jambostuart Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I'm filming a short film in May and looking to use a generator to power my lights for external shots. The generator I'm looking at is 65dBa from 7 metres. I've had trouble with jennys in the past in that they are so loud I end up having to use a studio to dub my audio, something I can't afford on this budget. I was wondering if anyone knew much about sound levels and if I would get away with it if I had the jenny 20 metres away from where the dialogue was being spoken? Apparently 65dBa is roughly the sound of a normal conversation. Surely a distance of 20 metres would be enough to drown out the jenny's hum if this is true? If not, my other option was to use a power inverter and a car battery to power the lights, but I have no clue how to go about this and wether I would just end up blowing the lights. They're two lights at 125W, not sure on the voltage as I don't have them to hand. Anyone any ideas which option would be better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomstick Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Power inverter & car battery will work fine mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jambostuart Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Cheers. It'd save a fair bit of money if I could power them through a battery. I can get a 700W Inverter for ?30 and already have a battery. Would I need anything else besides an extension cable for the lights? Power and electrics is really not something I know about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest C00l K1d Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Cheers. It'd save a fair bit of money if I could power them through a battery. I can get a 700W Inverter for ?30 and already have a battery. Would I need anything else besides an extension cable for the lights? Power and electrics is really not something I know about. It depends what you want. If you power them of the car battery (to me it sounds a bit dodgy but if it's going to output 700w 240v then it should be fine) or generator then they're either going to be on or of. You're not going to have any play with the levels. If you want to have control you'd need a dimmer, a wee cheapy 3 channel one would be ideal for you and you could adjust the levels to what you want. If not though you want to go power source > cable splitter to 2 sockets > extension leads > lanterns. Personally i'd use the generator since it's what i'm most familiar with and if you end up running over time there's no fannying around charging it up or anything. If you need advice just give me a shout Edit: what lanterns have you got and what plugs have they got on them? Theatre style lights have 15a generally so you may need jumps to whatever your generator or batterys sockets are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jambostuart Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Cheers Heartbreak. I don't need dimmers or any control over levels, on or off is fine. Ideally I would use a generator as I do have more experience with them and this one seems like it might do the trick. http://homes.hfwilson.co.uk/Detail_i411249 My only issue is if it's too loud, as the last generator I used was horrendous and I had to ADR all my dialogue after, which just isn't possible this time around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest C00l K1d Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Cheers Heartbreak. I don't need dimmers or any control over levels, on or off is fine. Ideally I would use a generator as I do have more experience with them and this one seems like it might do the trick. http://homes.hfwilso.../Detail_i411249 My only issue is if it's too loud, as the last generator I used was horrendous and I had to ADR all my dialogue after, which just isn't possible this time around. The easiest thing to do would just be take it outside stick it under roughly the same load and walk away 20m from it. Is it a 20m cable you're restricted to? You could always bung another 10/20m on it to be safe but i reckon you'll be fine. That generator looks like its a 13a output (same the sockets at home) so just make sure your lanterns are the same plug. If they're round pins though you're going to need 2x 13-15a jumps. Every lighting hire company in Edinburgh will have these and it'd probably cost you ?5 max to hire. Probably not even that. Just quickly skimmed a few reviews and folk saying it's not that loud. Mind your earth spike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jambostuart Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 I have a few 13-15a lying around from the theatre work I do, so that won't be an issue The problem is buying it, testing it, and finding it's too loud. It's ?100 of my budget I can't afford to waste. This is a fairly cheap film with a budget of around ?700 at the moment (though I am expecting a few more contributions to my Indiegogo campaign which has been pretty successful). I'm not restricted to 20m, that was just a rough number. It'll depend on the location which hasn't been finalised yet, but I'd like to keep the generator within a fairly close distance while keeping it far enough away it doesn't affect sound when filming outside at night just for safety reasons. Thanks for all the advice you've given, it's been really helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boof Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Any chance you could soundproof the generator? Or at least deflect the sound waves away from the dialogue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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