Gear used: 3 x Gemini 2x1 Softs, 2 Gemini 1x1 Softs, half grid cloth, speed-rail frame and boom lift.
Notes from the Gaffer
The piece was for a big church, south of Chicago as part of their Christmas Eve service. The DP (Cory Vetter) wanted to do a moonbox and we were having to deal with a modest budget at the same time. His first thought was to put a Skypanel 360 up there, which I don't have. And they happen to rent for kind of crazy amount of money in the Chicago area. I said I think we can get the levels we need with the Litepanels’ Geminis that I own and they’ll be a lighter and more affordable rig. And he's like, okay, let's give it a shot. It worked out really well.
We controlled them wirelessly with DMX and had them in CCT mode with green/magenta control. Mostly we dialed in like a daylight tone with a little green pushed into it for our overall ambience. We got the levels we needed and it was a lightweight and cost-effective solution that even allowed us to use a smaller lift.
The Gemini moon box was our ambience for the entire shoot. It became our super soft moon-like source giving us color contrast in the shadows and kept us from clipping off to black immediately. So it just worked really well and gave us a soft wash of the whole set. And then occasionally we even used it for a key. We also switched to tungsten for a couple shots to emulate the Christmas lights around the set too.
