Alright, I have my light equipment, but now I have one problem...

I think I might have stated something in an earlier post about this, but I'm not sure so I'll re-state for anyone who can help me.

Basically I don't have a power outlet for my lighting kit since I will be in the bush.

Do I just resort to a portable generator, or do I have any other options.

Generators are extremely noisey so I was thinking about using some old matresses to block the sound and lots of extension cables to keep it as far away from the set as needed.

Can anyone offer any advice or has had experience in this?

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

thats a tricky one...I would like to film in the night aswell but don't know how.

And a matress isn't gonna stop a generator from making noise, dude. It's gonna piss you off more cause it's still there.

Ugh...I remember TizzyEntertainment talked about some movie he made that involved shooting at night...with a car....

maybe he can explain...look for his post on that.

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While they're expensive, and not entirely convient, you can purchase portable spotlights with from anywhere to a million, to four million candle power. As I said before, if you need a whole lighting kit, you could run up quite a bill. Not to mention that their battery power is fairly limited.

Anyway, they make good lights, so you might wanna check 'em out; you can get them at Walmart or Target, or whatever.

is to go buy an inverter from a hardware store, which converts your dc outlet in your car to an ac outlet, allowing you to plug in lights. The lights are then run on your car battery or engine, depending if it is turned on.

For the inverters that plug in directly to your car battery, you can get thousands of watts to light up your set, or just plug into your cigarette lighter for a couple hundred watts.

Either way, just run some extention cords from you car to your set and you could light up your scene with minimum noise coming from the car.

how much does the inverter thing cost, monodynm-err...however you spell your name...

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so i can just have my engine running and it will go off that ? Is it hard to plug it into your car battery, I don't have experience doing this.. so sorry if it's a dumb question.
and yeah how much ?

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

I've used inverters and gennys before. They work okay. You're going to need one of the inverters that run off the battery directly. The cigarette plug ones only go to a very few hundred watts. And you don't *have* to have your car running if noise is a problem. The inverter runs off the battery. You should run the car between takes to charge the batt, however. That said, you'll get more power out of the inverter if you have the car on because the altenator will give it more voltage than the batt (about one volt or 8 percent more). It all depends on your lighting setup, though. Count watts, and expect to only use 60-80 percent of what the inverter claims they put out (they measure them with peak output, not continuous). Flourecent lighting tends to be much lower wattage per lum so that's a good light to run off a genny or inverter. Speaking of genny's they work good, but screw your sound track. They do tend to power more lights and can be carried to more remote locations than a car can drive. You can run a long extension cable, but you loose power the longer the cable is. It's all a trade off. For several setups, I decided to shot MOS and keep the genny close by for conveinince, then ADR and build all the sound in post.

I can't wait till I can afford to hire a genny truck and operator for my shoots. That would be sweet.

joren

where can I find an "inverter"? And is that the actuall name I can ask for? And how much?

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Yeah, Joren has it. Inverters are a good way to go for the lights you have. The Geni probablly wouldnt work (unless it was a film Geni) Your average geni fluctuates in power, causing lights to have a slow strobe. Use the inverter (you should be able to find them at any Home Depot) You could also use car headlightrs. Try bouncing them off a bounce board to soften them a bit. If you can (especially if your in the woods) try and get some lights in the background, like hitting trees or something to help create depth wihtin the scene. You dont want it to look like a lack hole behind them. If that was the case, you could shoot that in a big dark room. Establish where everyone is. Good luck.
R. Michael

"Luck, is when opportunity, meets preperation." "There are 3 sides to every story. Yours, mine, and the truth, and none of us are lying" -Robert Evans

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yeah dude, they are inverters. ...but remember, do the wattage math. The best model is a 700 maximum watt inverter. If you look closer, it's only 560 continuos watts. So, as an example, you could power only one 500w home depot light. If that's all you need, sweet--go for it. But normally I use at *least* two lights per acting area and more lights for the background. All I'm saying is 560w is nothing for lighting a night scene outdoors.

