What camera are you using for the feature?
Your situation is a bit problematic. Those construction lights, if I am guessing correctly, are usually 300 watts. Add to that even Half CTB and you are loosing a serious amount of light. If I may make one budget crushing suggestion. . . Rent (1) 6k hmi par with a tall stand, which is better load wise for the house you will be shooting in, rather than a 5k or a 4k. Hire a real BB Electric to scout the house to see what is possible and to work with you. (I'd try and avoid gaffers for that particular task.) You wont have the expense of gel ($100 or so a roll) which can get ruined and you'll get plenty of light for exposure and have nice bounce going around for fill. At the very least, rent (2) 1200 hmi pars which you should be able to plug in around the house without dealing with scary electrical stuff. (Double them up through a frame.)

quote:

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Originally posted by bartonct

Hey guys I have a question about lighting a scene for night and using color gels. Ok so I'm going to be filming this horror movie this coming summer and most of it will take place in a house. So i want to use alot of lighting from the outside through the windows and put blue color gels on them so it looks like moonlight. My question is, how do you properly attach gels to really powerful lights without them melting. I have like 5 constuction lights i use, i think they are 500watts each.

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First, I'm curious about the overall "look" that you seem to be indicating. Are you suggesting that there will be "beams" of moonlight streaming through the windows like hard sunlight does?

If so, of course that will only be on one side of the house and for only part of your story-night as the moon makes its way around to the other side of the house (assuming it's a full-moon, of course).

And while the color blue is mostly associated with "night," it isn't really blue, not so much that you'd want to go full or even half CTB on your tungsten lights.

If you shoot with daylight balanced film or white balance your video camera to a gelled light, it'll appear white anyway. But if you use tungsten balanced film or use a tungsten white balance and gel the tungsten lights blue, you'll get the blue cast on everything without.

Using an HMI source will give you that blueish tint without gelling anything.

If you only have tungsten lights, you can safely gel just about anything you'd be able to plug into a house circuit up to about a 2K. 500w lamps will not even come close to burning up your gel. The intensity of the light on something like a 800w HMI Joker Bug will likely burn a hole through gel, but most tungsten units up to 1 or 2K shouldn't be a problem as you'd use C-47s to attach them to the barndoors.

You bigger problem without a generator is having enough amperage from what is available in that house without popping breakers constantly. To get large shafts of light, as it seems you're describing, takes large units, likely 5K units or higher to accomplish that. As mentioned, you could double up some units (tungsten or HMIs) but shooting them through diffusion frames will help to negate that shaft of light making efforts moot. Even if you could get units that big, you'd now be in the territory of needing a genny and the Operator to go with it, in addition to a qualified Electric Department complete with a Gaffer, a Best Boy, and a couple of Electricians to actually light the set. And once you get that big, you have to have a full Grip crew (qualified) with all the accouterments necessary to control that light and make it all safe.

Now, for a way around all this, you could consider shooting during the day light hours. Use Duvateen to black out your windows but use mirrors and/or shiny boards to bounce sunlight into your set. You'd want to color correct that light perhaps by shooting the light through large frames with CTB gel and shooting with Tungsten based film or at a Tungsten white balance. This method would take some amount of structural gear to build the framing necessary to hang the blacks around the house. And you'd need some clever Grippery skills for someone to bounce the light in by adjusting the reflectors all day long. But, sunlight is free. Controlling it isn't.

One of the problems with using any large sources is the generator. Not only renting it, but having a place to put it so it is far enough away so that the Sound Mixer can't hear it. That means a lot of distribution cable and the guys to run it and watch over it.

If all you can get are small "construction" type lights, some of those come built in to generators, but you can't have those close to the set either because of the noise.

Your only option for powered lights without going big is to use MANY small sources as you mentioned, but again, you run into a problem with amperage in a standard house. There's only so much you can plug in before the breakers pop.

I'd suggest posting this question over at http://www.cinematography.com and at http://electricandgrip.com and perhaps at http://www.cinematography.net on the CML boards.

Good luck!

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

what is framing, and what is the best way to do framing.

hemant

which one is the purity of cinema juxtaposing the shot or a mise-en-scene.

hemant

quote:

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Originally posted by hemant

what is framing, and what is the best way to do framing.

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The process of framing is intended to eliminate what is
unessential in the motion picture, to direct the spectators
attention to what is important, and to give it special meaning
and force.

As good an explanation as I've read.

Framing is only showing what you want the audience to see. It's
not just a matter of getting the right stuff in the frame, it's creating
an interesting visual experience for the viewer.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)