Video Course: Lights, engine crane and storage

It's hard to think back on what happened last week - it felt like a long week.

Lighting

With the lift, floor and walls all finished, it was time to set up some lighting. For each shot in the video we'll set up free-standing lighting, but we also want a certain amount of general lighting. I'm told we can't have too much lighting. So I ordered some trussing and I will permanently install four lights directly above the working area. These LED fresnel lights are expensive to buy (around $500 each), but given that we'll be filming for at least three months it will work out much cheaper than hiring them. These specialist video lights cost a lot because they provide full-spectrum light at 5500k, which is the optimum for video. Most standard lights are too yellow for video, even fluorescent tubes. And normal, cool blue LED lighting doesn't show up a full spectrum of colors in footage. You can see in the photo that the regular lighting in the background makes everything look white, while the professional lighting at the front looks great.

We suspended the lights using some light trussing and steel wire from four different points. It's extremely strong, but not flexible - sometimes we want the lights close to the engine compartment, and other times we'll want them much higher up, especially as we'll be raising and lowering the car to access the underside. So next week I'll redo this system with three pulleys - one either side to lift the bar and one towards the front to move it backwards and forwards. The garage has a 5m ceiling and we don't have a ladder that reaches that high while freestanding. Some thought is needed!