Lighting: Basic color temperatures, technical electrical

Question 1

What 3 departments does the Cinematographer manage?

Answer 1

1st Assistant Camera

Lighting - Gaffer: responsible for all electrical support on set

Key Grip: responsible for all non-electrical support on set

Question 2

What is your lighting checklist?

Answer 2

1. What type of light/color temperature?
2. Where to put the light
3. The Amount/intensity of light (Brightness)
4. The Quality of light (how soft/hard)

Question 3

What is the color temperature for Tungsten? Describe its general appearance and name one type of light fixture you can use

Answer 3

3200k
Orange/warm
Arri Fresnel

Question 4

What is the color temperature for Daylight? Name one kind of light fixture you can use

Answer 4

5600k
HMI

Question 5

What color temperature will make lighting appear white to the camera? Name one kind of light fixture you can use

Answer 5

4400k
Kino Flo

Question 6

How would you ensure your shot matches your desired color temperature?

Answer 6

Set your white balance to the Kelvin number that corresponds with the color that you want your whites to appear at.

*Cameras allow you to tell the sensor which colour of light to perceive as white light. This is called white balance. Many cameras have white balance presets and/or allow you to manually set your white balance to the exact Kelvin number

Use in combination with color temp gels

Question 7

What can LED lights do and what can’t they do?

Answer 7

LED replicates ALL light sources so you can achieve any color

But, at high levels LED doesn’t give the same detail

Question 8

Define the following
a) Watts
b) Amps
c) Voltage

Answer 8

a) Watts: Total energy
b) Amps: Traveling energy
c) Voltage: Energy pressure, how much pressure are we forcing to push the electricity out faster

If the source is a bag of water, amps is the measurement of the travelling water (energy)

Watts becomes the total amount of water that’s been collected at the end of the travelling

If you added a 20ib weight to force the water out of the bag a little quicker, that’s voltage

Question 9

What happens when the electrical current overflows?

Answer 9

Melted wires and electrical fires

Question 10

What is North American standard voltage and what do we round it down to?

Answer 10

120 v rounded down to 100v

Question 11

How do you calculate watts and amps?

Answer 11

Watts = amps X volts
Amps = watts/volts (i.e. watts/100 - move 2 decimals)

Question 12

What kind of cable do I need to power a 5000 watt light

Answer 12

watts/volts = amps
so 5000 watts/100 volts = 50 amps cable

Question 13

How many amps does the main disconnect have in total? How many per rod?

Answer 13

600 amps total
200 amps per rod/cable - the green and white have no amps

Question 14

What kind of cable connects to the main disconnect? What else does it connect to and what is this connection called?

Answer 14

Seaway wires
Plugs into the T tower, Camlock

Question 15

What is the significance of the green and white rod?

Answer 15

Green: the path of least resistance (plug in 1st). This is the key to safety so any wild electrical current goes through the ground cable and not a person or something else

White: ‘Neutral’, the return cable

Question 16

Following the hierarchy, what kind of wire connects from the T-tower to another box? What is this box called?

Answer 16

Seaway Wire
175 amp disconnect box

Question 17

What is the significance of the 175 amp disconnect?

Answer 17

This is the last line of protection, it switches off when there’s a problem with the circuit and provides a new limit for your power that caps at 175 amps

Question 18

Following the hierarchy, what kind of wire connects from the 175 amp disconnect to another box? What is this box called? Name 3 of its names

Answer 18

Seaway wires plug into the…
6 by 60
4A box
Load-centre

Question 19

What is the significance of the 6 by 60 box?

Answer 19

This divides the power and keeps track of which lights are working (trouble-shooting)

Question 20

Following the hierarchy, what kind of wire connects the 6 by 60 box to another box? What is this box called and what does it do?

Answer 20

Joy wires
3x20 Dief box - basically the hub for extension cords

Question 21

How many amps can each wire carry

Seaway
Joy
U-ground cable (or AC/extension cord)

Answer 21

Seaway - 200 amps (HOT ones)
Joy - 60 amps
U-ground cable (or AC/extension cord) - 20 amps

Question 22

How do you plug in joy wires?

Answer 22

M-F ;)
Nub to nub

Question 23

What can the green cable be called?

Answer 23

Ground
First and last cable

Question 24

What is a breaker box and what is its significance?

Answer 24

A breaker box is a collection of circuit breakers

1. A circuit breaker is an automatically operated electrical switch that protects the electrical circuit from damage caused by excess current from an overload or short circuit - a breaker interrupts current flow after a fault is detected and allows for a reset
2. Steps down power into a safe usable amount

Question 25

What does a leg/phase/hot refer to?

Answer 25

The amount of amps each circuit breaker/socket can carry
(in a breaker/distro box)

Question 26

Name the 4 main breaker boxes and their legs

Answer 26

Question 27

Briefly define white balance

Answer 27

White balance is a camera setting that establishes the true color of white and adjusts all other colours accordingly

Question 28

What are the 3 main types of color gels?

Answer 28

Color Temperature Gels: comes in Colour Temperature Blue (CTB) and Colour Temperature Orange (CTO). Used to adjust the colour of lights on the Kelvin scale

Diffusion gels: White sheets, used to soften light. Larger diffusion = softer lighting

Party Colours: Nightclub, emergency