Lenses And Lights

Grip gear can be as important as the lighting fixtures used to create the lighting scheme for a scene. You can block, diffuse, shape, bounce and breakup the light using these tools. This is very important in creating a textured, realistic — or fantastic– look that is visually much more interesting than just blasting the light into your subject.

Here is a look at the most essential grip items. These are all available to rent for very reasonable rates at film lighting rental companies. You can rent just a few items, or complete packages, even a grip truck to carry it all to the set. Or you may wish to buy. I’ve kept grip gear far longer than any camera gear. It never goes obsolete.

Century, or “C” stands are the most essential piece of grip gear:

Gobo Heads mount on top of the C-Stands:

These are used to hold extension arms:

 

Which in turn, hold everything else.The arms have fixed gobo heads with multiple holes for gripping flags, nets, silks, etc shown below :Nets come as singles or doubles, like light scrims, except the netting is thread, instead of wire. A red bordered net is a double, and cuts the light one stop. A green bordered net is a single, and cuts light by half a stop.Flags, nets, and silks come in these sizes: 18”x24”; 24”x36” ; 36×48 and 4’x4’.

Flags and Cutters

Flags, (or cutters) are used to block or cut the light. You might use one to keep a light from shining into the camera lens, or to shadow a wall or another part of the scene.A silk is similar to a flag, but the black fabric is replaced with silk to diffuse rather than block light. Most of the time it is used to create a larger light source that throws softer edged shadows. But it can work as a flag, but one that makes a brighter shadow. It will cut more light than a net, and will also bounce more light into the set though.

Smaller versions of all three are called dots or fingers.These are used more for table top or product shots, but are also useful for many other purposes.Long narrow flags are called cutters. These are usually 18″ to 24″ wide, and 4′ to 8′ long. When used as a “topper” they block light from above, casting a horizontal shadow towards the top of a set wall.A cukoloris is a wood panel with random shapes cut into it. It’s used to break up light. Most of the time the light is focused through it so as to create soft, vaguely defined shadows, and not a hard edged pattern. Often these are made up quickly on the set by cutting random shapes into Foamcore boards.

Baby plates are special light stands that can be nailed to an apple box or a wall. Reflectors are large 42” to 48” square boards mounted in a yoke, with a diffused silver side, and a shiny silver side. They’re used outdoors to manipulate sunlight. Butterfly frames can hold large silks fordiffusing sunlight, or solid white or silver “Griffolyn” tarps for bouncing light, or large black tarps for blocking light. They come in 6’x6’, 12×12’, and 20×20’ frames and are held up by large “high roller” stands: To keep all these stands from tipping over or blowing away, sandbags are placed on the legs. These are usually available in 15, 25 and 35 lb weights. When used with large reflectors or butterfly frames outdoors, several of the heaviest ones may be needed on each stand to keep everyone safe when it is windy. Apple boxes have numerous uses from lifting props to making actors taller to seats for the crew. They come in full, half, quarter and pancake sizes. Grip Blankets (also called Sound-blankets) also haveseveral uses, from deadening sound reflections to protecting location floors and furniture. Also called furniture blankets they’re usually considerably heavier than the ones found in moving stores.

HD / Video Camera
Rental Checklist

When I talk to people just getting into advanced video production, I’m always struck by how obsessed they are with having to buy their own gear. And of course they’re usually stunned at the cost of all of it. Though I think a five thousand dollar camera is cheap, relative to the cost of the gear used to produce feature films and commercials, it’s still expensive for an individual.

So I ask them — “How many movie cameras do you think Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson own?”

The answer is, precisely none–or at least none that they use to shoot their movies. They rent. While there are a very few directors who own their own gear, (Robert Rodriquez and George Lucas come to mind), these are by far both the historical and present exception. Producers generally rent all of it, whether they be shooting a commercial, a corporate video or a feature film.
For that matter, if you want to shoot with Panavision equipment, you have no choice, their cameras and lenses are only rented, never sold.

The reasons are many. Prime is that they just don’t use such an expensive item often enough to make it worthwhile. It’s like buying a Motor Home that you’ll only take out once a year. Also, no one camera or lens is perfect for every task. And equipment is updated and obsoleted all the time. By renting, a producer can always have the most up to date equipment– and know that it’s in perfect operating order, completely checked out by the rental company before it’s picked up. Plus there’s all the ancillary lenses, specialty cameras, camera mounts, filters etc etc that need to be rented anyways. That gear can easily end up costing as much as the camera alone. So it makes sense to rent it all as one big package. When the production wraps, it can all be returned to the rental house– no concern about paying for a place to store it, or pay for maintenance on the inevitable wear and tear that occurs!

However–when renting a video camera, it’s vital to check it out before leaving the rental facility.
–The personnel there will be glad to see that you are concerned about their equipment.
–They’ll likely have a space set aside just for customers to check out gear.

Perform the following checks:

• Batteries charged?
• Camera powers on, from both batteries and AC adaptor?
• Image in viewfinder? Image from monitor out of camera to a monitor?
• If renting a monitor, is the monitor working? Set up monitor to color bars from camera to test.
• Insert tape, make test recording. Play back test on color monitor.
• Lens Check. Check for dirt and scratches, front AND back of lens.
  –If using filters ensure that filters fit on lens, no stripped threads.
  –Check all rented filters for scratches.
• Back focus check. Use a backfocus chart to check backfocus of zoom from full telephoto to full wide.
• Check condition of additional lenses you are renting. Make sure they fit on the cameras and are correct type, and cable connections fit.
• Check that audio gear works in connection to camera. Do an audio playback test.
• Tripod mounting plate in case, and correct one for camera, with mounting screws?

If unsure of any camera function, or operation, ASK QUESTIONS!

Do it now before you are on location.
Get a contact phone number for after hours problems.

Anyone who’s met me knows I love to share my experiences and knowledge, especially anything to do with my career choice as a cameraman. I’ve had some static web pages up for a long time, and I’ve taught workshops and college courses in film production. I also was the director of a film degree program at a four year college. Now I’m back to work as a full time free lance Director of Photography.

Over the years, I’ve come up with what I think are some clear and practical explanations of lighting and camera concepts. My goal is to use this blog to put those out there to a wide audience and with luck get some feedback and learn some new things too.

To best introduce myself, I present the Demo Reel I was using just before I got swallowed up in the academic world. (I am working on a new one, I promise!)