Looking for a new lighting instrument

[Todd Terry]

No, you’re right… you definitely don’t want to hang an instrument like that from a scissor clamp.

And I fully understand not wanting to give up the floor real estate.

You could do what I did in my own edit suite, where I hung a big monitor, and also have a drop ceiling (which apparently you do, too). This is a 42′ monitor (not gigantic by today’s standards, but pretty big), and it is a plasma montior, not one of today’s light-as-a-feather LEDs or LCDs… this guy is heavy.

This montitor hangs on a piece of pipe… just steel plumbing pipe, actually… and goes up through the ceiling tile where it is attached to the joists between floors. I couldn’t find a commercial “real” hanging system for the monitor, so I hit Home Depot and built this…

You could hang an anvil off of it. Behind the scenes (or rather, above the tile), it looks like this….

It’s just plumbing pipe, and a couple of T-connectors. The pipe runs through holes I drilled in the floor joists above, and one of the T-connectors allows for an easy cable pass to the monitor.

So yeah, a Source Four is heavy… but I really don’t know another instrument that will give you that kind of punch and that kind of throw from that distance, and be super adjustible and take gobo patterns. It’s really exactly what that light was made for. There could be smaller/lighter fixtures out there that will do similar, but I don’t know what they are. If you are willing to give up pattern projection and some adjustability almost any one of a zillion different little fresnel instruments would work… but no patterns.

T2

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

[Todd Terry]

I was just now able to look at your links.

The Hive lights are decent… the Leko barrel combined with the little Hive “Bee” light would be a decent combo, and not crazy heavy or outrageously expensive. If you went with one of the bigger Hive lights, like the Hornet or the Wasp instrument that you linked to, that might be overkill… both in price and weight.

Leko Barrel + Bee Light = 2.35lbs total, $1300
Leko Barrel + Wasp Light = 6.35lbs total, $1750
Leko Barrel + Hornet Light = 4lbs total, $2200

All three of those combos do the same thing… it just depends on how much output you need… we don’t know how bright (or dim) your present setup is.

Again, what is killing you price-wise is pattern projection. If you can give up that, you can find a little fresnel that will do the job for a hundred bucks.

T2

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

[Ty Ford]

Todd,

Thanks for the studio shot. A very clean MacGuyver rig. I like it and may use it. (or try)

Hmm, I talked to one of the guys at Barn Door lighting and he suggested a Chauvet fixture.

https://www.filmandvideolighting.com/chauvet-ovation-led-stage-spot-light.html

It’s 20 lbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaUU2BgvK2Q

I found the above video and was bothered by the noise of a fan or motor in the background.

Given my small space that just wouldn’t work. Do you know if any of the fixtures you’re suggesting run a fan?

Thanks,

Ty

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

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[Todd Terry]

Yeah, you likely don’t want fan-cooled instruments in such a small space.

I said “likely,” because they aren’t always a problem. I have LitePanels Astra instruments which have fans, and you would never know it (not an appropriate fixture for your job, just an example of fans). They are perfectly silent. I also have some Boltzen fresenels that are fanned but silent. Maybe if you pressed your ear to the body you could hear them, but not otherwise… I’ve never had a mic pick them up at all. Then again I also have some other older instruments where you can clearly hear the fans.

The old-school incandescent Source Fours do not have fans. I can’t say with certainty if the newer modern LED versions are fan-cooled or not (I’ve not had the opportunity to use them). They might, might not… will have to plead ignorance on that. I don’t know if the Hives have fans either.

I completely forgot about another instrument that I’ll recommend you look at, the Source Four MINI… I completely forgot that it came in a mini version….

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=source%20four%20mini&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

That’s the way I’d go. It’s smaller than anything else, cheaper than anything else, and will do all that you want it to… and weighs only a couple of pounds. Plus the Source Four is the industry standard for exactly the job you are trying to do, especially in a tiny studio space.

T2

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

[Ty Ford]

Thanks, Todd.

I’d just need to get a fist full of colored gels, right? and there’s a 50 Degree accessory that would probably come in handy.

Ty

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Todd Terry]

Yup. Unless you need to actively change color during a shot, I think a multi-color and DMX-controllable (or app controllable) instrument is probably overkill. Otherwise, gels will work fine.

T2

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

[Mark Suszko]

Cringe at the suggestion if you like, but, we have bought a couple of multicolor American DJ type LED lights to use as color accents on shoots because you can dial in whatever color and intensity you like, and these were in the $150 range, run cool and quiet, are light weight as well. Come with bard doors, no gel holder, but a smart guy can rig something up… we got them because getting color gels became such a hassle for us… and now it’s not an issue. Only problem that came up was, a flicker that we are able to dial-out using variable shutter int he camera, what Sony calls ‘clear-scan, from back in the day when you had to adjust shutter to get clean images of CRtT displays. Most better cameras have a variation of the feature.,

[Ty Ford]

Hi Mark,

Not cringing at all. What make and model?

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Todd Terry]

There’s nothing cringe-worthy bout that, it’s a valid idea.

I will note that barn doors on those kinds of heads are pretty much useless for any actual cutting.

I thought most of those had fans though, Mark… or don’t they?

T2

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

[Mark Suszko]

Well, it was specifically an American DJ brand LED PAR can, you can look that up and find it or something similar under a hundred, heck I bought a baby one for my uke band for 50. They come with DIP switches or menu buttons on them to set the color and brightness as well as effects like strobe to audio picked up by thr light’s internal mic, cycle thru colors at different speeds, ramp one color up and down in a loop, imitate lightning flashes or police strobes etc.. a little tedious to do by hand, so we also got a little three-slider external DMX controller for it, cost a other $50, runs an XLR cabe to the light and works like a little dimmer board. if you already have DMX controls then the XLT cable is all you need, plus AC power.

https://youtu.be/g0ON1EzrZzQ
ours didn’t have the extra UV light feature, could be cool if you want to get funky with black light paints and chalks.

This Chauvet is similar

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SlimPAR56–chauvet-dj-slimpar-56-rgb-par?mrkgcl=28&mrkgadid=3301333117&rkg_id=0&product_id=SlimPAR56&campaigntype=shopping&campaign=aaShopping%20-%20SKU%20-%20Live%20Sound%20%26%20Lighting&adgroup=Lighting%20-%20Chauvet%20DJ%20-%20slimpar56&placement=google&adpos=1o1&creative=280136035372&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=Cj0KEQjw8-LnBRCyxtfMl-Cbu48BEiQA6eUMGtcvO4qnEgVsg55PRqDtDRB0CqeqQ8eArFBwBHNJHNcaAoas8P8HAQ

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