Hack 25. Use Clothespins Like a Professional

Clothespins are used throughout the television and film industry to aid in lighting scenarios.

Seeing clothespins on a television or film set is so common that it's easy to forget that they are intended to hang clothes. In fact, in the film industry they are often referred to as C47s, instead of clothespins. Figure 2-19 shows a bucket full of clothespins, waiting to be used as C47s.

Figure 2-19. Clothespins, or C47s as they're known "in the biz"

There are a few explanations why clothespins are referred to as C47s, but no one knows for sure. Some say that C47 was the part number used by the military, others claim it was a bucket number where they were stored in a local lighting shop, and still others claim it's an old accounting code. We'll probably never know, so at this point, you can make up your own story…

Lighting people most commonly use clothespins to attach gels to lights. When near hot lights for an extended period of time, the wood doesn't retain the heat in the same way as metal clips do. Additionally, although they might burn, they won't catch fire.

To use a C47 for lighting, simply place the gel or diffusion near the light you would like to effect. Then, clip a few C47s to hold the gel or diffusion in place, as shown in Figure 2-20.

Figure 2-20. A blue gel attached to a light using clothespins

Be careful not to put gels too close to a light source, because they can melt.

In addition to lighting people, production assistants use C47s to keep papers together, wardrobe people use them to alter clothing when time is of the essence, and producers… well producers pay for them.