Stop Action

[Corbettlight]

I am lighting an upcoming show that is going to require some stop-action fighting and such. My question is whether or not my incandescent lights will be able to fade up and down fast enough for this to look good. If not, renting some strobes is a possibilty.

 

[MNicolai]

Doubtful. Incandescents don't compare when it comes to on/off times. The filaments take too long to heat up and too long to cool down. You'll probably want to look at either an Atomic 3000 strobe or LED's.

Depending on how bright you need the light to be, LED's have an incredibly fast on/off time that can replicate a strobe, but also provide more options to you for color mixing and general wash lighting. They may not have the same flash intensity, but I've used ColorBlast 12's on a couple occasions and they can be pretty impressive.

 

[Corbettlight]

Great. One more question - I've never used strobes, can they stay on for longer than just a flash? For example, could I have them on for 1 second then off for 2 seconds and so on?

 

[seanandkate]

Great. One more question - I've never used strobes, can they stay on for longer than just a flash? For example, could I have them on for 1 second then off for 2 seconds and so on?

Nope. Think of strobes as the fastest recycling camera flash you have ever used. You might be better off with finding/renting/borrowing an instrument that has a douser. The lamp never goes out, the light from it just gets blocked, so it can go from off to on and back lightning fast. I think even a low-end Trackspot can do that, but there are people here with a whole lot more experience in that area, so I will defer to their expertise!

 

[soundman]

Some strobes, like the Atomic 3K, have blinder mode. This allows them to be on all the time. The issue is that if this is a long term effect they risk thermaling out. Meaning it gets too hot inside and then needs a bit of time to cool down. How long is the total effect?

 

[Corbettlight]

I actually just talked to the director and said it would be lights up for 3 seconds, then black for up to 10 seconds, then up again for 3 seconds and so on. It seems to me as though incandescents would work fine here with a fade time of zero. The up-time and down-time doesn't have to be absolutely instantaneous, I suppose.

 

[Footer]

One thing that will get you a bit faster response is to pre-heat your fixtures in the previous cue to 5% or 10%. That should allow you a bit more response. Also, the fixture you use for this should have the shortest lamp possible. I would stay away from 1k or 2k fixtures and stay with Source 4's if you got them. Those will respond much faster.

 

[Corbettlight]

I don't have any 1K or 2K fixtures - we are very short on power. I have 575W S4 Jr.'s, 500W Colortran 5/50's, and 500W Shakespeares. Also, above stage I have 750W S4 PARs and 6" Fresnels.

 

[Footer]

I don't have any 1K or 2K fixtures - we are very short on power. I have 575W S4 Jr.'s, 500W Colortran 5/50's, and 500W Shakespeares. Also, above stage I have 750W S4 PARs and 6" Fresnels.

Stick with your S4's for this one. Preheat, go, preheat, go. You will probably notice the lag on the lighting going out then it coming up.

 

[Corbettlight]

Ok, I think it will work just fine. When you say "stick with your S4s", do you mean just the Jr.'s, or the PARs as well?

 

[cdub260]

Ok, I think it will work just fine. When you say "stick with your S4s", do you mean just the Jr.'s, or the PARs as well?

It doesn't matter whether you use the Jr.'s or the Pars. What matters is how you lamp them. Unless you really need the added intensity from running 750 watters, lamp your fixtures at either 575 watts or even better, 375 watts if you think you can get the needed intensity out of these. The lower wattage lamps have less lag time in achieving full intensity due to the smaller filaments.

 

[Corbettlight]

Due to our shortage on dimmers, we really need the brightness of the 750s. Otherwise I would. Also, for these scenes, the two S4 Jr.'s might not be enough, so I might need to throw in some of the PARs.