Horizontal autopole

[dougturner]

I'm building out a studio at the moment and have seen a few people mounting auto poles horizontally across the ceiling, with some cardellini clamps or super clamps to mount lights and cameras off of.
Wondering if anyone has any experience with this and if so, how much do you trust the pole to stay put? In an ideal world I wouldn't take it down for weeks at a time and leave a lot of the equipment up there.

 

[Scooter]

I've never used an auto-pole for this, but it works well using a regular cross pole on two heavy-duty stands (with super-clamps etc). I prefer this setup to a long boom with heavy overhead lights for safety's sake. Once you start hanging things on it, an autopole will bend slightly though, and so shorten the horizontal component of its length, which could cause it to detach from the walls. I don't think I'd trust a horizontal auto-pole to hold much tbh. It would also be a major task to reposition it, and lighting can be a game of inches, with constant adjustment to fine-tune the look. I think I'd prefer a couple of stands on wheels, even if the space-saving nature of the autopole is tempting.

 

[dougturner]

I've never used an auto-pole for this, but it works well using a regular cross pole on two heavy-duty stands (with super-clamps etc). I prefer this setup to a long boom with heavy overhead lights for safety's sake. Once you start hanging things on it, an autopole will bend slightly though, and so shorten the horizontal component of its length, which could cause it to detach from the walls. I don't think I'd trust a horizontal auto-pole to hold much tbh. It would also be a major task to reposition it, and lighting can be a game of inches, with constant adjustment to fine-tune the look. I think I'd prefer a couple of stands on wheels, even if the space-saving nature of the autopole is tempting.

Yeah, I worried about it bending, seeing as it's so reliant on friction. Very keen on the space-saving side, so I might try two auto poles horizontally with a cross beam attached to supers. It's a semi-permanent set up, so once I get the lighting right, it won't be moving so much

 

[Garry Edwards]

Yeah, I worried about it bending, seeing as it's so reliant on friction. Very keen on the space-saving side, so I might try two auto poles horizontally with a cross beam attached to supers. It's a semi-permanent set up, so once I get the lighting right, it won't be moving so much

With respect, every subject and (nearly) every shot needs a dedicated lighting arrangement. All fixed or semi-fixed lighting arrangements fail because of this.

 

[TimHughes]

I wouldn't trust an autopole. I have mounted a horizontal pole in the studio, but it's close to the back drop and for back lights, originally set up for livestreaming with green screen. That pole is mounted with dedicated ceiling mounts.

 

[ilikebowens]

The auto Pole is not suitable for horizontal use. Manfrotto bit something similar but specifically for bracing between walls. I forget now what it was called, maybe a Venice? It was developed for film crews to shoot over water in Venice, there apparently being enough of them doing this to warrant developing a new product.
I'd rather use a proper sky track/higlide type system however just for safety. An alternative would be screwing bits of wood in the wall and cross bracing with a timber beam, cheap and safe (if you screw the beam down). Some damage to the wall but just a few screw holes really.

 

[dougturner]

With respect, every subject and (nearly) every shot needs a dedicated lighting arrangement. All fixed or semi-fixed lighting arrangements fail because of this.

Yeah, this is quite a specific shot so not huge change and my hope would be for the Autopoles be semi permanent but one or two lights to be moveable With clamping, so there’d be some room for tweaking.
Having to move out of a bigger studio to downsize because it’s not going to affordable to heat this year.