ETC Source Fours

Hey all! First and foremost, thanks for all of your suggestions on my last post.

There's a section in this music vid that requires quite a bit of light.

It's a whitewashed room (huge, approximately 5000 sq. ft.) Now, I have access to a couple of 12k HMI PARs, but I want to augment these instruments with some other PARs. I don't have enough money left in the budget to rent additional HMI units. Then I remembered something.

I used to do theatrical lighting, and used ETC Source Four instruments all the time. The PARs/PARNels seem like they would be perfect. I've got a couple of questions about these fixtures, however.

A) Colour temp. The HPL lamp that they use is a 575w lamp with the equivalent of a 1k tungsten output. The Ushio website says that they have a colour temp between 3050K and 3250K (depending on the lamp), but they read much cooler when I shot a test using 35MM still film. I shot a side-by-side comparison of the S4 PAR and a 1k Arri open face unit, and the Arri looks warmer. My colour temp meter reads 3250K on the dot.

Assuming my meter is correct, what will I have to do to bring the S4 PAR up to 5600K?

B) Anyone know of a softbox for these things? Chimera, etc...

Thanks again!

Henry Gretzinger, DP NYC

> what will I have to do to bring the S4 PAR up to 5600K?

There are Source Four "fronts" designed to fit on K5600's 400W jokers that should do a great job for you. This will certainly be an inexpensive rental compared to larger HMI PARs, and gives you a lot more light than the regular Source Fours.

>B) Anyone know of a softbox for these things? Chimera, etc...

Can't imagine why you'd want to do this with a Source Four - other than stretching your limited lighting budget by multi-purposing fixtures, I guess.....

If you went the Joker route, you can pull the light out of the S4
attachment and put it in a Chimera.

>There are Source Four "fronts" designed to fit on K5600's 400W Jokers >that should do a great job for you.

What do they call those again? Bug-A-Beam or something. I was referring to the Source Four PARs, however. I don't think that the Joker system will work in the PARs. I know they work in the Lekos though. Back to the colour temp question: what sort of colour would I need to drop to get from 3250K to 5600k (or thereabouts)? Also, do you know of a colour temp chart that relates gels to colour temps? I thought Lee might have one.

>Can't imagine why you'd want to do this with a Source Four - other than >stretching your limited lighting budget by multi-purposing fixtures, I >guess.....

HA! I understand your confusion now. :-) I would never put a softbox on a Leko. I'm not even sure if a softbox is appropriate on a S4 PAR in this case. Probably just bounce’ em off the wall. But if I was to get like a half dozen of these (they cost between $150 and $275) then I would want the option to use one or two of them with a softbox for soft keying purposes. Maybe even use a PARNel as a kicker or backlight! I love the way they look on stage, and I'm fairly confident in the fact that I can make them look good on film.

Thanks again!

Henry Gretzinger, DP NYC

Henry asked, "Back to the colour temp question: what sort of colour would I need to drop to get from 3250K to 5600k (or thereabouts)?"

You will need a Full CTB gel. Eats up quite a bit of light though.

Toby Birney
DP
Vilnius, Lithuania

> was referring to the Source Four PARs, however. I don't think that the >Joker system will work in the PARs.

Doh! I see Source Four and I automatically think of the ellipsoidal's...

George Hupka
Director/DP
Downstream Pictures
Saskatoon, Canada

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