Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, : Film Lighting Equipment, Practice, and Electrical Distribution PDF
Preview Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, : Film Lighting Equipment, Practice, and Electrical Distribution
Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook This Page Intentionally Left Blank Set Lighting Technician’s Handbook Film Lighting Equipment, Practice, and Electrical Distribution Third Edition Harry C. Box Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, Elsevier Science prints its books on acid-free paper whenever possible. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Box, Harry C. Set lighting technician’s handbook: film lighting equipment, practice, and electrical distribution / Harry C. Box.—3rd ed. p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-240-80495-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Cinematography—Lighting—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. TR891 .B68 2003 778.5′343—dc21 2002192744 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The publisher offers special discounts on bulk orders of this book. For information, please contact: Manager of Special Sales Elsevier Science 200 Wheeler Road Burlington, MA 01803 Tel: 781-313-4704 Fax: 781-313-4882 For information on all Focal Press publications available, contact our World Wide Web home page at: http://www.focalpress.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America ∞ To my mother and father This Page Intentionally Left Blank vii Contents List of Tables xv List of Appendices xvii Preface xxi 1 Set Basics: Your First Barbecue 1 Job Descriptions of the Lighting Crew 1 Director of Photography 1 Gaffer 2 Best Boy Electric 3 Electricians 4 Rigging Crew 5 The Fixtures Guy 5 Generator Operator 5 Grip Department 6 The Company 7 Production Staff 7 The Director’s Team 8 Camera Department 9 Sound Department 9 Locations 10 Transportation 10 Art Department 11 Civilians 11 Block, Light, Rehearse, Tweak, Shoot 12 2 Preproduction Planning: Lighting Package, Expendables, and Personal Tools 15 Preproduction Planning 15 Scouting Locations 16 Production Meetings 17 Equipment Package 17 Loading the Production Van 21 Expendable Supplies 22 Gels and Diffusion 23 Electrical Expendables 24 Tools and Personal Gear 28 Tool Belt 28 Meters 31 viii SET LIGHTING TECHNICIAN’S HANDBOOK Other Hand Tools 31 Personal Gear 32 Grip Equipment 33 Shiny Boards 33 Overhead Sets 33 Carts 34 Mounting Hardware 36 Dollies 36 Other Grip Equipment 37 Grip Expendables 37 3 Light Fixtures—The Basic Tungsten Arsenal 39 Tungsten Light 39 Tungsten Color Balance 39 The Tungsten Bulb 40 Fresnels 40 Fresnel Beam 42 Creative Uses of Flood and Spot 46 The Globe and Its Installation 46 Fresnel Accessories 47 Soft Lights 51 Open-Face Lights 53 Prime Fixtures 54 Broads and Nook Lights 54 Light Kits 54 PAR Lights 55 PAR Lamps 55 PAR Fixtures 57 Ellipsoidal Reflector Spotlights (Lekos) 59 Bulb Adjustment and Installations 60 Area Lights and Backing Lights 63 Chicken Coops and Space Lights 63 Scoop Lights and Sky Pans 64 Cyc Strips, Ground Rows, and Borders 64 Small Fixtures 65 Screw-Base Fixtures 65 Stick-up Kits 66 Dedolights 67 4 Light Fixtures—The Basic HMI Arsenal 69 HMI Fixtures 69 HMI Fresnels 70 HMI PARs 71 HMI “Open-Face” Lights 72 HMI Soft Lights 73 Small HMI Fixtures—Sun Guns and Modular Multiuse Fixtures 73 Contents ix HMI Operation 76 Setting Up 76 Striking 77 Troubleshooting 78 HMI “Flicker” and