You need the poratwattz 3000
http://www.4lots.com/product.asp?3=31
It's got 2500 watts continuous. Then you can run 5+ smaller lights On the down side, with these big power inverters, you gotta look at amperage draw. 2500 watts devided by 12 volts is 208+ amps (not including heat loss). You're gonna need to run 2 gauge or better wire at short lengths (ought or double ought at longer lenghts) and you may even need dual batteries and a high output alternator so you don't run out of power.

Trying to show you the big picture.
joren

*Edit: oh, and I'm not trying to contradict Tizzy, but with my Miller 2600 watt genny, I've run incadecent and flouros with no noticable power or lighting fluctuation (after initially turning on the lamp). Haven't put HMIs to the test, but they have their own power regulator, don't they? It's not the cheapest genny--about $1000 for it, but it's also not nearly the quality or capacity of a film genny truck.

Thanks for all the info guys, this is shedding some new light on things (no pun intended).

So I have a dual 1000 watt halogen work light I want to use to shine thru the tree's and create a back light. Then I have a small 500 watt halogen light that i want to use on the subject itself.

What do u think I should go for , generator or inverter with this set up ?
Another thing, should I use wax paper on the small 500 watt one to diffuse light and reflect it back on to the subject?

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

In my experience with halogen lights, 500 is too damn much. 1000 even more so, but if your lighting a large background, they can work great. I'd personally replace the 500 watt bulb with a 300 watt(for your subject). Only then could you put a handmade softbox or wax paper 2-3 feet in front of it. If you do have a working softbox/diffusion on the light, then you don't need to further reflect it. That's only if you don't want to put difusion or if you test the rig for a good 40 minutes and the diffusion melts or catches fire. be sure to do that first..I've melter a gel on my halogen lights before.

Thanks for the heads up on the diffuse part, I will have to play around.


The shot takes place on a bench on a path in the middle of the forest, so I want to put my dual 1000 watts far far behind the subject off to the left a bit to replicate the moon etc.


But should I go for the inverter or the generator to power all this stuff ?!?!? Dual 1000 watts, plus a 500 watt light!! HELP!!

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

that crap is really expensive too...

what I would do is put a stupid bench in my backyard and *create" the forest path or whatever...then ya just need a couple extension cords...only what I'd do though.

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I tried turning up the shutter speed like someone suggested and worked great and I discovered a host of other functions on my videocamera that will help me inthe future

quote:

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what I would do is put a stupid bench in my backyard and *create" the forest path or whatever...then ya just need a couple extension cords...only what I'd do though.

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Now that you mention it, I was pretty tempted to do that. But my main reason I want to film it on this bike bath, is for
1) the scenery is amazing and most of the movie takes place on this path.
2) The path way is paved and I can use some wicked dolly shots.
3) I wrote the script keeping budget in mind, so I had to pick a "spooky" yet creative spot for the murders. And the bike trail was the best bet for the above reason.

I think am I going to test out a inverter. I am going to Canadian Tire today to check it out.

Since I have a total of 1500 watts to power I better do some more research first!

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

Did you already buy one?

And if you didn't, whats your price range for one?

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Well I went to CT to check out inverters.

The highest one they had was 700 watts. I need something that will power 2500 watts max, 1500 watts min.

So I asked around and actually found out that I have access to a few generators for free!

But this means that I must devise away to either try and kill the sound of it or do all my sound for the scene in post production. It's a murder scene so no dialogue, just lots of sound foley's so I think I'll be able to pull it off.

Anymore tips and suggestions before I venture off ?

I'll have screen shots up around monday.

If you don't look I'll force you to _=_

They offer it for free? Thats a good deal. 'Cause I was gonna say like how the hell you are gonna get a car onto a little pathway...I dunno...I've never been to the location.

But yeah, do your sound in post production if there is already no "needed" sound in the scene, unless there's dialogue which might look kinda shi/tty if re recorded in V/O

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