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Gear Guide: Intro to Kino Flo!

With the help from our pals at Whites Interactive, we bring you Gear Guide! All this month we'll be talking about Kino Flo lights, which were born out of an innovation on the set of Barfly. The D.o.P. needed a big, soft light that was light enough to tape to a wall, so his crew invented what would soon become the Kino Flo light, a tool now used every day, everywhere people are making movies.

They had two innovations: first, a high-output, remote ballast that upped the output of fluorescent bulbs while also getting rid of their trademark super annoying flicker. And by being remote (meaning the ballast, a big heavy box, is connected to the bulbs by a long cable rather than being built into the bulb housing), they had a fixture that only weighed a couple of pounds and could be taped anywhere.

The second innovation was in the chemistry inside the bulbs: while traditional fluorescent bulbs have a pretty sickly greenish cast, the Kino Flo folks invented bulbs that hit important colour temperatures - tungsten, daylight, green or blue screen - dead on, and can be used with other sources easily.

They're a really cool tool, invented out of necessity. Check back next week when we break one down and show you how to set it all up!

Click HERE to get a kit for yourself from B&H Photo!

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