Flicker-Free Ballasts 82 Standard Magnetic Ballasts 82 Square-Wave Electronic Ballasts 82 Power Factor Correction Circuits 85 DMX-Controlled Ballasts 87 Troubleshooting 87 DCI Lamps and Ballasts 90 Three-Head, Three-Phase Solution 90 HMI-Type Lamps 91 Relamping HMI Heads 93 HMI Lamp Characteristics and Hazards 94 5 Fluorescent Lights 97 History of Fluorescent Lights 97 Kino Flo 97 Kino Flo 120-V Systems 98 12-V DC Kits:12-V Single, Mini Flo, and Micro Flo 103 Using Kino Flo Fixtures 105 Troubleshooting 106 Building a Film-Friendly Fluorescent System from Commercially Available Parts 108 High-Frequency Ballasts 108 Color-Correct Fluorescent Tubes 108 Some Additional Notes about Fluorescent Lights 108 6 Stands and Rigging 111 Stands 111 Baby Stands 111 Junior Stands 113 Offsets, Side Arms, Extensions, and Right Angles 116 Using Stands 117 Crank-up and Motorized Stands 117 Grip Stands 119 Booms 122 Stand Maintenance 123 Rigging Hardware 123 Baby and Junior Nail-on Plates 123 Set Wall Mounts 124 Clamps 124 Grids and Green Beds 127 Location Rigging Hardware 128 x SET LIGHTING TECHNICIAN’S HANDBOOK 7 Lighting Objectives and Methods 131 Lighting Objectives 131 Visibility (or Selective Visibility) 131 Naturalism 132 Composition 132 Time Constraints 134 Light Level, Exposure, Contrast, and Metering 134 Foot-Candles 134 F-Stops 135 Taking Readings with an Incident Light Meter 137 Contrast, Latitude, and the Zone System 138 Spot Meters 142 Light Level 144 The Genesis of Lighting Ideas 145 The Process of Creating Natural Lighting 146 Motivating Light Sources 147 Establishing the Key Light 148 Backlights, Kickers, and Hair Lights 154 Fill 155 Set Light 156 Lighting the Scene 156 Living Room Scene 156 Exterior Night Scene 159 8 Manipulating Light: Tools, Techniques, and the Behavior of Light 163 Color 163 Color Correction 163 Kelvin Color-Temperature Scale 164 Using MIRED Units to Calculate Color Shifts 165 Color-Temperature Meter 167 Color-Correction Gels 169 Coloring Light 173 Brightness 175 Methods of Control 175 Falloff—Your Friend, the Inverse Square Law 177 Dimmers 178 Shape, Pattern, and Form 180 Making Cuts and Patterns 181 Soft Light 184 Diffusion 186 Other Ways of Making Soft Light 188 Movement 195 Flicker Effects: Television Screen, Flame, and Fire 195 Moving Lights 197 Contents xi 9 Electrician’s Set Protocol and Aerial Lifts 199 Set Protocol 199 Staging Area 199 Lighting the Set 200 Stingers and Cabling 207 Small Bulbs, Practicals, Wiring, and Switches 211 Types of Bulbs 211 Controlling Practicals 213 Light Cues 213 Wiring Small Fixtures 214 Safety 217 Ladders 217 Parallels 218 Working Aloft 218 Protecting Floors 218 Sprinkler Systems 219 Smoke, Fire, and Other Bad Smells 219 Lamp Repair 220 The Wrap 220 Coiling Feeder Cable 221 Inventory 221 Aerial Lifts and High Platforms for Lighting 221 Getting the Right Machine for the Job 223 Straight Mast Boom Lifts (Condors) 227 Rigging Lights and Cable 238 Condor Duty 242 Shooting in the Rain 243 Cabling and Distribution 243 Rain Tents 243 Lighting Rain 243 Shooting on Moving Vehicles 245 10 Specialty Lighting 247 Big Guns 247 Set Lighting 248 Carbon Arc Lights 251 Moonlight Rigs 259 Lighting Balloons 259 Soft Box 262 Fisher Lights 262 Truck-Mounted Tower Lights (Musco) 262 Effects Lights 265 Xenon Lights 265 Beam Projectors 267 Automated Lights 268 xii SET LIGHTING TECHNICIAN’S HANDBOOK Black Lights 269 Fiber Optics 270 Neon 271 Follow Spots 271 Operating a Follow Spot 272 Lightning Effects 273 Lightning Strikes! 