
The fixtures guy 4
Generator operator 4
Grip department 5
The company 6
Production staff 6
The director's team 7
Camera department 8
Sound department 9
Locations 9
Transportation 10
Art department 10
The general public 11
Block, light, rehearse, tweak, shoot 12
The work world 13
Chapter 2 Preproduction planning: Lighting package, expendables, and personal tools 15
Preproduction planning 15
Scouting locations 16
Production meetings 16
Equipment package 17
The load-in 18
The production van 20
Expendable supplies 20
Gels and diffusion 23
Electrical expendables 23
Tools and personal gear 26
Tool belt 26
Meters 29
Other hand tools 29
Personal gear 30
Chapter 3 Light fixtures: The basic tungsten arsenal 31
Tungsten lamps 31
Fresnels 33
Fresnel beam 35
Fresnel accessories 38
20 and 24k tungsten Fresnels 40
The lamp and its installation 41
Soft lights 42
"Bag" lights 44
Open-face lights 44
Prime fixtures 45
Broads and nook lights 46
Light kits 46
PAR lights 47
PAR lamps 47
Par cans 50
Molepars, master lite, cine-queen 50
Par arrays 50
Axially mounted par fixtures 52
Ellipsoidal reflector spotlights 53
Lamp adjustment and installations 57
Ellipsoidal spotlight accessories 58
Dedolights 62
Beam projectors 63
Area lights and backing lights 64
Chicken coops and space lights 64
Scoop lights and Skypans 65
Cyc strips, ground rows, and borders 65
Small fixtures 67
Screw-base fixtures 67
MR 16 lamps and accessories 68
Stick-up kits 69
Chapter 4 Stands and rigging 71
Stands 71
Baby stands 71
Junior stands 75
Offsets, side arms, extensions, and right angles 76
Using stands 76
Crank-up and motorized stands 77
Grip stands 79
Booms 82
Stand maintenance 83
Rigging hardware 83
Baby and junior nail-on plates 83
Set wall mounts 84
Set wall bracket 84
Clamps 84
Grids and green beds 87
Other rigging hardware 88
Chapter 5 Lighting objectives and methods 91
Objectives 91
Visibility (or selective visibility) 91
Naturalism 92
Composition 92
Mood 93
Time constraints 94
The process of formulating a lighting strategy 94
Key light: Lighting the actor's face 96
The lighting triangle 102
Fill 102
Backlights, kickers, and hair lights 103
Lighting the acting positions 104
Back cross-keys 105
Lighting the space and the background 107
Ambience 107
Backdrops 107
Quantifying brightness and contrast 108
Exposure 108
Foot-candles 108
F-stops 108
Taking readings with an incident light meter 109
Contrast, latitude, and the total value 112
Spot meters 115
Light level 117
Chapter 6 Manipulating light: Tools, techniques, and the behavior of light 119
Color 119
White balance 119
Color-temperature meter 125
Color-correction gels 126
Theatrical gels for tints 129
Brightness 132
Methods of control 132
Falloff: Your friend, the inverse square law 133
Dimmers 134
Shape, pattern, and form 136
Making cuts and patterns 136
Soft light 139
Diffusion 142
Other ways of making soft light 143
Movement 146
Flicker effects: Television screen, flame, and fire 148
Other moving light effects 149
Chapter 7 Electrician's set protocol 151
Set protocol 151
Staging area 151
Lighting the set 151
Practicals 158
Photoflood bulbs and PH bulbs 159
Household bulbs 159
Candella base bulbs 159
Mushroom floods: R-40 and others 159
MR-16 159
Linestra tubes 159
Controlling practicals with dimmers 160
Wiring small fixtures 161
Stingers and cabling 162
Circuit balance and capacity 162
2k Plugging policy 163
Cables crossing the set 163
Cables crossing work areas 163
Appropriate length 164
Preventing "Kick-Outs" 164
Repatching 164
The gak package 165
Labeling stingers and power cords 165
Labeling dimmer settings 165
Coiling stingers and cable 166
Safety 167
Ladders 167
Parallels 167
Working aloft 167
Protecting floors 168
Sprinkler systems 168
Smoke, fire, and other bad smells 168
Aerial lifts (condors and scissor lifts) 169
The Wrap 169
Coiling feeder cable 170
Inventory 170
Chapter 8 Light fixtures: The HMI arsenal 171
Metal halide are lights: "HMI" 171
HMI fresnels 172
HMI pars 175
HMI "open-face" lights 179
Accessories 180
Small fixtures 180
Tungsten-balanced are-discharge lights 183
HMI operation 183
Setting up 183
Striking 185
On/off switches, safety loop, and UV protection 186
Allowable camera speeds with HMIs 187
Electronic (square-wave) ballasts 189
Installing an HMI lamp 197
Metal halide are lamps 202
Chapter 9 Fluorescent lights 205
Kino Flo lamps and ballasts 208
Kino FLo systems 209
Portable modular fixtures 209
Kino Flo fixtures with remote ballasts 214
Kino Flo self-contained light fixtures 218
DMX512 control and addressing 220
Lumapanels 223
Some additional notes about fluorescent lights 225
Effect of temperature 225
Calculating power needs 225
Chapter 10 LED lights 227
There's a new kid in town 227
Color rendering of LEDs and LED light fixtures 228
