American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

Gaffer Ralph Owen operates the lighting switchboard. A Versatile New Lighting -Control Switchboard By HAROLD NYE and MICKEY MORAN Electrical Dept., Warner Bros.' Studio FASTER films have resulted in a considerable decrease in the amount of light used in motion picture photography and smaller lighting units are becoming more and more popular. Spots and floods as small as 100 Watts have become standard equipment. In the past, when using the larger units for foreground lighting, it was customary to balance the lighting by choosing lamps of the proper types and moving them in and out and adding diffusion until the proper intensities were arrived at. The introduction of smaller and more efficient types of lighting units has made the use of theatre dimmers an excellent method for balancing light intensities. Much time is saved in making the setups and the light-values can be changed any time during the action as the actors move about, or when dollying from a long-shot to a close-up. Some cinematographers have practically eliminated diffusion on foreground lamps, resorting to it only when the lamps have to he dimmed so much that the color becomes too rod. This results in considerable saving in diffusion media. At first a few single plate-dimmers were used to control the more important lamps. When the lamp was too small for the dimmer to take down, additional lamps off the set were plugged in, to "ballast" or load the dimmer down. This consumed time and tied up equipment. Demands for more and more dimmers on every set, and increasingly complicated dimmer-controlled lighting set-ups soon made it apparent that the old, makeshift methods must go. To meet modern conditions, a new and more versatile unit must be designed. The problem was crystallized when Bert Glennon, A.S.C., was assigned to direct the photography of "They Died With Their Boots On." After studying the script, (;lennon realized that dimmers would have to be used extensively in almost eve^•y interior scene in this picture, for the majority of the men would be in the unreflective dark-blue U. S. Army uniforms of the Civil War and post Civil War period, while the women would be in lighter colorings, demanding constant adjustment of lighting intensities as the characters moved around the sets. Handling this problem with conv -n tional dimmer equipment would be ex tremely difficult and time-consumi.ig Therefore, Glennon urged I. M. "S Combs, Chief Electrical Engineer of i h' Warner Bros.' Studio, to develop a mop flexible unit which would meet th 9 problems. Combs accordingly as.~ the writers and Ralph Owen, who wai to serve as Glennon's gaffer on the pic: ture, to design and construct a porta ! lighting-control unit which would med all these requirements, and save as muct time on the set as possible. The result was the lighting consoli shown in the illustrations. It is a com! pact, flexible unit and when in use ia set close to the camera where the oper: ator has a good view of the action and can also watch the director of phot' g raphy. Each of the eight control-circuits i:1 numbered and when a lamp is plu^ in, the operator hangs a tag bearing cot-' responding number on the lamp. Whei the gaffer or the cinematographer for a certain lamp to be brought up or taken down, there is no confusion on the part of the operator as to whi h control shall be manipulated. The unit shown has four 650-^"; • dimmers and four 2000-Watt dimmers and auxiliaiy equipment. The four diinmers on top of the unit are 650-W; •; Ward Leonard type S.R.D. dimmers having 32 contacts. Indicators are attached to the handles of these plates so that the operator always knows \vk A point the dimmer is resting on. Ballast lamps may be connected across any 1 r all of these dimmers simply by thrown _ switches on the panel. These switches also light red pilot-lights on the par.-', so that the operator is always warned that he has the ballast across the di mer. When loaded with a 250-Wa:: ballast, these dimmers will dim a 100Watt lamp down to where it will not photograph. The ballast lights (four 250-Watt on the 650-Watt dimmers and four 500Watt on the 2000-Watt dimmers) are mounted in a well-ventilated, light-tight compartment inside the console. While 32 steps on a dimmer are not enough to give flickerless dimming, any or all of these can be mastered through control No. 8 which has 110 steps. Mastering the small units through one of the larger ones has proved to be a very handy feature. The intensity of various lamps of the "Baby Junior" type can be regulated separately and thrown 1 n the master after which all of these lights can be taken up or down together out disturbing the balance. The control-panel for each of these dimmers consists of a circuit switch with a green pilot-light, a ballast switch with a red pilot-light, a fuse, and a transfer switch that is used to conn. the circuit to the "hot" bus or through the master dimmer. Whenever one of the small dimmers is fed through the (Continued on Page 396) 368 August, I'.UI American <'i\i matographer