• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Where will the power come from?!

Michael Rogers

Michael Rogers

Question for those who are a savy with electricity and powering solutions.

I asked a while ago about shooting in a mall (For a mall Santa bit), my realization has been that it is extremely hard..

So I've moved on.

I am now going to dress a small scale town (in a park play area) into a Santa village for exterior shots. Then build three walls and shoot in studio for the interior shots.

However, I have been jumping through hoops to be allowed to shoot in this park area (apparently it is their most popular feature). We came to conclusion that I would have to shoot after 8p.m. when the park closes (with a park officer on site). Then they brought up the fact that I cannot use a generator because of noise restraints and such (even quieter ones rated at about 60Db).

SO here's the question.

How can I power about 5500w of lighting gear?

It is outside, no generators, and the nearest two outlets are 150'-200' ft. away.

I read up a little on power fall off from using multiple extension cords and saw potential fire hazard warnings?
Is this true? Or would I be okay hooking up a power strip to 150' ft. + of cable?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Generators are not really that loud... That's just stupid of them. A 2K Honda generator is quiet enough to be used for most shoots in my opinion.

Ask them about this again. Put the generators in an area which is slightly blocking the sound travelling in all directions. What I did is flag the generator off in one direction when we were shooting on public land. Doing it this way, you couldn't hear the generator when you distanced yourself for about 10 meters!

P
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Phil - I really pushed for the generator. I told them it was rated at 60dB and explained that it was very quiet. They said that they've been having issues with people living near the park complaining about noise levels and just went through an ordeal where they petitioned the park. Now I guess the park can't even have maintenance trucks backing up (because of that beeping sound) at anytime except for the afternoon. I guess they don't even allow inflatable bounce houses because the fan is too loud. Insane.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Wow, that's crazy! I wouldn't know about running extension cords for 200 feet! I think your biggest problem is heat!

Whatever you do, unroll your cable completely. Don't leave anything coiled up. If you unroll it completely, the heat has somewhere to go.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Long cable runs can be dangerous, especially without an experienced Gaffer - you will certainly get line loss.

Without a generator there's not much you can really do..

What you might be able to push for is a generator with heavy distro. You'd need a Gaffer who knows his sh*t to set it up for you, but it's what happens on movies where you need a genny but also need to run sound - you hire a 230v genny, put it far enough away that you won't hear it and then run distro to set. By the time the long cable run gets to set, you've still got 110v.

If you live in a 230v power country, things start to get a little more difficult and expensive.
You'd almost be better off shooting in the mall after close than the park because at least at the mall you have access to a multitude of power outlets and likely a whole bunch of different circuits to power whatever you need to.

Or find a different park. It's hard to know whether they're just being difficult for you, or really are dealing with annoyed residents. But you definitely can't power 5.5k on a long cable run from a household power outlet. I'm not sure of other options.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
You could also ask to borrow the power trucks from either the town/city, municipality, or from fire companies. I know for a fact that some asphalt companies and late evening construction crews have portable battery stations that are capable of providing more than enough power for what you need. I have actually used all three, including an ambulance, since the primary electrical system throughout is indeed AC. Not enough to light up 5500W of lighting, but then again, you could ask about using the side lights on the ambulance to help in that case.

Just suggestions. Hope they can help.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I certainly have done 200' extension cord runs before. You'll want to run multiples if possible, both multiple cords and multiple circuits. Step 1 is probably going to be how can I shoot this with maybe 1K or 1.5K of light because 5500K probably isn't gonna happen.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Lucky Hardwood said:
2 of these
http://www.harborfreight.com/5000-watt-continuous-10000-watt-peak-power-inverter-96706.html]
and a bank of deep cycle batteries. Put them on an all terrain cart and you have 100% quiet and fume free power that can go anywhere. I have been thinking about outfitting a small utility trailer like that with solar panels.
Click to expand...

Tell me more about this idea. I am not very familiar with deep cycle batteries. Some thing like this? http://www.solar-electric.com/sunxtenagmse.html
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
How does the 5500w end up in the lighting breakdown? couple of 2k, 650w x 2... etc?

If you can run some quieter cars, you can pull a few cars up and get power inverters that feed off of their batteries to power a few circuits to break these out. The cars then become the generators.

Then just pay the owners for fuel :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mannie Bothans said:
Tell me more about this idea. I am not very familiar with deep cycle batteries. Some thing like this? http://www.solar-electric.com/sunxtenagmse.html
Click to expand...

I was referring to marine batteries, but those would also work. The idea with using cars as generators would also work. One thing to keep in mind is that inverters capable of providing more than 500 watts have to be connected directly to the battery. The power the inverter draws, the thicker (lower gauge number) the wire has to be and the stronger the connection needs to be. The advantage to using the set up that I described is that it's completely quiet, portable and won't cause possible charging system problems with anyone's cars. The downsides are that it is more expensive and rather specialized of purpose.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top