From “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “The Shape of Water,” and to so many other award-winning productions, ARRI SkyPanels have been a consistent presence on professional sets. The high-quality lights have been a favorite among filmmakers, and for good reason.
The SkyPanel comes in multiple sizes — S30, S60, S120, and S360 — and ranges from an ultra-portable, light, and compact version to a larger and highly powerful option, giving you the flexibility to choose the one that fits your production needs. The standard diffusion LED soft lights offer a broad range of capabilities and are fully tuneable (in the C versions), which means you can adjust the CCT from 2800 K to 10,000 K (with added plus/minus green control) among the full color gamut.
The S60, the mid-range model, is a true workhorse. ARRI notes that the S60 is brighter than a 2 kW tungsten soft light or a 6 kW tungsten space light, while the S360-C is more than four times as bright as the S60-C (while using only 1500 watts) at more than 120,000 lumens. The high output and the uniform beam field means you’ll get seamless lighting, with smooth and homogenous coverage. Eliminate harsh shadows thanks to the diffusion panels, LED mixing, and the large light aperture, the company notes. To boot, the LED white light color quality delivers accurate skin tones and color reproduction. The light beam is a combination of nearly 2,000 calibrated red, green, blue, and white lights that deliver shadow rendition with softness and accurate light.
The option of gel mode gives the user alternate presets, where you can choose from the most popular gels, and run through a selection of other possibilities. No need to travel with a full gel pack — the versatility of the SkyPanel means you can simplify your gear load.
Better yet, because of the flexibility of output, you can control the SkyPanels using a the three easy-to-use knobs, or virtually via remote, console, web, smartphone, or tablet.
The growing list of lighting effects means you can create and manipulate the light to set the scene you need. You can choose from any of the following (and more) for added effect:
- Candle
- Clouds passing
- Club lights
- Color chase
- Cop car
- Fire
- Fireworks
- Light strobe
- Lighting
- Paparazzi
- Pulsing
- Television
- Processing
- Welding
- Explosion
While the “C” (or “Color”) versions of the SkyPanels are entirely tuneable, the “RP” (or “Remote Phosphor”) versions are nearly 10 percent brighter than the C versions thanks to the phosphor-coated panel.
Tweak the colors of the environment, recreate any light source, and achieve your vision for whatever scene you’re setting. There’s a reason why so many professionals have relied on SkyPanels to get the job done.
Check out this Frameworks Productions/AdoramaTV video for an added hands-on experience using the ARRI SkyPanels on-set:
