Lighting for a Sitcom

[William Kamp]

I apologize for the mudslinging. I would aslo like to point out my rant was based on little information, and never intended as fact.

I’m sorry Bill.

I feel like we just left kindergarten and can go have recess now.

Best,

Will

[Bill Davis]

Accepted, appreciated, and happy (particularly after I’ve made so many, many mistakes in judgement in my own life that people have had to forgive and overlook) to be able to put the acrimony to rest.

Oh, and Manfrotto sells what you’re looking for under the label of “autopole” (possibly hyphenated) but I doubt that they have units that span the distance you mentioned in your prior post – which is why I never mentioned them. That’s a HUGE span for other than a fully supported TRUSS form.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Conner

[William Kamp]

Exactly the type of advice I was looking for.

Thank you.

[Chas Smith]

ShaZAAAM!! 🙂

[Mark Suszko]

I was also going to suggest Bogen’s auto-poles, which can be extended with add-on inserts. The longer you make them, though, the less weight you should hang on them. Lowell fixtures, regardless of what some will say, are at least very light weight, so between Lowels and a bunch of heavier fresnels, you’d get more instruments up there for the same weight, with the Lowels. If you have a lot of lights to hang, you might need to run two parallel auto-poles to create enough truss space for the weight.

Tip about the auto-poles: You can make some extra safety supports out of 2×4 boards with a round or v-notch in them, gaff-taped to the walls, so the auto-pole can rest part of the weight on them. Use real gaffer tape and the wall paint should not get marked up. The bracing boards may need a cut-away at their bases to clear any cove moldings by the floor, allowing full-length contact with the wall. Now, this bracing will lose you the ability to shoot past 180 degrees without seeing a stand, but maybe you can plan around this with the DP so it wouldn’t matter. You generally don’t want to cross the line of action anyhow, so the braces may not even be a factor for shooting.

I have also seen auto-poles used this way in a too-wide room: set up two poles vertically, floor to ceiling, then hang a third autopole horizontally off them, making what looks like a capital “H” or old fashioned football goalposts. This gives you the overhead truss effect and keeps the amount of stand hardware on the floor down to those two slim poles, which you may be able to dolly around. And the truss section stays shorter and safer with more weight.

[Mike Cohen]

Bill (original Bill):

Is this an actual location? Sounds like it.

How high are the ceilings? Could you use chinese lanterns?
How many cameras are you shooting with?

How will you control the light from behind the camera as the time of day changes?

Given the shape of the room and the fact that you will lose some of the space with your crew and gear, I would suggest using Kino Flos as high up as you can get perhaps with eggcrate to further diffuse the light – make an arc around the camera – that should give you sitcom light without burning the place down with large tungsten softboxes.

As for backlights, you might use 1×1 Litepanels mounted from the ceiling – surely you could use a few screws into the joists..?? Other way to get small backlights is with pneumatic poles as you suggested, or Bogen mega booms on roller stands – you will need counterweights to offset the length – but extend the stands so the booms are hugging the ceiling. Sandbags galore all around.

Also when actors are facing the windows, watch that they are not squinting.

Can you post some pictures of the location?

Interesting topic.

Mike Cohen