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| Aputure Storm 80C 3-light kit |
Recently I purchased an Aputure Storm 80C kit. I am impressed with the great design of it.
In one compact case you get; 3-80C lights, 3-reflectors, 2-fresnels with barndoors, 1-softbox, 3-mini-globe diffuses, 1-bowens mount adapter, and 3-clamps with mini-flex arms for rigging the lights. The only thing you need are some stands.
There is a lot of hype about these new lights with the Aputure Blair CG engine. They deserve it. These are remarkably well-designed lights. They have all the features a gaffer would want, with most importantly, exceptionally good color quality.
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I expect these kits will become ubiquitous on location shoots as the Arri kit once was.
PS: Aputure has gone from making low-to-mid-level lighting for video, to a top manufacturer of film and television lighting.
I worked on the film, Hard Kill, with DP Bryan Koss in 2020. It was one of those low-budget, exploitative Bruce Willis movies. Even so, it was work. We, the crew, were treated well. It was shot in 10 days . . . lol. Bryan is awesome. The film looks great but it is not good. It has a Rotten Tomato rating of 2.7.
Bryan brought with him some new Aputure 300Ds with spotlight lenses. At this time, I thought of Aputure lights as junky lights for low budget videos. My mind about them soon changed. These were great lights especially for what were doing; shooting fast with many setups a day. These were bright lights that I could battery power. I can't imagine doing the movie without them.
I soon bought 300s for my rental business and loved them. Since then, Aputure LED lights have become the main brand in my inventory.
(I don't want it to sound like I only have Aputure lights. I have LED lights from Astera, Creamsource, Godox, LiteGear, and Nanlite/Nanlux.)
Some pictures from Hard Kill:
In this setup from Hard Kill, you can see a 300D with a spotlight lens in the top right. There is a row of them down the corridor making shafts of light.
Aputure lights were not my only discovery on Hard Kill. Bryan brought 10 Astera AX10s. I already had been using Astera lights but the AX10 were new to me. I soon loved them. They were awesome to have on set. I can't imagine doing a movie without at least a few of them for quick last minute lighting.
This setup has some AX5s on a rooftop at night. They were super quick to setup since they don't need power. That is not a power cord coming from them. It is a safety cable.
PPS: Unfortunately the rise of Chinese light manufactures like Aputure and Nanlux, along with a general downturn in production have come at a great cost to other manufacturers. This December, Mole Richardson shutdown. The venerable film lighting innovator that revolutionized lighting in the early days of production is gone. This is hard for me to believe. They have such an amazing history. Their lights have been ubiquitous on stages for generations. Many of my favorite lights are Mole Richardson: 20K fresnel, 10K fresnel, the Mole Beams, and the 5K par.
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| The way it used to be: a couple tenners (10K fresnels), a 5K or maybe 10K cone light, and a senior (5K fresnel) on the crane. |
It is a loss for our industry. They will be missed.