Film & Digital Times Issues 36-38 - Imago

Gekko and PRG
Above: traditional tungsten spacelights on stage at Paramount.
Below: Brian Edwards, General Manager of PRG LA.
68 Dec 2010
Traditional Tungsten Spacelights are a quick, lightweight way to
provide a reasonable level of overall ambient “sky” light in a set.
They are simple affairs: think of a wagon wheel with six spokes
onto which six 1K open-face quartz bulbs are attached, facing
down. Surround this with a silk tube. Add a circular silk frame
below the tube. It’s like a giant Chinese lantern. Control the ambient
spill with a black duvetyne skirt. Spacelights are popular
because they can be quickly hoisted up with a single wire rope.
Rigging time is minimal. Sure, they cast a multitude of shadows.
But if you have enough Spacelights on set, the shadows sort of
wash each other out, more or less. For true single shadow, single
source overhead lighting, stretch a single layer of giant diffusion
below your Spacelights: perhaps a 60' x 120' Lite Gridcloth. But
we digress.
All these tungsten Spacelights draw a lot of watts and generate a
lot of heat. What if the Spacelights were LED? When you do the
math, the amount of electricity savings, including air conditioning,
would be enough to pay for them in a couple of jobs.
At IBC, David Amphlett, managing director of Gekko, introduced
us to the OHM Light. Gekko is a rising star in the design
and manufacture of innovative LED lighting. At Cinec, Brian Edwards,
long-time colleague, hero of the “Cinematographer Style”
production, and now General Manager of PRG LA, told us more
about the collaboration between PRG and Gekko on this light.
The OHM Light is “a high output, color-correct, broad spectrum,
soft LED light source—designed specifically for motion picture
and television applications to provide a large volume of ambient
top light.” In other words, perfect for Spacelights.
OHMs can be controlled locally or by DMX. Color is adjustable
from 2900K-6500K (in 7 discrete steps). Dimming is between