Still waiting to get my Aputure 600D delivered, which I ordered in February. At that pace Nanlux might come up with the Evoke 2400 before I'll get my 600D...
Yeah I couldn't wait either. I had my hands on one the seem pretty impressive all tho the Fresnel looks great but I haven't tried them in the field yet nothing like field testing something to see how good it is.
This is rad! Never saw anyone in any industry have every inch of the van planned this much and this way, let alone my own colleagu Gaffer! Great job! But it seems that it is quite difficult to get everything back after the shoot, though..
Wow, I'm amazed at the amount of gear you can fit into that van. It makes sense to not have carts if you're mainly shooting in houses and on stage. As a Chicago based gaffer, I don't think I could ever work with a system that isn't cart based. I do too many shoots in skyscrapers or at a fast pace to not have everything live on carts and be super mobile. Also, are you usually the only gaffer that works out of this van? The rental house I'm close with does all their van/truck grip packages with lighting fixtures a-la-carte. I guess as an owner op, your way help prevent the need to flip the truck after each job.
Great walk through. I’m on the verge of buying my first lighting van so my favorite part was the bit at the end with your old vans. I need to remind myself it’s ok to buy what I can afford now and grow as business scales.
Lovely tour. You've got a well-organized, well-outfitted van, and hopefully the heaviest gear will soon be replaced with more powerful LED's. That should clear up at least 1 shelf.
Aerosol muscle pain spray (Satohap brand is what got free on a marathon shoot) has come in useful on set for friends dealing with minor muscle strains. Under vehicle lighting by rear and side doors is nice at night when loading up because it does not cause eyestrain and may save an errant Cardellini from getting left behind in tall grass.
This video made me cry 😭. I had a 2019 Ram Promaster High Roof 159WB that my wife had me sell in September 2021. She wanted a small compact car. My dumb self, acquiesced to the financial transaction.
I would love to work with you. Really kick ass attitude, knowledge, and attention to detail. But perhaps best of all, toilet paper. Thanks for the videos, love the channel. :)
Some questions for you Andrew! 1. 03:30 - I noticed in a few of your videos that you use plastic A-Clamps instead of the regular metal ones with the orange plastic bits that always fall off and get lost. Is there any specific reason you prefer the plastic ones to metal? 2. 17:05 - do you bring your dog on all your jobs?! I've thought about bringing my Chihuahua because she mostly just sits there quietly and shivers... lol
Hi Adam. In Melbourne the lighting department gets a stern talking to if they clamp a power cable with a metal clamp (seems to be a TV station issue only). They have this theory that the metal clamp will somehow bite through the cable and cause electrocution. I just gave up arguing that my cables have double insulation and are heavy duty. Max and Fletcher come out with me to suppliers and guest lecturers but I don't trust either of them on set. Max would hassle anyone with food and Fletcher just likes to go for walks. We have a gaffer in Melbourne who sets her old dog up on a bed. He's no fuss and everyone sort of expects to see him.
I brought myself some bar clamp too. I use them for my aputure mc and nanlite pavotube 6c bc the bar clamp is metal. I can just magnetic them with the lights. Just curious, what do you use the bar clamp for? Thnx
Am I right in thinking you don't use wall spreaders? How do you deal with complicated overhead rigging or shots where the dop/director doesn't want stands in view, or do you just not encounter setups like that very often?
Hey there! Is there any way we could get dimensions of your gel trollies? They look so useful! Edit: OH, also the casters you used! Great video as always! :)
As always-great video.I have noticed you have marked your skypanels s60 with signs - LE Gen 2.Is it because of the difference in color between different generations or just simple marking???
Different generations of light engines, two went off to ARRI who said nothing was wrong with them, they came back magically working perfectly but with gen 2 light engines instead of the original gen 1
Andrew, I noticed that your combo stands go all the way up to the ceiling of the van and don't seem to be strapped in. Do they plug into some sort of junior pin at the top to keep them from toppling while driving? Thanks for your channel!
Do you have any recommendations for frames? I'd like to pick up a 4x4 or a 6x6 frame with a 1/4 grid and a bounce, but options for the frames are almost nonexistent in the UK. There is the Westcott Scrim Jim/DP Kit route, but I'd rather not be tied down to their own velcro system and vague diffusion specs, similar with Manfrotto and their clip system. Edit: Also pretty lost with the diffusions too, any reliable brands people tend to lean towards? Appreciate any help!
Roscoe or Lee are industry standard, they're sold in rolls. Diffusions like 216, 250, 251, and Opal are standard, as we'll as 1/4, 1/2, and full grid. You skin them onto empty frames and they last quite a while but aren't as easily interchangeable as the systems you mentioned.
@@TedHolmwood thanks for the help, looking through the Lee options now. Would you normally just buy a new frame and permanently skin each one with a different diffusion, or can you go down the grommet & ties route?
curious to know if the 600d's have broken on your shoots. had quite a few incidents where i'm from, including my own, where the yoke had sheared off the main housing for the light, with the added weight of the f10 and barndoors.
Not here, ours have been solid. I think it's a batch issue. Looking at the photos I've seen on the forums, the damaged lights are missing a key part. My units (the 600Ds, 300Dii and 300x) all have a metal disc that the 4 screws seat into. On every photo of seen the screws just go into the plastic below where the disc should be. When you get a replacement, take a look and see if the disc is there, then I would suggest putting some locktite into those screws so you don't have to tighten them every six months.
