Filmmakers Get RGB in a Soft Light with the LD150R from Godox
16 million colors, DMX and wireless control, accurate kelvin matching, and R-Gel/L-Gel—the new LD150R from Godox does an amazing amount at a stellar price point.
The 2x1 LED panel is a mainstay of many lighting productions for good reason. The rectangle size is great for lighting interviews or providing a solid fill light near camera, while being small enough that it can still be stuck in a variety of surprising locations when you need it.
The new LD150R from Godox is a 2x1 LED panel that packs a whole host of features into a small package at an unbelievable price point, coming in under $1,000.
Take a look at the LD150R in our hands-on review!
Now let's learn more about what the LD150R can do.
The LD150R works as both a kelvin bi-color unit while also offering 16 million colors of RGB output.
Working in CCT mode, with a range of 2500 to 8500K, you can easily match whatever source you are working against to have pristine and clear lighting on your scene. But if you need to go outside of CCT, it's a quick swap over to RGB mode for a host of more diverse color effects.
If you need a hot pink light to mimic an off-screen neon sign, the LD150R will have you covered.
Packs up neatly and securely in it's case for easy transport.
To create those effects, Godox offers a variety of methods of control, including an on-screen menu system, DMX control, and wireless control with an app.
On-screen menus are great when a unit is on the ground, but can be frustrating once you have rigged a unit up into the rafters, which is where DMX and app control become really useful. DMX integration is going to be great for larger sets and setups where you have the time to set up a DMX panel and program it properly.
On smaller productions, the integrated app is going to be your best bet and is both intuitive and powerful. You can get going controlling the light quite quickly without a lot of fuss and there is a lot of control at your fingertips.
5-PIN DMX, DMX over Ethernet, Bluetooth App control and on screen menu's make setting up the unit a breeze
Using the app, you can also bring up the entire R-Gel/L-Gel gel library to match with pre-created colors from R-Gel/L-Gel gels. This is great for when you are communicating with other team members, matching previously created looks, or even matching lights on the set.
If you've got R-Gel/L-Gel 162 Bastard Amber on your main key source, and want your fill to match, you can dial it right in.
Having gotten hands-on time with the unit, one of our favorite features was the ability to dim all the way down to 0% smoothly without a major dropoff at the bottom of the range. Many comparable units, even at slightly higher price points, have large dim increments when you get close to off, and we appreciated the ability to finetune control at the bottom of the output curve.
This is especially useful when using this unit as a fill light on a low-light scene, for instance.
One thing many users might not initially notice or appreciate about the LD150R is that it comes bundled in a sleek, compact carrying case. In the days of living on grip trucks, having a carrying case wasn't as important, but as productions get smaller, more flexible, and travel in a wider variety of vehicles, a carrying case becomes more and more useful.
This is a standout feature, since most 2x1 panels don't offer carry cases or come as an added accessory. Especially if you are thinking of supplementing your income with renting the light on an online platform, having a convenient carry case will make this a far more useful unit in your lineup.
If you've seen A24's dystopian war epic Civil War, you surely noticed the unique costuming layered throughout the different militias and journalists throughout the film. Hawaiian T-shirts? Painted fingernails? Transparent red sunglasses? Pretty cool.
Civil War costume designer Meghan Kasperlik put a lot of time, research, and thought into how to flesh out director Alex Garland's dystopian United States. Working closely with Garland, she took inspiration from real life war journalists and considered what different militia members would realistically wear in this semi-fictitious (scarily possible) world.
She even made seven jackets out of a table cloth.
Read below for insights on Kasperlik's process, and her advice for aspiring costume designers at any level of experiance.
Editor's note: the following quotes from Meghan Kasperlik are edited for length and clarity.
Number One Rule of Costume Design? Research
Kirstin Dunst in Civil War
Courtesy of A24
"I do a tremendous amount of research, and I'm really interested in getting into the character's head and what they do—what they do for a job, where did they go to college, or did they go to college? What do they eat? I go the full gamut and try to learn as much as possible.
For Lee's character (Kirsten Dunst) in Civil War, I read a book by Lynsey Addario, a very famous female war photographer. As I was reading this book, I thought, oh, wow, the beginning stages of Lindsay's book are kind of where Jesse (Cailee Spaeny) is. As she gets more professional, it's like, oh, this is later in life, this is the stage where Lee is.
By no means are either of them Lynsey Addario, but I took inspiration from that, and then I started taking inspiration from other war journalists for Joel (Wagner Moura), and also Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson). So it's really important for me to do the research and [get to know where characters are] from, and then I kind of go from there."
What's Up With Jesse's Red Sunglasses?
"Jesse [Plemons] actually brought them to the fitting, and I mean, it was just so cool because most of the time the costume or the prop department will have a lot of those things. It was cool because Jesse really thought about how to take his character in a different direction.
At first I was very hesitant, because I was like, well, we haven't really done anything in the film like this yet. And we had the other two guys that had paint in their hair and fake nails, we haven't done this, and where did these come from? Who did they take them from? Did he kill the person?
