ARRI L7-C

          I am really excited to report on the new ARRI L-Series LED light. I have always wanted to use an all in one Light. This New Focusable Fresnel has brought much needed efficiency to the Broadcast studios around the world. One of the biggest things you will notice is the cost savings more than anything with lamp replacements and maintenance.

           The L7-C LED source produces the equivalent of a 750W tungsten light while drawing only 220W for a savings of a whopping 75% over similar output tungsten lights. Low heat means lower AC bills in the studio. You can actually run 9 L7s off of a 20A, 110V outlet as opposed to two 1,000W or three 650W standard fixtures. The full-spectrum of the L7-C is fully tune-able, the white light can be adjusted for different skin tone. With the ability to adjust color tempter, plus and minis green (green and Magenta shift) it fits well with mixed-light environments especially in a news broadcast that have large windows that look out into the streets that changes threw out the day, you only need to change the color temp and not have to worry about adding jells. On top of all that you can also have color effects and create moods and feels in a broadcast environment. As well you are able to place certain lights for different talent or news anchors that has different skin tone and the L7 is the only LED light that can come the closest to real tungsten lamps in color tempter.  The L7 is fixable to 15deg to 50deg spot to flood and works just like the other Arri lights. The L7 comes in two colors, Silver and Black. 

With the $2500 Price tag I feel this is a great light in a broadcast or studio environment. The L7 is a light thats been a dream to lighting designers and directors for a long time. 

Great Job Arri. 

Happy Light.  

If you would like to know more Check out this Youtube clip from ARRI at NAB 2012 or click here.

DIY Film Lighting

Hello Lighting people! I know many of you guys are starting out in the film industry, most out of college or in college, which your going to have a heavy school loan to pay back. So I am going to talk about DIY (do it yourself) Lighting. Most film lights are over $500 and up. One there EZer to control and second there P.A drop proof and can withstand the riggers of a film set. You also want to consider the fact, if you go into a clients office with Home Depot lighting, your not going to look professional. So what I am going to tell you about is going to be perfect for indie films and so on.  Home Depot is a DIY’s best friend. I can spend all day coming up with ideas of lighting and rigs for my camera and still have money in the bank. 

So where do you start looking for cheep DIY lighting. Well the Home Depot 500 Watt Halogen work lights are perfect for bounce. For single light with no stand, start out at $6.00 and up. I like the one with the stand and two lights. That goes for $35.00. I also modify the Home Depot shop lights, I cut the safety guard out so there wont be any problems with shadow, also I take out the glass to keep the light cooler.  I know what your saying, “Your exposing the bulb!” and I say” Be carful with handling them.” If you haven’t noticed I just made a Lowel Tota flood light which goes for $126.00 opposed to the $35.00 for a 1k open face Home Depot special. 

The other Lights you can use are commercial electric 2-florescent light for $29.00 which is exactly like a 2 bank Kino that you would pay $700.00 and up. You just have to know your Kelvin Scale to figure out the color temp you need for the Bulbs. I also modify the commercial brand and put tin foil behind the tubes. 

The last light I will talking about is the all powerful and portable clamp light. I find these work really well as a key or fill depending on the bulb you put in them, also you can change color temp to fit your need. You can use the clamp light the way they are, or you can buy a Chinese lantern for $9.00 and have a Beautiful soft light right out of the camera frame. 

I know I did not talk about the stands, but if you get creative enough you can find ways to mount your lights. So go to Home Depot and have fun coming up with ideas for new ways of saving money. 

Happy lighting!