LED fixtures 234
Pads 234
Small panels 234
Larger panels 240
Ring lights 242
Color wash fixtures 242
LED technology 247
Chapter 11 Lighting control: Control networks, moving lights, advanced devices, and computer applications in lighting 251
DMX512 252
DMX512 addressing 253
DMX values and device personality 256
Controllers 261
Multiple DMX512 universes 265
Running DMX512 cable 265
Optical isolators and splitters 270
Loss of signal 271
Merger/combiner 273
Wireless DMX 274
Testing 276
DMX: Past, present, and future 278
Remote Device Management (RDM) 279
Ethernet networks 280
Advanced automated devices 282
Moving lights (automated luminaires) 282
Remote pan and tilt for conventional lights 291
Media servers and video projectors for lighting effects 293
Pixel-mapping systems 294
Light plots 296
Lighting with previsualization software 299
Chapter 12 Electricity 301
The fundamentals of electricity and electrical equations 301
Volts (electromotive force) 302
Amperes (current) 302
Watts (power) 302
The power equation 303
Resistance and Ohm's law 305
Parallel and series circuits 308
How not to use electrical equations 312
Components of a safe power circuit 313
Control devices and polarity 313
Overcurrent protection 315
The current-carrying capacity of cable 316
Types of feeder cable 318
Equipment grounding 319
Types of distribution circuits 321
Direct current 322
Alternating current 323
Alternating current: Single-phase three-wire system 324
Three-phase, four-wire systems 327
System grounding 332
Chapter 13 Distribution and dimming equipment 335
Components of a distribution system 335
Main disconnect and overcurrent protection for feeders 336
Cam-Lok connectors 338
Lugs and buss bars 342
Mole pin connectors 343
Distribution boxes 344
Stage pin (Bates) connectors 347
Receptacle boxes 350
19-pin "Socapex" connectors and cable 353
Adapters 356
Electronic dimmer systems 357
Electronic dimmer circuit designs 359
Forward-phase control dimmers---SCR 360
Reverse-phase control dimmers 361
Sinewave dimmers 362
Strand CD80 dimmer packs 364
ETC Sensor dimmer system 371
Chapter 14 Working with electrical power 375
Sizing distribution conductors 375
Sizing phase conductors 375
Sizing neutral conductors 376
Sizing equipment grounding conductors 376
Sizing grounding electrode and bonding conductors 376
Line loss 377
Causes of line loss 377
Allowable voltage drop 378
Mitigating line loss 379
Cable size and other line loss calculations 380
Simple line loss calculations 384
Power problems from electronic loads 385
Power factor 386
Harmonic currents and effects on the neutral wire 388
Measuring electricity 389
Meter categories 390
Voltage meters 390
Circuit testers 392
Measuring frequency (hertz rate) 392
Measuring amperage 393
Testing continuity and testing for shorts 393
Wattmeter or power meter 394
Electrical shocks and muscle freeze 394
Chapter 15 Electrical rigging 397
The role of the rigging gaffer 397
Planning the rig 398
Size and number of conductors 399
Placement of distribution 400
Rigging cable 401
Identifying cable, labeling circuits 402
Lacing cable 403
Ventilating and separating runs 404
Make first, break last 404
Traffic areas 404
Fire lanes 405
Fall protection 405
Root out bad contacts 405
Waterfalls and cable drops 405
Knots 407
Strength of rope 414
Rigging lights 417
Weight-loading chain motors truss and pipe 418
Testing 419
Rigging lights and cable in aerial lifts 421
Mounts 421
Cabling 422
Condor duty 424
Paperwork 425
Chapter 16 Power sources 427
Batteries and inverters 427
Battery chemistry and care 427
Inverter systems 431
120 V DC lead-acid battery packs 432
Generators 433
Putt-putts (portable Honda generators) 433
AVR generators 434
Honda EU inverter generators 436
Troubleshooting putt-putts 438
Full-size generators 438
Generator placement 445
Selecting a generator 445
480 V Systems 445
Utility power 447
Line drops from utility power 447
Tie-ins 447
Approach protection 448
Using available outlets 448
Chapter 17 Special circumstances and practices 449
Shooting on moving vehicles 449
Poor man's process and other techniques 450
Lighting in and around water 451
Working with electricity around water and damp environments 451
Underwater lighting 457
The old drop-a-bulb-in-the-pool method 457
Modern underwater fixtures 458
Lighting matte photography 461
Lighting the foreground 462
High-speed photography and camera-synchronous strobes 464
Chapter 18 Specialty lighting equipment 467
Big guns 467
SoftSun 467
Carbon are lights 469
Lighting balloons 470
Lightning effects 473
Lightning strikes! 473
Control units 474
Power requirements 475
Xenon lights 477
Follow spots 479
Preparing the follow spot 481
Operating the follow spot 483
Black lights 484
APPENDIX A Photometric calculations and tables 487
