[Charles Mercer]

Hi Mark
Sorry, didn’t make myself clear. I wouldn’t use the Rifa for the gobo rig, I was looking for a hard source. I actually have some homebrew cuckoloris (funny word) rather than metal gobo inserts which are very expensive in the UK. I am having trouble finding a 1,000 watt instrument as everything seems to be 800 watts or 2000 watts with not much in between. I can use a dimmer on 2,000 watts, but I like to keep the wattage down when on clients’ premises for obvious reasons. I’ll have a look at the Omni and the soft force junior (if I can find a source in the UK)

Thanks for the info.

Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Hi Mark. Interesting comments on the Rifa fluors. They did look a bit heavy, but I haven’t tried them yet, so I’ll reserve judgement. I’m looking for an instrument of about 1000watts which I can use to fire through a Gobo and coloured gel to throw a nice background effect. I’m using an Ianiro redhead 650Watt at the moment but I’m losing light to the gel and it’s being overome by the key light a bit (I egg-crate the Rifa 66 off, but it’s hard in confined office spaces to get the light completely off the background) Any ideas?

Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Thanks Mark, I can never get enough to read about the fascinating art of lighting sets so I’ll try to track down Holshevnikov’s book. I have just found ‘Matters of Light and Depth’ on ebay. The book was offered as ‘acceptable’ but at $19 plus $15 postage to the UK, I hope I’ve got a bargain. Some of the prices I’ve seen for second-hand copies are eye-popping.
As a by the by, we had our official studio opening yesterday and managed to attract thirty prospects (amazing what the offer of free food does) The main purpose of the day was to show off the green screen and to encourage impromptu performances with a bottle of Champagne for the best offering. We had intended posting the results on Youtube next week but my techy guy (son) immediately processed the footage on Final Cut and we turned the monitor round for an instant replay. This was a big hit and the cause of much hilarity, but, on the serious side gained us four immediate customers. I’ll still post on Youtube and send you a link after we get our breath back.
Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Wow! This thread seems to be taking on a life of its own regarding the Rifa light. There’s obviously a lot of useful information out there circulatiing from people who actually use the gear – priceless. Dipping into the font of wisdom once again (and avoiding too much hagiography) could anyone recommend Ross Lowell’s book ‘Matters of Light and Depth’? I’m trying to track down a copy in the UK and I’ve seen one on Amazon, but at an outrageous price (OK, so I’m a skinflint) I like to browse through a book first before handing over large sums of money and you can’t really do that on-line.
And I wonder if the great man himself could enlighten us on the spelling of his name – is it one ‘L’ or two? My UK Tiffen catalogue uses one ‘L’ followed by a superscript ‘L’ incorporated into a logo. I think we should be told.

Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Hi Ralph. I like making things and I’ll use anything off camera to achieve the result I want to keep the costs down. I think the advantage of the Rifa egg-crate fitting is that it folds down to a very small package. It’s a bit like a magician’s piece of kit and goes into a very small bag. This is a consideration for me as most of my work is mobile. I note you quote dollar prices so I can’t recommend suppliers as I’m UK based. Actually, we have to pay in UK pounds what you guys are quoted in dollars, so US products are quite expensive for us in the UK. I buy my Rifa gear from Production Gear at Borehamwood, but the stock comes through a distributor to them, so we are hit with a double whammy as the chain adds in profit for each handler.
Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Responding to Ralph’s points, I haven’t tried the fluors in the Rifa yet. I see no reason why they shouldn’t work but you will lose the abilty to fold up the shell of the instrument as the internal fitting is bigger than the bayonet holder.
In Tungsten mode the Rifa does get hot, as you would expect with 650 watts, and you have to wait for a cool-down period before you can strike. This can be a nuisance if you have a janitor breathing down your neck to clear you out of the location. But I wait for the lamp to cool a bit, and then cover the metal protecting cage with a plumber’s mat (bought from B&Q Home Depot equivalent in UK). Use a glove if you decide to do this. I stitched this into a cylinder and it fits perfectly without touching the lamp. Without this shield you would burn the umbrella fabric. A sales opportunity for Lowel here I think?
I’m going to try a small personal fan tied onto the umbrella next time out – a bit Heath Robinson but it should help.
I have the egg-crate attachment and this helps keep light off the background. But the price you pay is 1 1/2 EV stops in light loss, not the end of the world but you have to allow for it on your exposure settings.
All this being said, for mobile work, this is the instrument. You can set up quickly and the light is beautifully soft. It’s good enough to use on it’s own and I wish I had bought my Rifa as my first instrument. But we live and learn.

Regards

Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Thanks for the reply Robert. By coincidence, my colleague had found this application and downloaded a demo – and he likes it too. I think we may well go with it.

Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Thanks for the info. The problem is cost – I know I could buy fluors tungsten rated tubes – Kino etc – but I need two instruments and the cost is going to be prohibitive as we are starting up. I’m tempted to use ebay and buy a kit of three softboxes with switchable fluorescent bulbs. These are rated at a total 2750 watts (equivalent tungsten) and will keep down both heat output and power consumption. I like the idea of being able to switch off lamps as this will give us a lot of control. The only problem I can see is replacement lamps as the supplier doesn’t list them, but I’ve emailed for enlightenment on this point.It seems to me if there is a colour temperature problem between the talent tungsten and the green-screen daylight temperatures, I could always gel the screen to lamps to balance the light.

Regards
Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

I’m in exactly the same positon with the green-screen lighting, although my set-up will be smaller – just an eight feet wide heavy green cloth. I’ve used this successfully in my living room draped over the curtain pole (Yeah, I know!) but now it’s going into our new studio. We light our talent on location with a Rifa66 and combination Arris for the trad three light arrangement. I’m going to go with fluorescent strips on stands for the green-screen lights – two should do the job I think. We’ll use the same talent arrangement in the studio. But here’s a question – I’ll use 3.6k tubes to match the talent lights, but if you use daylight rated tubes on the screen, does this make a difference to the colour temperature of the green-screen? Or does Final Cut simply see this as a green colour, no matter what lamps are used?

Regards

Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions

[Charles Mercer]

Better news – with six empty offices on our floor to choose from we moved to a quieter location. We still have some minor issues but we can live with them, but the previous air-con noise turned out to be a water feed to the ground floor toilets. We’ve moved away from that area and the problem seems to be resolved. The background noise is no worse than filming on location so we are going to stay here for now.
What I really enjoy about our building is being able to talk to clients in the cafe – we had a visit yesterday from a prospect and the studio premises have also promoted one of the other tenants to enquire about making videos with us. Let’s hope the year continues in the same way. I’ve just ordered the greens-creen supports from ebay, so that’s the next job when they arrive. We’re snowed in at the moment and frustrated at being delayed, but there are some tax returns pending and, now, no excuse not to get them completed.

Regards,

Charles

Charles Mercer
Pearldrop Video Productions