Interfit Super Cool-lite 5 to light greenscreen?

[Rick Wise]

I bought a slightly earlier version of the Cool-Lit 9 for a very low-budget project. It’s OK, has a decided green spike that you need to gel out with 1/4 minus green for normal applications, but for green-screen that’s no problem.

Rather then get the 5-light version with a soft box, I’d go for two of the 9’s, https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/569816-REG/Interfit_INT216_Super_Cool_lite_9_Fluorescent.html. The heads are heavy. You need a beefy light stand for each. If you end up having too much light, then you can progressively switch off some of the lights.

However, working with a 15’x15′ screen in a tight space is going to cause you a lot of trouble. I suspect the 9-lites backed off as much as possible might get you there but it will be tight all around. You will have trouble both lighting the screen evenly and keeping the lights for the screen off your foreground. Perhaps you can make it all work…. hope so.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Michael Hurwicz]

Thanks, Rick. I think I will go with a pair of 9’s, as you suggest:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/569815-REG/Interfit_INT217_Super_Cool_lite_9_Two.html

I’m also thinking I should get some 1/4 minus green gels so I could use the lights for normal applications, too, if the occasion arose.

How would you attach the gels to something like this? Is there a way to do the job with a 20″ x 24″ gel? Or maybe you need two sheets held together with clear tape and clipped to the outside of the octobox?

[Rick Wise]

I’m not sure with your model. I jury-rigged some small Lowel clip-on barndoors to hold a piece of flexible bamboo I bent into the right size circle, to which I stapled both light diffusion and 1/4 minus green. Not a great solution since the rig looks pretty micky-mouse and likely to not stay in place. But the bulbs need to breathe, so you need to leave an air gap. For my simple gig this do-it-yourself system worked OK, just as the light works OK. I wouldn’t buy it again unless I was really, really pressed for cash — which you are.

I’d suggest you look at the light after it arrives and then start thinking about how you might rig the 1/4 minus green. For your green screen you obviously don’t need the color correction.

Rick Wise
Cinematographer
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com

[Michael Hurwicz]

Thanks again, Rick. I really appreciate getting the benefit of your experience!

[Todd Terry]

[Rick Wise] “I jury-rigged some small Lowel clip-on barndoors to hold a piece of flexible bamboo I bent into the right size circle…”

I’ve done that too, Rick… but I’m lazier than you and didn’t build that from scratch myself.

At Hobby Lobby (or similar stores) you can find bamboo hoops made for embroidery work in various sizes, from tiny to pretty big. I’ve bought several of them and used them to hold gels inside softboxes and some other rigging as well… and since they are a ring-locking-within-a-ring you can just sandwich gel in them. Best of all, they are so cheap they are practically free…

https://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/10-embroidery-hoop-642231/

T2

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

[Mark Suszko]

magnets?