TommyBars make filming in bad weather a breeze.
Broad, gentle soft light that’s 100% stable and reliable whatever the weather.
Tough weather conditions can quickly scupper the best-laid plans to fly LED soft boxes or lighting balloons on cranes and lifting machines.
Instead of using textiles in the wind, we use banks of closely-set 8’ long TommyBars. The wind blows right through them, the rain doesn’t bother them, and you can get on with the rest of the job.
High winds and rain are tough enough on a lighting crew, let TommyBars take the stress out of your night shoots.
From parking bay to a windswept cliff, we have a rig for every location.
Jumbo 32
The perfect soft light for giving you a chunky base stop across a huge area. With a JUMBO 32 overhead on the 50m boom of a 100T lifting crane, you can shoot all night across a couple of football pitches.
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Dimensions: width 5.2m height 2.5m
Weight (without scaffolding): 250kg
Output: @20m = 25 footcandles or f5.6 @1600 ISO (24fps with 180º shutter)
Suits: large truck-mounted cherrypickers, lifting cranes
Wide 16
This sixteen-foot wide soft light tool has all the output and softness of a lovely, wide softbox but none of the problems. Lighter, brighter and tough in any wind or weather. Softness is all about the width of the source and, at FOUR times wider than an Arri S360, this will really give you the wrap.
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Dimensions: width 5.2m height 1.25m
Weight (without scaffolding): 127kg
Output @20m = 12 footcandles or f4 @1600 ISO (24fps with 180º shutter)
Suits: spider cranes, boom jibs, cherrypickers, scissor lifts
Overhead 16
A sixteen-foot long softbox that will deliver toplight into your scene whatever the weather. Lighter than the traditional diffused softbox so you can get your machine to full extension. No cloth so the wind can’t catch it and resiliently weatherproof through day and night.
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Dimensions: width 5.2m height 1.25m
Weight (without scaffolding): 127kg
Output @20m = 12 footcandles or f4 @1600 ISO (24fps with 180º shutter)
Suits: spider cranes, boom jibs, cherrypickers, scissor lifts
Tight 16
Looking for a soft box that you can rig quickly in a parking bay and derig in half an hour? A Tight 16 of TommyBars will slot neatly on the front of any basket to give you a lightweight, weatherproof, wind-happy soft light that’s great for lighting in a built-up area.
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Dimensions: width 2.6m height 2.5m
Weight (without scaffolding): 125kg
Output @20m = 12 footcandles or f4 @1600 ISO (24fps with 180º shutter)
Suits: spider cranes, boom jibs, cherrypickers, scissor lifts
Simple 8
Great little urban softbox - rigs in minutes, derigs even quicker without disturbing the neighbours. Weighing only 64kg, the SIMPLE 8 will give you a good base level of softlight and leave plenty of loading on even the smallest machine for other units like movers and parcans.
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Dimensions: 2.6m height 1.25m
Weight (without scaffolding): 64kg
Output @20m = 6 footcandles or f2.8 @1600 ISO (24fps with 180º shutter)
Suits: spider cranes, boom jibs, cherrypickers, scissor lifts
Tricky locations and tight spaces are no longer problems with TommyBars.
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Long Reach
Big movie action sequences often involve large night exteriors which can be tricky and expensive to cover. TommyBars are designed to lift those shadows across a vast area to deliver the photons for you to make the most of the speed and space on camera, as well as to enjoy the full range of that HD sensor.
The JUMBO 32 rigged to a gimbal on a lifting crane above an airfield, football pitch or city plaza will give you a gentler, sturdier soft light that spreads over 140º and doesn’t look “sourcey” like a balloon or traditional softbox.
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Tight in the City
TommyBars offers you a way to have a 16’ wide softlight without a road closure whether it’s shooting at short notice or simply council restrictions. A WIDE16 is great for when the location only allows a compact footprint for a lifting machine.
On a small truck-mount, boom lift or even scissor lift sitting in a parking bay, TommyBars can be rigged in a tiny space and get you a speedy 16’ wide soft light right over the action. Because of their lightweight, no-box design, our rigs can even be prepped and stashed vertically until your machine is ready for them.
A WIDE 16 rigs in about an hour, and derigs in less - meaning your unit can keep shooting almost right up until that council curfew, and leave without annoying the neighbours.
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Difficult Access
When you’re faced with land-locked lighting positions and your only access is through small doors or gateways, or via the narrow gravel paths of priceless stately homes, big lifting machines are out of the question and you have to go with mini crawler cranes. They don’t like traditional soft boxes but they love TommyBars!
Put a WIDE 16 TommyBars rig on a mini crane and you get a rugged, broad soft light that will go almost anywhere. Squeeze it between the trees in thick woodland, up a footpath, onto a clifftop or just out onto the beach.
Still need more reasons to choose TommyBars?
Quality of Light
With a CRI of 98.5 (and high R9 and R12 values), TommyBars work as a beautiful keylight or a natural wash. See our CRI Charts
Optimal Output
A WIDE 16x TommyBars rig running both channels at 100% will give you around 12fc at 20m away in 4000K - a healthy T2.8 and two thirds at 1600 ISO. See our Photometrics
100% Controllable
Use your own DMX console or add our iPad control. TommyBars are wired in four foot sections so you can graduate your softboxes.
100% Weatherproof
No textile means that TommyBars are a soft light that’ll stay steady and stay up longer in high winds and rain.
Less Energy
TommyBars are arguably the most efficient soft light available. A JUMBO 32x rig can run on local 13A feeds, saving you that extra generator.
Increased Safety
TommyBars will wrap your scene in a beautiful soft light whatever the great British weather throws at you.
Save Time
Super-quick to rig and de-rig. With a ladder beam attached to your machine of choice, a couple of electricians can rig 16x TommyBars in less than an hour.
Modular and Lightweight
Our WIDE 16x rig weighs about 125kg (excluding scaffold tube) so you can get the basket out to full stick.
Save Money
TommyBars are a soft light that you can rig on the day and derig on wrap - saving you derig days on crane and cherrypicker hire.
The original lighting solution trusted by the world’s most respected DoPs and gaffers…
