Video Product Review: Spotfree Lighting with Chimera

The Soft Touch - Spotfree Lighting with Chimera

Written By George Avgerakis

Recently I had occassion to hire a new lighting director on a video project that required staging five actors in a conference room situation. Anticipating the labor required to provide adequate three-point lighting for each player and the movments that each player would make within the scene, I spent more than one evening figuring out how many instruments to use and where to place them. The day of the shoot, I got a fairly pleasant suprise and learned a few new tricks.

The lighting director eliminated most of my work (and lights) by stringing the room with six Chinese lanterns equipped with 200 watt incadescent bulbs, just above the camera's point of view. With this soft, diffuse light, only a few backlights were required to edge each subject and voila, in an hour we were lit for the entire scene, including master, reverses and closeups.

Remembering this trick on another occassion when the same lighting director was unavailable, I sent a PA out to buy the same kind of lanterns and lights and proceeded to duplicate the effect. Unfortunately, something went wrong. Maybe the lights were too strong, maybe bulb got too close to the lantern's paper. One of the lanterns went up in flames.

Luckily, we were equipped with a CO2 fire extinguisher, the set was a sprinklered warehouse and no one was hurt, but the incident taught us a lesson that eventually drove me to find the perfect solution.

Amid the ashes of my frugality, I consulted the video trade magazines and saw an ad for Chimera, a supplier of still photography equipment which, in 1990 began to offer lighting products to the video industry.

Chimera products are dedicated to soft lighting. Generally, they are composed of a fabric-based structure, supported by flexible poles which are bent, like umbrella staves, into a metal "speed ring" that attaches to the face of a lighting instrument.

Although Chimera makes a few lighting instruments for their products, the usual procedure is to purchase Chimera instruments to fit your existing lighting equipment. Chimera, therefore, represents an aftermarket category that greatly expands the capabilities of your lighting package without adding significant cost.

Most of Chimera's products are rectangular, representing a wide assortment of sizes and diffusion parameters. The largest, such as the F2 Bank, measuring 10' by 30', are used by photographers and film makers to light large objects like cars, jets and elephants. Chimera will also build custom lightbanks to fit any required subject. The smallest, such as the Mini Banks, can be mounted on a camera and used to (finally!) avoid the harsh spot light effects so common in news style video production.

Since the products are similar to backpacker tents, they roll up around their metal staves in very compact and light packages that are easily added to any location or studio storage space. Most of the instruments can be assembled in a few minutes by one person, at most two for the larger models.

Two particular Chimeras were found that suited the widest range of requirements for our video production needs, which range from single-person interviews to dramatic ensembles featuring up to ten actors. These were the Chimera Lantern and the ____.

The Chimera Lantern, a safe, efficient instrument which is far superior to the Pier One version. The Lantern is offered two sizes (20" and 30") suitable for a wide range of applications. We use it as the central light for any "round table" group lighting, home and office environment fill and any situation where a soft, ambient light, free of shadows, is required.