Brent Sauls on set with Astera Titan Tubes
South Africa - Brent Sauls of Magic Arm Lighting is a freelance gaffer and cinematographer from Cape Town - currently based in Johannesburg - whose professional career has encompassed 15 years at the forefront of making a diversity of commercials, movies, and TV series.
Last year he invested in a set of eight Astera Titan Tubes, purchased from distributor, DWR and these have been working constantly ever since.
Brent noticed that Titan Tubes were becoming increasingly frequently requested by a variety of DoPs, especially on commercials.
As a gaffer, it is advantageous to be able to offer certain specialist lighting elements and products to a production. “It’s all about having the right tools,” he stated, and this drove the purchase by Magic Arm Lighting, which Brent co-owns with two other cinematographers, Quinton Fredericks & Ebrahim Hajee.
He wanted the Titan Tubes especially for environments which are challenging or needing to get lighting in awkward and difficult to access places. “They are extremely user-friendly products, and once familiar with what they can do, new ideas just keep flowing on how to use them next,” he said.
The onboard battery and fully wireless control solution top the list of benefits for Brent, making them “ultimately deployable”.
His Titan Tubes have been used on several movies, commercial shoots including Eskort Bacon, MTV, BMW, Audi, and Vodacom, and currently on a TV series for Netflix which is being shot in Johannesburg where they are on set daily.
“It’s a bonus that they look fantastic on camera in every way,” he adds, highlighting the importance of the clean and elegant quality of the light output and - again - the physical appearance in addition to the smooth even coverage and dynamic colour changing sequences and pulse effects.

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