LCA Show New Lights at BVE

BVE at Earls Court proved to be a great success showing a number of new and innovative lights to the film, TV and photographic industry. The stand was busy throughout the exhibition with a lot of interest being shown in all the new equipment.  

On show was the latest K5600 Alpha 1600 alongside their Soft Tube (below). The shot on the right shows the Alpha 1600 at strike up.

The K5600 Big Eye was also exhibited. The two images below show the light lit and at strike up.

LCA's Big Softie, daylight LED light source, made an appearance with its 118cm circular hole in the middle.

LCA also presented the latest innovation from Cinesphere - the CineMagicTube which allows you to run both daylight and tungsten from the same tube!






Lastly, but no means least, Litepanels Hilio, 1x1 and Sola 4 were also on show (below)

For more information on any of the above lights, please contact the team at LCA on +44 (0)20 8833 7600 or sales@lcauk.com.

www.lcauk.com

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."

 

 

  

 

It's an Honor for Briese

The Briese 140 has been in action once again. Ed Moore, DoP, needed a certain light to do a specific job and tells us why he used the Briese 140:

"This shoot was for a national TV advert featuring Honor Blackman. I needed a very flattering, powerful key light that would enable me to balance interior levels against a large set of windows with the minimum of NDing required. The Briese Focus 140 was the perfect tool for the job - it has an extremely effective reflector which coupled with the 2.5KW HMI lamp provided ample amounts of light... but more to the point the design of the unit and its diffusion produced a very lovely quality of light that worked fantastically.  The size of the 140 was a perfect match for a seated subject a few meters away."

Technical specs for the Briese 140

Lamp options: 1200w MSR daylight, 2500w MSR daylight, 2000w tungsten, Low volt tungsten (Equivalent to 5000w)
Standard kit diffusion: 1/4 Grid Cloth, 1/2 Grid Cloth
Optional diffusion: 1/4 silk, Full silk
Honeycomb option
Dimensions: Diameter 140cm, Depth 104cm, Weight 8.2kg

For more information on the Briese 140, contact LCA - Lights, Camera, Action on +44(0) 20 88 33 7600 or email sales@lcauk.com. Visit our website at www.lcauk.com

To contact Ed Moore, Director of Photography;

07980 524136 | http://www.edmooredop.com

LCA's New Litepanel Battery Kit

LCA is proud to announce it's first step into the manufacturing of equipment for the film and TV industry.

First to come out of the blocks is the Litepanels Battery Kit, which has many great features including a combined charger and PSU which allows you to run the unit on AC and charge the battery at the same time. Not only that, battery charge time is fast - just 2 hours!

 Features include:

• High Power 100W Lithium
• Fast Charge (2 hours) 
• Overload Protection (auto reset)
• Twin Outputs (can power 2 heads)
• Fits all Litepanel 1x1 models
• Combined Charger and PSU – allows you to run the unit on AC and charge the battery at the same time (no other charger does) 
• No additional mounting plate required 
• Push Button Voltage Meter
• Conforms to Air Transport Regulations(see - www.idx-europe.co.uk/pdfs/other/IDX_transport_declaration.pdf)
  
  
   
  Technical Specification
  
  Kit Contents 
• 1 x 100w Battery
• 1 x Charger / PSU 
• 1 x Charger Mains Lead
• 1 x Universal Mounting Bracket
• 1 x DC Jumper Lead
• 2 x Bracket Screws
  
  Battery
• Lithium Manganese
• Lithium Content - 7.9g
• Nominal Voltage - 25.2V
• Running Time - approx 2.4 hours
• Auto Disconnect at 15V
• Internal self resetting electronic fuse
• Dimensions (cm) - L155 x H85 x W52
• Weight - 764g 
• Twin Output Connectors – 2.4mm socket
• Voltage Meter – 5 segment LED
  
  Charger
• Input Voltage – 110v to 250v
• Charge Time - approx 2hrs
• Dimensions (cm) – L160 x H75 x W52
• Weight – 512g
• Input Connector – IEC panel mount
• Output Connector – 2.4mm plug on flying lead
• Charging & Charged LED indicators

The Litepanels Battery Kit is now available to purchase - simply call the office on +44 (0)20 8833 7600 or email sales@lcauk.com.


The Litepanels Battery Kit - made in Great Britain by LCA - Lights, Camera, Action

It's a Briese...Lighting Boy Band, JLS

Recently shot on the banks of the River Thames, the latest JLS music video was lit on the south bank near London Bridge by Briese Lighting's 140.

August Jakobsson , DoP, used the Briese as it was the ideal large soft directional beauty light - it was easy to move and rig on a mega boom and created a beautiful soft pool of light wrapping around the 4 singers. 

 

The Briese 140 H specs:

Lamp options: 

1200w MSR daylight, 2500w MSR daylight, 2000w tungsten, Low volt tungsten (Equivalent to 5000w)
 

Standard kit diffusion: 

1/4 Grid Cloth, 1/2 Grid Cloth
 

Optional diffusion: 

1/4 silk, Full silk
Honeycomb option
 

Dimensions: 

Diameter 140cm, Depth 104cm, Weight 8.2kg

 

 

For more information on Briese Lighting, contact the LCA team on +44 (0)20 8833 7600 or visit our website http://www.lcauk.com

DoP David Procter's on Set with K5600 Alphas

 David Procter, DoP, gives us an insight into a recent shoot for SKY using the K5600 Alphas.

GARDEN SCENE

The client wanted a sunlit garden exterior and there was no option of either shooting abroad or for a studio build. The camera moves 360 degrees through the scene so I knew that operator shadows would quickly become a problem.

To get up high we looked into the Luminys Softsun units, crane mounted, but unfortunately it was beyond the restraints of the budget. The next realistic solution was a pair of Alpha18k which I knew I could take to the top of a 5-Stage Stratosafe and tilt sharply downwards without the usual problems of HMI tilt limit.

Carefully flagging the spread from both units, double shadows were avoided and using half CTS I was able to achieve a believable sunlight effect over the scene. I wrapped the exposed uprights of the stratosafes with a faux bark that we had manufactured by Palmbrokers so that if caught in the back of shot, they passed as thin tree-trunks.

I was even able to evoke an optical flare as the camera swung into the lights, further selling, the summer's afternoon aesthetic. The Apha18Ks were the perfect tools for the job, on budget.

STATION SCENE

For the train station location, on which I used three Alpha4K units, we were shooting on an operational train platform with strict limitations on light position & space.

Whilst there is rigging space in the platform awning, there was pigeon netting which we were under strict instruction not to touch. Once again we had a 360 degree field of view on a wide lens and hence had very little space to hide lights.

As it was a very particular set of demands, I looked into the photometrics of all lights that could physically be concealed from their shot, even the Kinoflo Vistabeam 600 didn't give enough footcandles.

Due to the Alpha 4K's slim-line design and unique tilt ability, I sincerely believe that no other light on the market could have achieved what we needed without compromising the shot.

Production Companies: Capture / Still Productions

Producers: Matthew Jones & Sylvie Campenois
Agency: WCRS

Director: Gary Salter

DoP: David Procter

Gaffer: Aaron Szogi

Lighting Supplied by: Panalux / Piximotion

Camera: Filmscape Media