The Sniper Rifle of Lights
45sThe metaphor of a light as a sniper rifle is memorable and visually engaging, making it a strong hook for viewers interested in filmmaking.
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In this video, John Salmon, a gaffer on the One Take and VGHS sets, gives a tour of the lighting equipment used for the One Take video. He explains the purpose and characteristics of each light, from the precise Source 4 Leko to the soft, ambient gem balls, and shares budget-friendly tips for filmmakers.
Chapters
[00:00]
Key Light: Source 4 Leko
The Source 4 Leko is a precise light, likened to a sniper rifle, using 750 watts and adjustable blades for shaping.
[00:40]
Flicker Effects via Shadow Maker
A shadow maker (flicker box) moderates power to create flickering effects, simulating a fluorescent system coming apart.
[01:05]
Gels for Fluorescent Look
Green and blue gels are used on lights to enhance the fluorescent, haunted house aesthetic.
[01:25]
Gem Balls for Soft Ambience
China balls (gem balls) provide soft, broad light (like a shotgun) and are flattering for ambience.
[01:55]
Budget-Friendly Lighting
Gem balls are inexpensive (a pack of ten for $10–$20) and easy to assemble, making them a great DIY lighting option.
Mentioned in this Video
Tutorial Checklist
💡 Key Takeaways
🔧
Key Light as a Sniper Rifle
The Source 4 Leko is described as a sniper rifle for its precision, setting the tone for the lighting philosophy.
🔧
Flicker Box for Effects
The shadow maker (flicker box) is key to creating the haunted house flicker effect, a creative solution.
00:40
📊
Gels for Fluorescent Feel
Green and blue gels are used to mimic fluorescent lighting, showing attention to color detail.
01:05
🔧
Gem Balls as Shotguns
The shotgun vs. sniper rifle analogy clarifies the difference between broad and focused light.
01:25
📊
Budget-Friendly Gem Balls
Gem balls are affordable and easy to assemble, making them a great DIY option for filmmakers.
01:55Full Transcript
[00:00] Hey, I'm John Salmon, I'm the GP on the One Take and also on VGHS. And I'm going to give you a tour of the units that we use for this One Take video. So, to my right what you'll see is what's called an ellipsoidal source 4 leco.
[00:12] It uses about 750 watts and if this light was a weapon, it would be a sniper rifle. It's actually my personal favorite kind of light because you can be very specific in terms of what's going, where the light does go and where it doesn't go.
[00:25] I'll show you. You pan up, I adjust these blades, I can completely control the shape of this light. You see up there? You can be very specific. It's almost like a laser beam. Now, all these lights are plugged into something called a shadow maker.
[00:40] What a shadow maker does, it's also called a flicker box. And what it does is it moderates the amount of power that's going into the light at any given time. So that's how we're creating these flickering effects. The effect we were going for was that it's a fluorescent system that's coming apart, almost like a haunted house.
[00:53] but fluorescents weren't going to be flattering, you can't really flicker them. It's much better if you just use simple power like this. So that's how we created this effect. All of these lights have different colors of green and blue gels.
[01:05] That's once again to give you kind of a fluorescent feeling. And then all around you, you'll see what are called China balls or gem balls. These are paper balls They have 200 watt bulbs inside of them The reason for that is we also using gels so we have to use very powerful light bulbs More powerful than your average household light bulb because a lot of the intensity
[01:25] of the light is reduced when you put it through a gel. Gem balls are more like shotguns. They're very broad in their scope. They spread out, they're almost like a grenade, right? They're very soft. They're not necessarily specific and sharp, and they're much harder to control as a result,
[01:41] but they're also, you'll notice, much more flattering. It's very soft light. So you use something like this to create ambience in a room. And the nice thing to know about gem balls is this, for you filmmakers out there who are trying to do this on a budget, you can buy these for a pack of ten.
[01:55] Normally you buy these for a pack of ten for like ten dollars, sometimes twenty dollars depending on where you're buying them. Then you just buy a light bulb and you buy a little socket that goes in there and you have a decent light source that's really flattering.
[02:07] You put like three of those together and you have almost like vanity lighting. It can be really, really nice. So definitely if you're building out your own Home Depot light kit, these are a great trick and they're inexpensive and totally usable. You can use them at home with very little power.
[02:21] So yeah, that's the gist of it.
