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Portable lighting ideas?

A

Absolution_Films

Hi Guys,

i am in pre production for shooting a simple horror short... it takes place down two separate alleyways at night.....

one alley way has lots of street lighting that we can use and would fit the look of the film well, the other however is pitch black at night.

We don't need a lot of lighting as the film is going to be quite dark anyway, ive only found a couple of options for battery powered lights but they weren't quite bright enough.

We don't really want to shed out money for a generator or any type of mains power supply, so i was just wondering if anyone else had any lighting ideas? ideally that doesn't have to be connected up to a mains.
 
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Without a genny/mains power supply you've got a fairly limited list of options. If you're lucky, a full moon and clear sky may give you a bit of ambient light. LED lights can be powered from batteries very easily, but you'll need to spend a small fortune to light a wide shot with LEDs. Kino Flos can be run from car batteries with an inverter, but if you can't afford to hire in a generator this probably isn't very realistic. You can get very powerful torches for maybe 15 or 20 quid a pop, which could be slashed across a wall, used as a backlight, or bounced off polyboard. Are there any practical lights the characters can be holding - torches, mobile phones, lighters?
 
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I recently purchased some soft boxes on ebay which hold 5 CFL 5500 color balanced bulbs. They claim the light output is equavelant to 1000w. Well, it's more equal to something like 500w, but they only draw 200w each. I bought 2, and have been able to run them several hours from a 600w power inverter connected to my car battery. Total investment was around $200 including the lights, stands, and inverter.

Absolution_Films said:
Hi Guys,

i am in pre production for shooting a simple horror short... it takes place down two separate alleyways at night.....

one alley way has lots of street lighting that we can use and would fit the look of the film well, the other however is pitch black at night.

We don't need a lot of lighting as the film is going to be quite dark anyway, ive only found a couple of options for battery powered lights but they weren't quite bright enough.

We don't really want to shed out money for a generator or any type of mains power supply, so i was just wondering if anyone else had any lighting ideas? ideally that doesn't have to be connected up to a mains.
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And what do you think happens when the item is returned? It cannot be resold as new. It has to be returned to the distributor for testing, repackaging, and then sold as refurb. And guess who pays for all of this additional work? Do you really think those costs just dissappear? I guess as long as it's not YOU paying for the behavior it's o.k. This kind of activity is the behavior of a thief and lyer. Thanks for the clarification of the term "guerrilla".

rayw said:
(PS, save your receipts and just return the lights to the store in a week. Don't be such a straight pin. Go guerrilla, mad man.)

GL!
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gpforet said:
And what do you think happens when the item is returned? It cannot be resold as new. It has to be returned to the distributor for testing, repackaging, and then sold as refurb. And guess who pays for all of this additional work? Do you really think those costs just dissappear? I guess as long as it's not YOU paying for the behavior it's o.k. This kind of activity is the behavior of a thief and lyer. Thanks for the clarification of the term "guerrilla".
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I think all of what you said happens. I KNOW that's what happens. And we all pay for it. Company accountants for both the manufacturer and retailer have already allocated a statistical percentage of SG&A for this activity, so it's not stealing at all.
The cost has already been worked in.
It's a cost of business.

Maybe I didn't like the product.
Maybe the product's specs weren't what I wanted or needed or were previously educated about.
Your violation of my civil liberties of engaging in a lawful activities is egregious.

Your "thief and lyer" passion is... noted.
 
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Thanks guys for the suggestions....

The scene is in a covered alleyway, and the lead male and female are kissing etc.... we did try LED lights but as you say you need a lot of them, i think i may go down to the location and try the powerful torch slashed across the wall idea...

i will come back with my findings :D
 
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Your original comments indicated that you would use the equipment for the shoot, and then return it. So you:
Obviously liked it enough to use it.
Did what you wanted it to do.

So tell me, when you return the product, is that what you tell them regarding your reason for return? "yea, I'm done with it for now, thanks for letting me use it."

You are correct that the costs are included. But since you returned the item, the only ones who are paying the cost are the ones who purchase can keep the item. So your usage is paid for by others. By encouraging others to do what you do, you are driving up the costs to legitimate purchasers.

You are using a product without paying for it and without permission to use it without paying for it = thief

You are returning the item under false pretense = lyer

Legal behavior, sure. Enthical, hardly.

rayw said:
I think all of what you said happens. I KNOW that's what happens. And we all pay for it. Company accountants for both the manufacturer and retailer have already allocated a statistical percentage of SG&A for this activity, so it's not stealing at all.
The cost has already been worked in.
It's a cost of business.

Maybe I didn't like the product.
Maybe the product's specs weren't what I wanted or needed or were previously educated about.
Your violation of my civil liberties of engaging in a lawful activities is egregious.

Your "thief and lyer" passion is... noted.
Click to expand...
 
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OMG.

List it/them on eBay, then.

(Go ahead. Put some poor Chinese product inspector out of a job. That's ethical, right?)

12610255886dF24n.jpg


PS. I hotlinked (STOLE!) that photo, too!





wheatgrinder said:
hehe.. good comeback.. you are a lying thieving excuse of a human being.. but I like you anyway. ;)
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LOL!
It's been reciprocal for a while now.

wheatgrinder said:
oh, I was going to provide a USEFUL comment. ...
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LMAO!
 
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oh, I was going to provide a USEFUL comment. ...

anyway that you can use car headlights as the light source.. Maybe a plug in spot light? With the current crop of DSLR cameras and an OK lens you should be able to bounce enough light around to make it work. I did a test shot in front of head lights a few weeks back.. worked fine on my GH2. Plenty of light
 
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'Shrinkage' (employee theft) and shoplifting are figured into the price of items sold at retail. I guess since it's figured in, than it's alright to steal it?

I don't care how low budget or how fantastic your film is, if you can't do it without committing a crime, make due with something else.

How about shooting at just after dusk?

As the lighting books say, filmmakers use techniques to simulate night all of the time (such as using a blue light).

Or, just maybe, you could rent or borrow lights? You do have friends, don't you?
 
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why not just do a Day-To-Night conversion?

if you do it correctly, it definitely looks legit. If you're planning on uploading it to youtube or vimeo, just make sure you don't make it too dark because flash compression usually darkness footage.

tons of films use a DTN conversion, and to the common audience, they won't even be able to tell, as long as you do it correctly.
 
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Well I hate it break it to you but doing something unethical isn't a crime nor is buying something, using it, and returning it within the 30-60-90-whatever day return policy the COMPANY has set forth. I may use something on a production, end up not getting the results I was expecting, and then return it. In some cases I didn't have the time to send the item back during a production and buy something else as replacement so the only logical and practical (and... legal) option I had was to use that item. There is nothing wrong with that. Furthermore, relax... have a class of wine... (if you are okay with alcoholic beverages)...

ALSO, regardless of whether a very small amount of overall purchasers return the item or not, the item will still eventually increase in price over the years due to inflation.

But back to the original poster's question...

We've used power converters to run off vehicle batteries, LED portable lights from Home Depot (just don't use them and return because I've heard that's illegal ;) ). However, the easiest/cheapest may be to plan ahead, shoot during the day and color grade it to look night.
 
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Just a thought: If you shoot in one alley with the street lights and then change the light source in the other alley, it could throw your whole color scheme way off. You might check on that.
 
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