Week 4: Lighting (Kits and Safety)

This week we focused on lighting. Lighting is a key aspect to making good quality films as it creates a higher contrast in the image making it easier for the camera to focus on the subject of the image. Good lighting removes the change of having under-exposed images. Lighting also allows for another layer of creativity as you can play around with shadows, colour, contrast and highlights.

The lighting kits we can rent out from the kit desk consist of 3x Arri 800Watt ‘Redheads’, 3x portable lighting stands and an RCD trip switch. Soon a socket tester will be added as well so we can check how stable the mains electricity is before we use the socket- this will prevent an electrical surge which if not protected against could burst a bulb. We can also get a tube of colour gels/filters which can be used for creative effect.

Before we can think about how we’re going to use lighting creatively we have to think logistically and plan how we will transport the lights and how long that will take, we also have to plan for set up time and then plan for a longer pack up time as lights should be left to stand and cool for 20mins before being put away.

Safety wise when using the lights you must always wear gloves to prevent burns. Keep lights away from flammable materials, curtains and other furniture. Allow 20mins cool down time (as stated earlier) and never handle old bulbs with your fingers when changing them out for new ones. Then in terms of electrical safety an RCD trip switch should always be used to protect against electrical surges, however to further prevent this occurring sockets should always be tested before use. Don’t overload sockets and always extend cables to avoid overheating through electrical induction else you risk the cables melting. Finally ensure the cables are gaffer taped down if they lie across any access routes. Use nylon rope or velcro on lights to tie cable to the lighting stand pole in order to take tension off the cable, then feed the rest of the cable under one leg of the stand so help protect the stand from toppling over. To further prevent the lighting stand from falling over make sure the legs of the tripod are parallel to the floor.

Before shooting it’s also helpful to consider the weather, specifically wind and rain as that will impact the safety of using lights and lighting stands.

That’s all for lighting safety, in my next post I’ll discuss lighting techniques and how to use colour gels and filters.