All about light

Any team member can contribute to the energy transition on set. A key role plays the energy demand. In the Green Film Shooting interview Cinematographer Maher Maleh speaks about requirements and solutions.

 

What contributions can cinematographer make to green production?
It begins with selecting equipment. There are many battery-powered lighting systems to choose from. When I create the lighting list, I order energy-efficient lights so that we don’t have to use a diesel generator. In most cases, tungsten lights can be replaced by LEDs. 3,200K tungsten lights are hardly in demand nowadays. The bigger units are HMIs, because LEDs can’t cope with certain luminosities. While HMIs produce strong, precise lighting, most LEDs produce very soft light. Skin tones appear more beautiful with HMI or tungsten light than they do with LEDs, but that can be fixed with either filters during the shoot or later in color grading.

 

What part does the gaffer play?
Cinematographers are free to choose specific lights, but they are well advised to listen to their gaffers, because the gaffer plays a large role in the creative work. Even so, HMIs are often kept running during a lunch break, because it takes more time to cover them in case of rain. As long as the lights are on, the rain can‘t harm them. That leads to the problem of an 18 kW light on one phase, which requires twice that amount on the other two phases so that the generator won’t be damaged by an unbalanced load.

 

 

How do batteries address this problem?
Battery storage is electronically operated. On set, only one phase is needed because most of the lights run on a single-phase current. Diesel generators were developed for operation on construction sites, where three phase is required, but they were not designed to meet the requirements of film shoots. As far as E-generators are concerned, it doesn’t matter how much electrical energy they consume on each phase, because the system automatically balances itself.

 

How is this transition process working out in the industry?
It varies from country to country. According to a recent study by VTFF (the association of film and broadcast suppliers in Germany), 93 percent of generators on film sets don’t meet the required ecological production standards. We have too much electrical power on set. In many cases, much smaller generators or e-batteries would suffice. In the U.S., you can see a 5kW Voltstack on almost every film set. Portable Electrics has about 900 units operating in the field. There’s no longer a demand for a 5 kW Diesel-Honda, because batteries have become normal. Over here, it’s still something special.

 

Photos: © Courtesy of Maher Maleh