How heavy is your van? Because in Switzerland we have a limitation of 3.5 tonns total weight of the vehicle for vans. How is it in Australia? Im Interested, because i'm putting together my own van and am struggling a little with the weight.
What do you charge someone to rent this for a day? I mostly work as a director/shooter, but am pitching some larger productions to better clients and I'd love to learn more about how to budget this level of gear/personnel rental.
I made my own. You can get the cable from a Honda generator dealership. You just need the sets of cable to join in the box, either at your outlet connections or a breaker if you have one before the outlets. You don't need to worry about polarity, the generators sort that out. If you are using the outlets on the generators, then all you need is the link cables, nothing else. The 70i doesn't link.
Very nice that you always answer very informative, very helpful. This pushed me over the edge to invest in a 30i and perhaps in the future a second one so I theoretically could run a 4k hmi. Thanks Andrew.
It's rather safe to store spare fuel with metal jerrys, plastic container will suffer from eaten up by petrol itself. And it will cumulate, and clog the carburetor someday. (It won't allow you to start the engine) Sorry for my English😗
I got the opposite advice from Honda after my generators wouldn't start after using metal fuel containers for years. Just make sure the containers are certified for unleaded petrol, and not some cheap dodgy imported crap. I haven't had a problem in over 15 years now. It might depend on the fuel blend in your country possibly
Hi Andrew, fellow G&E truck owner. Curious what brand of 8x8 and 6x6 butterfly frames you’re running? Those things look heavy duty yet very compact. I’m interested for my trucks. Thanks
@@gaffergear thanks! I wasn't asking based matching like how some vfx studios do with lenses, I was asking more for inventory reasons as I'm working with limited space so I'm looking to add based on concept (like I have 1 or 2 types of a light type like a 1x1 say a solid one and a flexible one and get 3 or 4 of those). Also, will you test prolychts fresnel? And is there a way to mount the titan tube to where you would put a regular t12 tube?
@@zebius4157 I like to have atlest two of everything so I have a matching set. It's also hand to have a replacement in a break down. My go-to for rigging tubes is magnet kits
This is a hard one to answer because different countries have different gauges, for example I'm in a metric country, and I just use scaffolding pipe, which is made to an Australian Standard. But that pipe doesn't fit American made boom gear.
Holy shit you pack alot in there! I've worked off alot of vans that have way less and still manage to be an unorganized death trap. A number of lights you have seem doubled up on function. Do you find yourself reaching for certain models over others, but keep them "in case" or for large setups? Thinking of nanlite 500s vs aputure 600s, skypanel 30s vs gemini vs spectrum 1, dedos vs aputure spotlight, etc etc
They are all very different, the Aputure 600d with the F10 is twice the brightness of the Forza 500 with its fresnel. But it's too dam heavy to rig on a boom arm or to use as a fast run around light. The Dedo projector kit is very different to the Aputure spotlight kit. The Dedo kit is for fine work on products and the Aputure spotlight mount is just to rough for that. But the Aputure is very bright.
@@gaffergear ahh super useful info. Thanks vm. What about rgb panel's? Do you think the Nova pulls it's weight, or is gemini (original) or spectrum a better investment? I know it depends on use. I'm still running out of my car for the small stuff I gaff. Getting to a place where my clients are tired of dealing w gels. I have 2 rainbow quasars but I need a panel or two with more punch for area lighting. S60 are out of my budget, so these three are what I'm mainly considering. Although I rented Novas for a music shoot and (maybe just me) but the colors at full Sat didn't seem very..well saturated
@@LittleFjords the Nova is very saturated compared to a Skypanel, so maybe you had some white light mixing in. My Nova pull their weight now that the DMX has improved. I wouldn't worry about not having skypanels, they are an old light now. I don't think you would get a return on a new one if you purchased now. Especially considering you can get 2.5 novas to the price of an S60.
@@LittleFjords novas are the best value for money at the moment and you must have had the saturation dialed down they have ludicrous saturation boarder on too much. There one weak point is there yoke.
@@gaffergear cheers Andrew. Our grips and sound Jonnies have the same vans but we are limited to Luton type box vans because of the weight. Great set up, which I’ve suggested we adopt, great vids.
I made that from crap from my hardware store. I wish I could weld! It is held onto the hand trolley with straps so I can remove it and use the trolley for other things
@@TyRogers I'll run a tape over tomorrow, but my advice is to make to a size that fits in your vehicle isle and make no wider than the required legal wheelchair access in your region. That way you definitely know you can get it around a building
Australia has a small film industry and is so far away from anywhere that getting prefabricated trollies and carts is near impossible or too expensive. I wish I could say I made them but my wood working skill are rubbish.
In Australia we use different gauge pipe, look for scaffolding pipe. Avoid any American brand accessories as they won't fit, whole metric v imperial thing
@@gaffergear I suppose not Im really only using them in the studio these days and a little on location, even my space lights I have replaced with 750 watt led lights from goodteck a Chinese company worth checking out. Insane output
@@gaffergear not at hand but equivalent to 6k tungsten, I will take some once I'm allowed to go back to work we got slammed into lockdown two weeks ago and all my units are in the studio. Will send on your Facebook once we resume filming.
Unfortunately the lights get superseded very fast these day so I can't accumulate lights over time like I used to. But the rest was a slow accumulation over 20 years
