Kino Flo is a manufacturer of professional LED-based lighting equipment for cinema and television and production. Located in Burbank,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, Kino Flo is best known for developing proprietary LEDs based on a color science technology that ensures color quality for lighting both close-ups and on large studio spaces. In 1995 Kino Flo earned a technical achievement award from the

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

for developing cool, tube-based arrays with color-correct tungsten and daylight balanced light that "changed the way motion picture movies are made," according to the academy.

History

According to director Wim Wenders, as discussed on the Criterion Collection edition of his 1977 gangster film, The American Friend,

Robby Müller Robby Müller, NSC, BVK, (4 April 1940 – 3 July 2018) was a Dutch cinematographer. Known for his use of natural light and minimalist imagery, Müller first gained recognition for his contributions to West German cinema through his acclaimed c ...

first assembled and utilized a primitive Kino Flo unit in 1976, during the shooting of the film. The Kino Flo unit was legitimized in 1987, during the filming of the movie '' Barfly''.

Director of photography The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

was filming in a cramped interior was unable to fit traditional lights into the location. In order to work around the problem, the film's gaffer Frieder Hochheim and best boy Gary Swink designed a high-output fluorescent light that had a remote

ballast Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship ...

, allowing the lamp unit to become small and lightweight enough to be taped to the wall. Hochheim and Swink subsequently created a company, Kino Flo Incorporated, to manufacture and market their innovation to the film industry. The new lights were quickly embraced by cinematographers, and now are considered a staple of a standard motion picture lighting package.

Technology

The two major innovations of the unit were the high-frequency ballast, which gave the lights greater intensity and eliminated flicker commonly found in off-the-shelf fluorescent tubes, and the Kino Flo tubes, which contained a number of special phosphors designed to eliminate the characteristic tints in the magenta-green spectrum which are present in most domestic fluorescent lights. Since the type of tube determines the color temperature, any Kino Flo lamphead can be quickly converted between daylight and tungsten balances by simply changing out the tubes. Mid-range color temperature can also be created by mixing tubes of both color temperatures. Kino Flo have also expanded their tube line in recent years, creating visual effects tubes optimized for bluescreen and greenscreen spectra, as well as a variety of other shades for general color effects.Kino Flo lamps
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References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.kinoflo.com Film and video technology Lighting brands Stage lighting instruments Entertainment companies based in California Manufacturing companies based in Los Angeles American companies established in 1987 Entertainment companies established in 1987 Manufacturing companies established in 1987 1987 establishments in California Products introduced in 1987