All these things were going through my head, and I was very concerned if the audience would take this seriously, because his dialogue was very serious.
But then I was like, this is Jesse Plemons, of course this is going to work out. So we took it to Alex [Garland] and we asked Alex about it, and he was like, oh, yeah, that's cool. So I can't take full credit for Jesse's glasses because he brought them to the table.
How I made it work in our scenario is I wanted to make sure that sometimes we would break up the the military uniform, sometimes it would be like a T-shirt—the military issued T-shirt with pants, and I was like, we need to have everything uniform, so your focus is on his face and you're not looking at anything else.
So that's how I worked that out with the sunglasses."
Working With Alex Garland for 'Civil War'
Civil War
Courtesy of A24
"I worked very closely with Alex. I showed him all of my research, and then I put together with the script, like, okay, this is what's happening in this scene.
I imagined that we are on the road trip from New York to DC. These are the Americans that would truly live in these places, and these are the people that I think that are there now. And then I would pitch how I thought each of those groups would dressed.
That's where the Hawaiian shirts came in, and then the shootout, they were in uniform, but they had the painted nails and hair dye on them. And then also when we were in the football field, and it was basically all the people that were refugees. And when you're a refugee and basically living out of a tent, living out of your car, you only have your belongings. How many ways can you make that work for you?
So it was definitely, each area was a hundred percent thought out and discussed, and discussed, not only with Alex, but the production designer and props to make it flow."
How To Personalize Characters Through Costume
Wagner Moura in Civil War
Courtesy of A24
"With the main four characters it was about making sure that each one of them had individuality to them and made sure that the audience could see that.
Kirsten's character, Kaylee Bogner and Steven, they're all based off of inspiration from real reporters and war journalists. So I was taking the research that I had from them and how to incorporate it.
Joel's character is kind of based off a multitude of things. Yes, he's in America and he's an American journalist, but in America your average guy now is wearing a Rock t-shirt or a sports team or a flannel or something. So he doesn't stand out. He's definitely blending into that world in the way of your stereotypical guy. So that was very important to me because I didn't want him to stand out so much or any of these characters.
The whole idea is that they kind of blended into the environment, because as journalists, you can't stand out too much because you have to go in and work with everyone.
And then as far as the military uniforms, one thing that Alex and I talked about was that when I first interviewed, I was like, oh, and I will make this fictitious uniform. And he's like, no, this is almost like reality. It's a dystopian world, but I want it to hit home with the reality of what these uniforms really are. So basically, I wanted to make sure that they were the real uniforms, but how could we individualize each person?
We had a military advisor named Free Mendoza, and he said, when you're in the field, you don't just get a new uniform when you blow out the pants or when something happens that it tears. You have to sew up your own pants, or you have to like, oh, the jacket's ripped apart the bit, so I have to throw that to the side and just wear the T-shirt. So it's kind of like what you have on your back."
How to Make a Jacket Out of a Table Cloth
Kirstin Dunst and Cailee Spaeny in Civil War
Courtesy of A24
"Kirsten's jacket that she wears for Lee, it's kind of like a brownish mustard tone. I knew she needed a jacket. We were filming in Atlanta, and it was still cold.
So I couldn't find what I was looking for, and I needed the multiples. I was randomly in Target, and I saw these place mats sitting on a table, and there was a whole bunch of them. So I was like, oh, well, this would be great. We could make a jacket out of this.
So I picked up the place mats and I took it to my age Dyer, and he dyed them. So the base of the jacket is made out of a tablecloth, and the sleeves and the back yolk is made out of table runners, and they were all dyed and pieced together by my tailor, Jared. And I was like, great, let's make more, because we liked it and everything. And when I went to go get more, they didn't have any more in the store because there was a box of them that were set out that they found from Covid.
It was a discontinued style, but it was perfect. So it's like we were looking at eBay and Etsy, and my aunt was hunting them down in Chicago, and so we ended up making seven."
Advice For Aspiring Costume Designers
Kirstin Dunst and Cailee Spaeny in Civil War
Courtesy of A24
"I'm on an advisory board for school and I always tell people if you have the opportunity, jump on any film set, jump on any commercial TV series, anything that you can start and pay attention to what other departments are doing, because so many departments are so collaborative and we work together.
If you can't get a job in the costume department and you want to be a costume designer, but you can get a job in production or the art department, having that in to see what happens is really great.
I really love unconventional fabrics and ideas, so a placement, or I've made a costume out of a jacket or scraps the fabric so you can make anything out of anything. So just keep an open mind. It's really good to be trained in patterning and costume making, but it doesn't hinder you from actually being able to do it.
Just try to get in there. And a lot of states now have film incentives, so if you go to whatever state you live in, New York film.com or Georgia film.com or even Illinois, there is stuff that happens in Chicago and whatnot. Just go to Google filming, whatever's filming in your state, and there will be opportunities to PAs or people looking for extra help.
Even if it's for a day, you're giving yourself in there."
Packs up neatly and securely in it's case for easy transport.
5-PIN DMX, DMX over Ethernet, Bluetooth App control and on screen menu's make setting up the unit a breeze
