I was filming in a studio for 3 days running. All tungsten lamps, the place heated up like a sauna, busy as can be knocking through product shots. I had great lenses to work with, shooting with a PMW-F3, a jib-arm, many lights, and it was all up to me to make it work.
Three days of filming, I’ve barely turned the lights off in this time.
It’s late in the day - I’m positioning a product when I hear a loud bang!
Smoke pours from one of the lights. I quickly unplug it and stand back.
When the smoke has cleared and the light cooled down I open it up. All that remains of the globe is powered glass. Fortunately for me the light has a built in Fresnel lens which shielded me from the blast. Don’t really want to get powedered glass in my eyes.
2005 and I was filming in an office. Redheads, Chimera soft box, DV cameras. Affrodable filmmaking for the day.
The talent is in make-up I position the lights and switch on an 800 watt Redhead, then bang and burning glass cuts through the Chimera. I unplug the light, stamp out the glass, rush to cleanup the mess and in at the same time knock over a jug of milk.
I’ve never moved so quick. By the time the talent is in the room I have cleaned up the milk, cleaned up the glass, changed the Redhead lamp and this is in position, switched on, with Chimera in place.
The fact is there was no wire mesh in that Redhead. So if the talent was in front of the exploding lamp it would have been serious.
I’ve since has wire mesh, lenses or glass in place in each of my lights.
When working with lights, especially high voltage lights, make sure there is protection in front of the lamp. Basic, yet important stuff!