273 Control Units 275 Power Requirements 275 Thundervoltz Battery Packs 277 Generators 277 Lighting Matte Photography 277 Pure Screen Color Density 278 Lighting the Foreground 278 Lighting Automobiles 281 Underwater Lighting 282 Scuba Training and Certification 282 The Old Drop-a-Bulb-in-the-Pool Method 283 Modern Underwater Fixtures 283 Lighting Underwater 287 Electricity and Water 289 High-Speed Photography and Camera-Synchronous Strobe Lighting 291 Unilux H3000 System 291 Sync Delay Box 294 Split Sync 295 Special Effects Generator 295 Notes 296 11 Electricity 297 The Fundamentals of Electricity and Electrical Equations 297 Amperes (Current) 297 Volts (Electromotive Force) 298 Watts (Power) 298 The Power Equation 299 Resistance and Ohm’s Law 301 Parallel and Series Circuits 304 How Not to Use Electrical Equations—Beavis the Electrician 308 Circuits, Circuit Protection, and Cable 310 Short Circuit and Overcurrent Protection 311 The Current-Carrying Capacity of Cable 312 Types of Feeder Cable 314 Types of Distribution Circuits 316 Direct Current and Alternating Current 316 Direct Current: Three-Wire Edison System 319 Contents xiii Alternating Current: Single-Phase Three-Wire System 320 Three-Phase, Four-Wire Systems 322 Electrical Systems in Other Parts of the World 327 Grounding 328 System Grounding 328 Equipment Grounding 328 Line Loss 330 Effects of Line Loss and Low Voltage 331 Other Causes of Line Loss 331 Line Loss Calculations 332 Using U.K. Voltage Drop Tables 336 Power Problems from Electronic Loads 337 Power Factor 338 Excessive Current on the Neutral Wire 341 Meters for Measuring Electricity 341 Circuit Testers 343 Measuring Voltage 343 Measuring Frequency (Hertz Rate) 344 Measuring Amperage 344 Testing Continuity and Testing for Shorts 344 Wattmeter or Power Meter 345 Electrical Shock and Muscle Freeze 346 Electrical, Building, and Fire Codes 348 The National Electrical Code 348 Fire and Building Codes 352 OSHA and the Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee 352 12 Distribution Equipment, Rigging, and Dimmers 353 DC Three-Wire System 354 DC Cans 354 Sister Lugs 354 Spider Boxes 355 Remote Switchboards 355 Mole Pin Connectors 357 DC Paddle-and-Stage Box System 358 Plate Dimmers 360 AC Systems 361 Main Feeder Run 361 AC-Power Distribution Boxes 364 Bates Three-Pin Connectors 365 Edison Boxes 372 Socapex Connectors and Cable 373 Adapters 377 Meltric and Abbott System 379 European Distribution Systems 380 xiv SET LIGHTING TECHNICIAN’S HANDBOOK Rigging 384 Distribution Strategy 385 Set Power—the “Ring of Fire” 385 Planning the Rig 386 Rigging the Set 391 Electronic Dimmer Systems 400 How an SCR Dimmer Works 400 Control Signals 402 Control Consoles 402 Definitions 403 Strand CD 80 Pack 404 Troubleshooting 408 13 Power Sources 411 Generators 411 Putt-Putts (Portable Honda Generators) 411 Full-Size Generators 412 Generator Placement 414 Generator Operation 415 Grounding Generators 417 Selecting a Generator 419 Electrical Configurations 420 Basic Troubleshooting 420 Troubleshooting—Mechanical 421 Troubleshooting—Electrical Problems 423 Wet Cell Battery Packs and Inverters 425 Inverter Systems 425 Battery Packs (120-V DC) 425 Power on Location 426 Line Drops 426 Tie-ins 427 Using Available Power 432 14 The Work World 433 The Unions 433 Hollywood: Local 728 433 Basic Agreement 435 Appendices 437 Glossary 525 Bibliography 543 Index 545
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