Help with Light kit to travel with

[Dan Brockett]

I too have an Arri Softbank kit. These days, I FedEx it and UPS it more than I fly with it, although you can fly with it. But it is a hassle and you have to pay the overweight charge.

That said, as much as I don’t like them, the Lowel kits would be good to consider. Lowels are flimsy and they are junky compared to our Arris but their kits are really small and do have what you need or most of what you need. A lot of people love the Lowel Rifa kits.

Forget Amvona stuff, IMHO, it’s junk for amateurs. If you are used to pro gear like Arri, you will even realize that the Lowel stuff is junky but better than Amvona.

Best,

Dan

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[Todd Terry]

You might consider one of the smaller kits from LTM Pepper. They are very well made (usually fresnels but they have other types of instruments as well). I actually like them better than Arri… they are as well or better made and significantly less expensive (most Arris have formed sheet-metal bodies, the Peppers have cast-metal bodies). You can put together your own setup, or they have ready-to-go kits in several sizes with several different instruments.

The thing I’m impressed with about them is that their kits are VERY complete… heads, Matthews stands, barn doors, scrims (singles and doubles in fulls and halves), lamps, power adapters, even leather gloves. Kits have different cases, but the one we have came in a hard-shell rolling-wheel case with a pop-out handle. We’ve had one of their kits for almost 10 years, and while it is not our primary any more it is still used quite a bit and still going strong.

And I will echo two things that Dan said:

Firstly, Lowel instruments are very flimsy… I’m not sure exactly how they got the “high end” reputation that they have. I’ve never seen anyone’s Lowels that didn’t look like they have been run over by a truck and straightened back out again, parts kinda loose and rattly. They also burn VERY hot and aren’t heat-shielded very well at all. At least, yes, they pack up small.

And secondly, yes, consider shipping your gear, especially the heavy stuff. We don’t travel all that much but when we do we have semi-large shipping cases (usually 5 or 6, depending on what all we are taking, whether it’s film or video, etc.), and we just FedEx everything. If we plan our schedules carefully so that it doesn’t interfere with shoots at home we can ship 3-day to our location and the gear is waiting for us when we arrive. We just find a FedEx location nearest our shoot location and ship “Hold for Pickup” and it’s there waiting for us. It usually costs us about $1800 to ship everything we need cross country and back (that’s loads of gear going 3-day air, ground shipping or a lighter shoot would be less). I have never had one piece of gear lost, broken, or delayed that way… and I can not say that about checking gear so that it travels on the same plane with me.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Joe Quirino]

Thanks guys that is awesome info… I guess you are right with shipping. Other than the time, what do I have to lose? I agree with both of you on the lowels. I think I would rather buy a contractors light at Home depot rather than a lowel kit. Thanks for the insight. I am going to look into the LTM Pepper lights

[Dan Brockett]

Peppers are a nice way to go. I am not familiar with their kits but as long as they have one with a Chimera or a light and speedring you can put a Chimera on, I would be all over that.

BTW Todd, I am doing a shoot in Philly Friday, I just shipped my lighting kit and a plastic tote with the extras via UPS. It works well and I get to go through the airports with only a backpack with the camera. Suhweet!

Best,

Dan

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[Bob Cole]

If shipping ahead of time isn’t practical, here are some tested travel tips, for a run-and-gun, interview/B-roll shoot:

1. Call ahead of time and find a local grip who has the lights/stands/tripod etc. that you need.
2. Carry-on your absolute essentials (camera/mic/tape).
3. For local shoots I use Kinos, Moles, & Peppers. But for travel, Lowel’s stands fold up nice and small, & the Tota-light in a Chimera works great. (although I’ve had to add a bracket to the speedring so that the tota-light doesn’t slip.)
4. Carry extra bulbs. You’ll definitely need them after your cases are thrown around by the baggage “handlers.”
5. Pelicans are great, but heavy. I’ve started using Lightware cases and had good luck so far.
6. Most important of all: Carry your shot tapes back with you; don’t let them go through the more powerful x-ray device to which the checked luggage is subjected.

Happy travels.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Todd Terry]

[Dan Brockett] “…doing a shoot in Philly Friday, I just shipped my lighting kit and a plastic tote…”

Works well, doesn’t it Dan? After we started shipping a few years ago I will never again lug gear through an airport unless we abolutely have to.

If you find yourself doing a lot of this you can come up with a system/routine that works well for you. Our shipping cases are sort of like Anvil cases, but not quite as heavy. To make things even easier we put recessed mounts in the bottom of the big ones for three-inch rubber casters. When we pick up the cases at FedEx, the first thing we do is crack ’em open, remove the wheels stored inside, and attach them. Bingo… rolling cases, and stack the smaller ones on top (I am too lazy to lift anything I don’t have to).

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Eric Temple]

My traveling kit is pretty flexible… 2 Lowel Rifa lights (1 Rifa 66 and 1 Rifa 55), 2 100 watt LTM Pepper fresnels, 1 200 watt LTM Pepper fresnel, and one Lowel Omni light. I also carry a Flexfill silk reflector and a few dimmers and clamps. It is good for just about any kind of interview or small b-roll situation. I carry everything in a Kata Palms 3 case. All the stands are small Lowel units. I’m very happy with it.

[Bob Cole]

[Eric Temple] “carry everything in a Kata Palms 3 case.”

Eric, that sounds like a good kit. The Kata’s a pretty big case. If you travel by air with it, do you get socked with an oversize charge? I’ve found that the airlines tend to be very picky about weight and not very picky about size limits, for checked luggage.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Joe Quirino]

Thank you guys for all your help! The thing that sucks about these shoots is that they are two camera. I shoot with 2 spx-800 p2 cameras, so my camera and one battery is just at 50lbs. So I think I will fly down with both cameras, and two tripods. I like the idea of Fed-ex my stuff down but I do not want to be without my light kit for 3 days, so I will buy a “travel” light kit.

When you guys fed-ex equipment, do you put it in a cardboard box or do you send it in the silver case or kata case alone?

My normal shoots were all outdoors, (which I took for granted) so all would bring is couple of reflectors and I was good to go.

In your opinion would you buy something “to get the job done” like a lowel kit or chimera kit or do you think I should invest in another Arri Softbank kit, to travel with?

Thanks
Joe

[Eric Temple]

Unfortunately, this is about 61 lbs. If I drop one pepper, one rifa and 2 stands, it comes in at 49lbs. I’m afraid that paying for extra baggage and weight is just the new cost of doing business… especially with United now charging extra for anything more than one checked bag.