490 Gaffer Attends CINEGEAR 2018
/Local 490,52 Gaffer and Electrician Eddie Cohen recently attended the 2018 CINEGEAR EXPO. The Expo is the premier event for the technology, entertainment and media industry. It happened this year May 31st-June 3rd on the lot at Paramount Pictures in LA. Here are his highlights;
Eddie Cohen at the Sourcemaker display.
SOURCEMAKER: This company does it all.
They make Lighting Balloons in a variety of sizes: from 6.5' Cubes to 12' X 26' Tubes. They put all types of light sources inside: Tungsten, HMI,
Combo Tungsten/HMI, Sodium Vapor, Metal Halide or LED. They also make 4' Fabric "china" Balls that can take HMI or Tungsten Bi-post bulbs.
They make LED Blankets that can be hung on stands, or ceilings or velcro-ed to frames in full tungsten. full daylight. Hybrid. or RGB.
They make LED Tubes 2' and 4' , bi-color, indoor/outdoor, which are made to retro fit into KINO fixtures , dimmable with standard dimmers or RATPAC dimmers.
They also make LED ribbon. www.sourcemakerled.com
This was an impressive new entry to LED lighting design. Essentially an umbrella filled with LED's that can then be diffused and crated. It comes in a variety of sizes from handheld eyelight fill size to a big soft source that can be boomed in because of its lightweight design with a ballast separate from the emitters. It was created by DP Tim Hudson and it resembled the beautiful Briese softlight that still photographers use.
Image courtesy of Arri
These versatile LED flatpanel fixtures are powerful chameleons which are taking over set lighting worldwide. They can be any color in the Rosco/Lee catalog as well as the full range of traditional 2900K to 6000K 'film' lighting with built in plus and minus green control. In other words, they eliminate the need for gels. The smaller ones S30 and S60 can light any office set. And the large combinations S120 and S360 have the power to produce daylight sources that rival HMI's. Plus they are designed to be controlled by DMX so that brightness, color temp and even "lighting effects" such as color crossfades, bursts, and patterns (think police flash, tv effects) can be handled by a dimmer board operator or even a Gaffer with an Ipad and a wireless DMX kit using the Cintenna or similar Lumenradio receiver.
The current leader in DMX dimming, wired or wireless, is RatPac of Van Nuys CA.
They began with a design of a 'lunch box' that had 6 - 20A dimmers built into it with 100A Bates going in and out just like a traditional lunch box. They difference was that it had a DMX in/out so that the lights plugged in could be controlled by a dimmer board. This revolutionized controllable set lighting as the packs were quiet enough to live just outside the set wall eliminating the need for hundreds of feet of Socopex going to large noisy dimmer racks outside the stage. All practicals and related fixtures could then be controlled from a central dimming location or by Ipad if wireless DMX receivers were employed. RATPAC has small dimmer racks that can control 12 LED sources from one pack and a new dimmer rack that can control 20K's as well. RATPAC has agreed to sponsor a DMX dimming seminar for Local 490!
RATPAC 220V
RATPAC/CINETENNA KIT
Ratpac Dimmer Board
Litegear has become a leader of compact, lightweight LED lighting products.
Their Litemats 1 through 4 are workhorses on film and TV sets for creating soft, easily placed sources that can be dimmed and color corrected from one small ballast. I was impressed with their new handheld Litemat 1 which could be an excellent 'walk and talk' light using a small lightweight battery pack (see picture)
Litegear Handheld
They also showed excellent LED ribbon, a new LED Balloon and
LITEGEAR/KINO IMAGE 87
LITEGEAR has teamed up with KINO to develop a new IMAGE 87.
Quasar Tubes
Quasar showed a good collection of well made LED tubes in a variety of sizes and bi-color/RGB combinations. They also offer very good battery powered LED tubes that come in handy in tricky rigging situations.
Velvet LED
Another impressive entry, and new to me, is Velvet LED. Their gear struck me as a cross between a Skypanel and a DIVA light with none of the disadvantages of either and an important advantage, it claims to be waterproof!
I see this as a great traveling light for gaffers of industrials or documentaries, since it is bi-color, low power, high output, diffused,controllable and can be battery operated. Plus it has it's own wireless DMX system and is also compatible with RatPac.
HIVE LED Spot
This company makes LED spotlights similar in brightness and power to 400W Jokers plus they accept all sorts of accessories such as as Westcott soft boxes. Since most LED lighting companies make LED softlights, this one is worth noting if you want something more punchy.
Mole X1X
The godfather of Hollywood lighting had three new products that impressed me.
An LED version of the 2k zip light, low power, full spectrum, soft and durable.
Mole LED Zip
Also a rugged looking 1' X 1' Litepanel type light that accepts V-mount batteries.
They are also making LED Skypans!
Photo provided by Chroma
This is a product worth knowing about when incorporating lighting into set design. It's essentially a ground row or overhead cyc strip light that is full color and intensity programmable.
Avatars on display at CINEGEAR 2018
That's my report. They we even advertising a movie I gaffed at recently, Eight Grade.
Eight Grade, a film due out this July.
Check out the websites for more info or feel free to contact me if you have questions and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll be letting members know when we have the opportunity to hold a DMX lighting seminar.
Fraternally yours,
490 Treasurer Gaffer, Best Boy, Electrician