NEWSLETTER N5

February, 2012

Jaz Castleton is the lead DP on Casualty the Saturday prime time BBC One show which is in its 26th season. News From England:
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. It combined with moving over to HD on the light sensitive Arri Alexa camera which meant we could look at lower powered light sources. Nick was keen for me to meet with Marc Galerne co-founder of K5600. He felt that Marc had a range of lamps that would fit my needs. Well I wasnt 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 and some Alpha 18Ks and 4s. P.K.E. Lighting in Manchester got the contract and delivered all brand new equipment to Cardiff in September. Over 40 Joker Bug kits and 3 Alpha 18s and 3 Alpha 4s made their debut on the set of Casualty. All the lights turned out 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 sleeves, how about mounting an 18k vertically down with a 160 degree beam angle and a stop difference across that beam. With the clear glass lens the Alpha lamps produce a stunning quality shadow due no doubt to that special reflector. Im 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 Marcs passion for his products is clear to see, constantly on the lookout to improve and innovate. Nick and Marc visited the set in January to show the Alpha 1600 W: Love the compactness and the light quality I appreciate with the other Alphas.

BSC Show:

Held at Elstree Studios on the 3rd and 4th of February, the BSC Show was again a great opportunity to meet DPs and gaffers. The LCA booth was incredibly busy and a rig of the Alpha 18K pointing straight down through a large diffusion got a lot of attention. Among others, we had the visit of BSC cinematographers: Dick Pope, David Higgs, Mike Southon (pictures above), Haris Zambarloukos, Gavin Finney, Oliver Curtis and gaffers Eddie Knight, Harry Wiggins, Dave Smith, Carolina Schmidtholstein Excellent feedback on the New 1600 W Alpha and Joker Bug.

News From the US: Mark Manthey was the Gaffer on Academy Award nominee The Tree Of Life. Mark has worked on many features including There Will Be Blood (as rigging gaffer). He shares his experience: Terrence Malick is known for his elegant visual style and a passion for natural light. On The Tree Of Life, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubeski, ASC AMC proved once again to be the right fit for expressing the visual and cinematic emotion of Malicks vision. Natural light is gorgeous, it evokes our reason for being. It is, after all, the offspring of our life source The Sun. On The Tree Of Life, the Alpha 18 from K5600 was the natural light the sun couldnt give us. I love it when industry peers ask which scenes were lit; its like the Alphas were doing their job, even when they werent on. In an industry where time is money, and an artistic medium where time is everything, the Alpha 18 K cant be beat. Its slim profile and light weight (about 50lbs. less than other industry 18Ks) delivers all around. And then, theres the gorgeous natural light quality

News From Morocco: The complete range of Joker Bugs is available in Marrakesh through RVZ new rental facility based within the ESAV (School of Visual Arts) Quartier Amerchich , Tel: +212 (0)5.24.30.14.20. email: location@rvz.fr News From Italy: Federico Torres is a young busy DoP fromTurin, Italy. He recently discovered the Joker Bug family of lights and the versatility of the system. The Joker Bugs were introduced to him by Gaffer Stefano Palmesino and Andrea Scaglione head of Turin based rental company Entechne. He was especially interested by the versatility of the Joker Bug 800 for the feature he recently shot. My first use of the Joker Bug 800 was to light a large table. We combined the 800 with a Chimera Pancake above the table. It was a useful not only because we could have the 800 pointing straight down but also because of the amount of soft light we were getting from a 10 A plug. On this shoot, we also tried another configuration with the Big Eye. The natural quality and direction of the light going through this large Fresnel was just perfect to recreate the sun light coming from a window, in a simple way. The Joker-Bug is a simple and user-friendly lighting system which is not only great for saving time but especially because of the creativity it offers with the various accessories. Its lightweight and compact, easy to set up even in tight corners.
Left to right: Federico Torres DP, Stefano Palmesino Gaffer , and Andrea Mina electrician

K5600 area manager for Italy, Sebastien Barbedienne, has been touring Turin and Rome to show the new born Alpha 1600. The presentation was held in Turin on the 27th of January where local technicians came to have a feel of the range of K5600 lights. On the 31st of January and the 1st of February, the presentation was held in Rome. Panalight and AMG helped with the event. Students of N.U.C.T and Centro Sperimentale Cinematografico were brought by their teachers Maurizio Gennaro AIC and Emilio Loffredo AIC. Presentation in Milan is being organized sometimes in February.

In Turin: Ezio Gamba (A.C), DP Claudio Meloni and Alessandro Saulini ( Luca Bigazzis gaffer) judging the light of the 1600.

News From Sweden :

For the 3rd consecutive year, Gothenburg Film Studio along with sister companies Camera Center and Light Center organized GO KINEMA, a unique event which mixes an exhibition, seminars, a Masterclass and the original concept Open Set. From the 28th to the 31st of January, Gothenburg becomes the Swedish capital of cinematographers, technicians and students with a passion for film making. The Open set draws the most attention. Over 3 days, 3 cinematographers and 3 directors shoot the same scene with their own vision. The public is a witness of the shooting and can see on a large screen the picture coming to life. Cinematographers were Ita ZbroniecZajt, Kjell Vassdal from Norway and Eric Kress from Denmark.
Michael Petersen (the energy behind the event) and Eric Kress DFF (photo Benjamin B.)

On the 31st, Eric Kress was the guest of a Masterclass about his work on Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (the Swedish film) and Arn: The Knight Templar. The Masterclass was moderated by Benjamin B. and was highly appreciated by an audience of 60. The afternoon was a shoot on one of the stages using K5600 lights. This event was sponsored by Mediateknik (our Scandinavian dealer), K5600 and Transvideo.

The Alpha 1600 giving the light direction, the Alpha 4K bounced.

Eric taking readings of the JB 800 in a Pancake.

K5600 on the road in February:

A.F.C. Micro Salon : Paris 10th and 11th of February. Open House organized by Candela in Ljubljana, Slovenia on the 16th of February.