For those of you that are seasoned professionals, this may not seem like much of a quick tip.  We do this practically every day.  However, there are many of you out there (you know who you are) that have no clue what I’m talking about when I say, “put a Chimera on a 1K.”  So, let’s change that with this week’s quick tip.

What the heck is a Chimera?

First of all, I should probably explain what a Chimera is and why we use it.  A Chimera is a soft box and a soft box is a lighting modifier that is placed in front of a light to act as a diffuser. A 1K is a 1000 Watt light – so when I say “put a Chimera on a 1K”, I’m asking you to add a Chimera soft box to a 1000 Watt light.

Chimera happens to be the brand name of the product.  There are plenty of other brands that do the same thing – Chimera just happened to be the one that caught on.  Now, without getting too technical (I’ll get to that in another post) a soft box turns an otherwise hard light into a softer more subtle light. That’s a very simplified explanation, I know, but for now it will help you get the job done.

So how does this thing work?

Installing a soft box to a light is a three step process:

1. Remove the barn doors and add the speed ring.  The speed ring is a device that allows you to attach the soft box.  They can come in many shapes and sizes depending on your light, the manufacturer and the type of soft box you are attaching.
2. Locate the proper soft box for your light/speed ring.  When removing the soft box from its bag, pay close attention to how you took it out – you will eventually be putting it away.
3. Place the rods from the soft box (there are four of them, if you don’t have four something’s wrong) into the four holes in your speed ring.  Start with the top two first and work down to the bottom.  Don’t be afraid to bend them

Removing the soft box

This is the tricky part of the process.  You can’t easily remove the rods from the speed ring by simply pulling them out.  Instead, you have to pull back on each one to allow it to release from the speed ring.  Place your thumb on the speed ring, pull back on the rod and then pop it out of the speed ring. Sound easy? Oh, you want some visuals to go along with my explanation? Well, lucky for you, Joe and I have created a little video to help.

Pretty easy, huh? Just remember that speed rings come in many different shapes and sizes, so they won’t always look like the one in the video.  The basic principle remains the same, though, so you’re cool there.

Production Apprentice will do its best to try to familiarize you with all of the necessary information but remember – if you don’t know how to do something or if it doesn’t happen to be exactly like it is in our videos, just ask. There are many different ways to do things in the production world, so be sure that you’re doing things the right way. Some gaffers may seem like old curmudgeons but I will assure you that they will be happier to help you before you break something than after you break something.