Gaffer & Gear 219 - Turn the power OFF!

[@Newtperc]

Would love more little videos like this about your best practices! Thanks Andrew

[@random-k1f9p]

Excellent advice and a reminder to unplug. I've become lazy and need to redouble my efforts. One never knows what might happen outside of one's control.

[@gaffergear]

I got a shock last year, and I put it down to me becoming lazy because most LED lights are DC, no dangerous AC, Right!!!! I mean that makes sense!!! I had a power outlet at location with active on earth and I didn't test it before plugging in, because I was in a rush. Even though the light had a 48v DC powered head, a weather protection rating, and double insolated power supply. I still got shocked because it has an earth connection to the head as an RF shield for the electronics, and that earth connection had power on it from the faulty outlet. It was a nice, (low voltage) wake up call!

[@TheIQProductions]

This is why this channel is gold - Love the back to basics videos - thanks

[@bullettin]

As another commenter said, this advice is so practical and simple that it should be commonly taught. My employer is having us use a small room for recording talking head videos and taking portraits. I'm going to request that they give us a way to disconnect the lights from the mains other than disconnecting each one at the plug.

[@Newtperc]

Personally I’d rather disconnect at the plug so I have control and can physically see it’s been done after each day of filming

[@andyvan5692]

great tip Andrew, I do the same with the kettle and room heater at night, for the reasons you give here, to be sure nothing un monitored can start a fire; Same thing with camera battery chargers!!, because they may get hot too, so if you can't monitor it, SHUT it OFF, no power, no problems :-))

[@SmartEnergyLab]

My Aputure lights regularly turn themselves on after a power interruption. Like your wife, mine often complains that my studio lights and office lights turn themselves on when I'm not at home after a power flick.

[@gaboguerra950]

Thank you for sharing!! Hope there isn’t a ghost in the garage 🙈

[@popcorndreamsmedia]

I think everyone wants to know what we’re the makes of those 2 lights. Something to watch out for in the future for the owner operator.

[@Emir-Husidic]

Seems like such basic advice but the fact I hadn’t heard it yet means it’s advice too often overlooked. Cheers Andrew

[@FanAndFilmmaker]

Thank you for the precautionary advice. My lights will always be unplugged when not in use from now on.

[@shamsheeds]

Great point. Many tend to overlook safe practice and procedures. Some accidents have led to serious injuries. Led lights surely doesn't draw much power as hmi's and tungsten, but in many cases I have witnessed people overloading household sockets and mainly using extension cords. Maybe you should do a video about safe practice in general. It can save lives.

[@lukejacobson1146]

Agree! Would love to get an understanding of working with led lights on house power and the dos and don'ts. Companies like Aputure have made high power lights more accessible - but the safety practices are really only found from experience - which a lot of us don't have on a professional set. Would love more safety knowledge for sure.

[@vontd9]

I've always done this to avoid potential damage from lightning storms that occur overnight.

[@lll9416]

Never spill your bourbon on your Sidus Link app. 🤦😂 Great information as always. Andrew is the Gold Standard of proper Video/Film production lighting information on KZbin! I hope these young filmmakers realize what a treasure trove of insider information our Brother from Down Under gives out for free!🦄 I am curious if these were LEDs. Any power curve fart can set square wave lovin, LEDs off, even on shore power.. 35 years in the biz I've seen many gremlins, nothing surprises me now. Always better safe than sorry. Rule of thumb, air gaps are your friend ! lol

[@gaffergear]

A long time ago a director wanted to control the lighting strikes on a huge night time exterior, and spilled his coffee on the control. They had to turn the generator off to stop it. I was at the hire company when it came back and it was a melted mess of metal.

[@lll9416]

@@gaffergear ouch!

[@somewhatboxes]

these are great points. i would also add as a word of caution to viewers who might be thinking to use smart home devices: smart plugs are really neat, but not a totally reliable option if you're thinking they'll cut power to the device in a power blackout/brownout. i've got some smart plugs that will default to the "ON" state when there's a power fluctuation, dip, etc... and in that case it's exactly the same problem as you described at the outset (light turns on, and now you've got a fire hazard). at the very least, check to see what the smart plug does if the power to it is interrupted; if it defaults to an OFF state, then you *might* be able to rely on it in an unattended setting. if it turns all the outlets back to an ON state, then use it someplace else, where that behavior would be desirable.

[@gaffergear]

Thank you

[@DavidJonesImages]

Hi Andrew, Great! episode, Thanks for sharing your experience. Please do more like this. Best Wishes Dave J.

[@zemskii]

Mate one day you're gonna be up for an OAM for this great community service.

[@jamesandcamera]

I would never have guessed it was so important before, but it makes sense. Glad to know now

[@ShowCat1]

Very interesting. Thanks!

[@philpritchard5173]

Fantastic thk you. Just switched one off!

[@cagf2013]

I have a few of the iFootage Anglerfish 320DN lights. And they have done some weird things similar to this. Turned them off after a shoot and didn’t realise the light was outputting about 20% light still. The screen on the controller said they were off, but the COB was still illuminated. Really strange. Happened on two of the lights too. I think these software driven buttons can definitely glitch out and do weird things. Maybe a voltage change on the line like you suggested, tripping the software.

[@dutchmilk]

I always dial down my power to the min before turning off. It is a old practice I picked up a long time ago.

[@AlexanderCornel]

Thank you for sharing!

[@LangstoniusRex]

I grew up in the HMI age. 'Save the lights' always meant G&E disconnected everything. Never knew why.

[@666size666]

Same. I always ask my best boy to disconnect the cams from the genny.

[@jonpav6224]

Cooling down a rig properly, shutting it down and then physically removing the power makes a lot of sense. It's better for the equipment and safer too. I've seen loads of expensive equipment left running overnight / weekend, etc. In some cases resulted in an earlier than expected failure.

[@pm820]

Clearly you just have a ghost problem 😂 On a serious note please keep making the info videos

[@gaffergear]

As long as he doesn't send me an invoice with after hours loading.

[@meetthegaffer]

Wonderful wisdom!

[@eastsidebowljam]

always great advice. It's also within the realm of possibilities that you're being trolled by someone via wireless crmx.

[@borjaherran4278]

Great advise!

[@mrclarenceboddicker6173]

Brilliant advice 👍

[@missionabandoned]

Thanks for the advice

[@Dontlicktheballoons]

I had an aputure p60c do this to me. I'd left the light plugged in to the wall in my bedroom, turned it off and gone to bed. It cut on to full %100 brightness waking me up and scaring the hell out of me. I don't leave things plugged in anymore

[@DurrrrrrtyKurty]

Would be interesting to check to see if either of those lights have settings for what they do when they receive power from an off state. Could be a setting that they turn on when receiving power and the that could result from a momentary loss in power from your service. As for the crashed light, that just sounds like a defectives light. That's scary though that a light could do that because it could happen when they're up in the air without a way to visually check that they're operating correctly. I would hope that lights would have a failsafe built into them that the LED drivers cannot run if the cooling system is encountering an error.

[@SeanJ-m1n]

Appreciate this video. Thanks.

[@zaklights7290]

The bigger Aputure lights have an issue where they store a charge when you turn them off at the wall, so another safety procedure is to let them sit for 30 seconds or so after switching them off before disconnecting them from the wall. It'll save you a shock.

[@gaffergear]

I've never experienced that, is the shock delivered out of the power cable pins?

[@zaklights7290]

@@gaffergear Yes, from the pins themselves. I'm using the UK versions. The 600d Pro packs a particular punch.

[@Supercon57]

I've noticed when using the 120d/t or light storm 1x panel sometimes pressing the power button when it's unplugged from the wall the control box will power on for a brief moment as if it held a slight charge

[@zaklights7290]

@@Supercon57 I think that's caused by the same thing. Must be a capacitor in the power box, just wish it wouldn't flow back to try and kill me 😂

[@charliewharton9534]

Yeah I had the Nova 300c and for a year the 3 pins would give me a shock, bit awkward telling the buyer that when I sold it

[@waveland]

Perhaps the phrase should be, “Disconnect all lights from mains power when leaving them set up overnight.”

[@MGritts22]

Have you considered that you may have ghosts?

[@shaukat863]

Very nice sir thank you very much ❤

[@TheEmptyHoliness]

Heads up the US doesn’t have switches on their outlets so this may confuse some 😅 just unplug it haha

[@gaffergear]

I did not know that

[@StrandDoctor]

I wonder if the two lights' internal components are from the same manufacturer; wouldn't surprise me.

[@morsmediatv-undfilmprodukt3958]

100% agreed!!

[@benocphotography]

love a gaffer ghost 👻

[@henrytheturnip]

Solid advice. My home studio is controlled by smart power outlets. "OK google turn off studio" turns off everything, lights, PC, camera power at the wall. Walking in to the room and saying "OK google studio power on" makes me feel like Iron Man. Instant on at the wall, the PC auto boots. I live in a rented house, it's easy to do this with off-the-shelf parts from Amazon, eBay etc, doesn't cost much and you can take it when you move.

[@mitchgross592]

Do you realize that this is exactly what he is suggesting you do not do? Those smart outlets still have power in a standby mode. You haven’t removed the issue just shifted it from the lights to the outlets.

[@henrytheturnip]

@@mitchgross592I do realise and I don't care. One smart plug uses less standby power than the four lights that run off that socket do, and the power consumption of one smart socket in standby is tiny. The convenience factor of voice activation on that one socket far outweighs any cost "saving" of having to manually switch it.

[@mitchgross592]

The whole video isn’t about power consumption it’s about safety. But whatever, you do you.

[@henrytheturnip]

@@mitchgross592 Go away troll.

[@CebisoMhlanga]

Who you gonna call?

[@nathanielrosa1]

Thanks

[@666size666]

Also, never park your condor genny too close to the condor....unless you want to asphyxiate your condor pilot.

[@cobymarcum1442]

👍

[@jeremyleonbarlow]

Ghosts must not like you, or maybe Gremlins.

[@auroraborealis7472]

spooky

[@piotrmasiak6355]

Its sounds like a poltergeist

[@LuDawgg]

Hate to break it to ya mate. Your house is haunted.

[@gaffergear]

It's possibly a gaffer I knew from 20 years back.

[@thehomedepothouseplant9986]

GHOSTS!