problems with a scene

[Simon j Rogers]

Hey,

 

Im a student film maker/camera assistant from the UK. i'm shooting someones graduation film and there is one scene inparticular i'm not sure how to light or whether it will have to be 'fixed in the edit'. The film is very surreal and is based around a love triangle with three friends. Each of the three has a color assigned to them, red, green and blue. red stands for passion, green for envy and blue for discontent. The guy directing wants a shot of the three on a merry go round in a playground with the colours changing as each character comes into the foreground. Anyone any ideas on how best to do it?

[John Brawley]

Hey,

 

Im a student film maker/camera assistant from the UK. i'm shooting someones graduation film and there is one scene inparticular i'm not sure how to light or whether it will have to be 'fixed in the edit'. The film is very surreal and is based around a love triangle with three friends. Each of the three has a color assigned to them, red, green and blue. red stands for passion, green for envy and blue for discontent. The guy directing wants a shot of the three on a merry go round in a playground with the colours changing as each character comes into the foreground. Anyone any ideas on how best to do it?

 

Hi Simon.

If you had the firepower you could try different lights on dimmers, but I'm going to assume that your student budget won't allow it. Unless you shoot it at night, where perhaps you could do it with smaller and less expensive lamps.

 

How about wardrobe ??

 

 

 

jb

[Simon j Rogers]

Hi Simon.

If you had the firepower you could try different lights on dimmers, but I'm going to assume that your student budget won't allow it. Unless you shoot it at night, where perhaps you could do it with smaller and less expensive lamps.

 

How about wardrobe ??

 

 

 

jb

 

Hi John, thanks for the reply.

 

I suggested shooting in the dark as i think we would get some nice results. i just need to convince the guy directing it to hire a generator, i think he would rather it be done in post. We haven't really discussed wardrobe in detail but it could be a simple way of showing their different colors.

[Ira Ratner]

Hey, let's put our thinking caps on for this one, okay?

 

First, one would think that wardrobe will play a big part in this. It's going to look stupid to have a guy in a red and white striped search turn blue. Or a guy in blue shirt turn green. So right from the get-go, I would think you want them all wearing white, albeit maybe in different brightnesses. I'm also assuming we're looking at medium close-ups, where pants aren't an issue.

 

However, it doesn't matter WHAT they wear with this scenario:

 

If you can rig an adequate blacklight spot, you can buy fluorescent/Dayglo-type paints which I believe can be found in transparent form. In other words, the person would look normal under regular light, and would only color up when he comes into the blacklight beam.

 

Look around at the site I linked below, and give them a call to ask for help on what you're trying to accomplish. A small bottle of their normal stuff (lots of color choices) is only $4.95, which would appear to be enough for face, neck and arms. I don't think you would necessarily want the hair to glow ANYWAY for best effect, nor other aspects of the scene--you just want their skin tones colorized, so this may be the way to go.

 

I just don't know if they'll have the PERFECT combinational paint of transparency and non-toxicity for use on a person. Finding the right light may pose a challenge, but first things first. These guys will know about that too:

 

http://www.theatrefx.com/moreinfo_uv_paint.html

Edited October 26, 2008 by Ira Ratner

[Simon j Rogers]

hey ira,

 

That looks like it could work really well, thanks for the reply.

[Ira Ratner]

I hope you figure it out, because although I'm not in the industry, it's the same with everything:

 

Planning is 95% of it.

 

Plus, even without shooting a single frame of film or tape, if you can use that paint, you'll be able to get a good idea on how it's going to look.

 

I didn't KNOW about this idea before and never did it--it just came to me hearing about what you' were trying to do. And I think a lot of solutions come about just like that.

 

A lot of answers aren't in the book. They're in your head.

[Carol Hicks]

If each of the characters are on a different section of the merry-go-round you might think about rigging lights for each person on the ride and gelling them to the right color. If you're shooting it like I imagine with the characters moving past the camera I think it could look really interesting.