K5600 is certainly no 'Casualty' on set!

Jaz Castleton, the lead DP on BBC's long running 'Casualty', spoke to LCA about his choice of K5600 lights on the set of Casualty and how they have lived up to expectations. 

"I was first introduced to the K5600 product line by Nick Shapley from LCA, the UK agent for K5600.

At that time I was working on a project to move the long running BBC Drama “Casualty” from its home in Bristol to a brand new studio facility in Cardiff.

Part of the brief was to change from a “Tungsten Set” to Daylight sources, this was to facilitate the combining of the interior and exterior sets and also to explore the possibilities of more energy efficient lighting. This combined with moving over to HD on the light sensitive Arri Alexa camera meant we could look at lower powered light sources.

Nick was keen for me to meet with Marc Galerne MD of K5600 and felt Marc had a range of lamps that would fit my needs.

Well I wasn’t disappointed; little did I know that they had a range of Par and Fresnel HMI lamps from 200w to 18k with a very useful array of accessories, I was previously aware of the Joker Bug range but not of these accessories, they really enhance the versatility of the lamps.

Ultimately we specified a range of Joker Bugs of 200w, 400w and 800w with soft tubes and the Big eye attachments. They have proved to be the right choice with 5 months of service behind them they have lived up to my expectations.

They are compact, have great light output, have proved to be reliable and of excellent quality construction and even the Sound Dept like them, as they are silent!!!!

For Location Filming we also went for the Alpha range of 2.5K/4K and 18K Lamps. I particularly liked the innovative Quartz reflector technology this has led to a very light weight compact lamp head that competes directly with the competition, but with a couple of tricks up their sleeve’s, how about mounting an 18k vertically down with a 160 degree beam angle and a ¼ stop difference across that beam.

With the clear glass lens the Alpha lamps produce a stunning quality shadow due know doubt to that special reflector.

I’m really happy that I went with K5600 they delivered on their promise and turned around a large order in just a few short weeks, both Nick and Marc have been a pleasure to deal with and Marc’s passion for his product is clear to see, constantly on the lookout to improve and innovate.

I look forward to the surprises that K5600 will produce in the future."