Bright ideas are often depicted with a light bulb.And in Hollywood these days,that light is more likely to be LED than the traditional tungsten.
The industry standard is shifting as cinematographers are turning to light-emitting diodes to illuminate their sets more efficiently and with less heat than tungsten lighting,according to Variety.
But not all LEDs are created the same,so companies that rent the equipment to productions are taking a wait-and-see approach to which brand will be in demand.
"Every cinematographer is going to have their own taste for how something should look,and right now,there are still questions about how different brands of LED lights will interact on a set,"Chris Rogers,national account manager for Cinelease–a rental company–told Variety."So we're waiting to see what our customers decide they like."
New technology is a tricky business for rental companies.And digital equipment in particular poses unique problems because it is updated more frequently than mechanical equipment and has a shorter lifespan.
"People got burned with camera equipment(in 2002),because just after'Star Wars:Episode 2(Attack of the Clones)'was shot using the Sony F900,there was very little lag time until the next round of digital cameras came out,"said Johnathon Amayo,VP of production and post-production for Moviola."So,basically,if you carried the F900,once the(lower-cost)Red came out,you had a camera that was worth one-tenth of what you paid for it;no one wanted to rent it anymore."
The transition to LED lighting appears to be taking longer than the move to digital cameras,creating headaches for rental houses.Lighting is a new frontier that has not been fully explored.There are many options available–LED and tungsten–and the market has not yet.spoken definitively on the matter.
