3 wick candle/powerful candle

[Ian Coad]

in 10 days or so i'll be shooting a scene in the tunnel below the 6th street bridge in LA. two homeless characters will be making faces at each other, lit by a candle which they raise to reveal their expression.

 

stock: 5217 (super 35)

lenses: 27mm, 100mm panavision primo's (both f1.9 at the base)

 

1.i am looking for a 3 wick candle (as i have heard them called), or some sort of strong candle that can light this scene - this film is about realism and i feel that a china ball out of screen or something of this nature, will ultimately feel hokey and incongruent with the rest of the film's look and tone. where can i get one in the hollywood/burbank areas?

 

2. can such a candle provide either the 12.5fc (f1.4) or 25fc (f2) i'd need to shoot this? >> keep in mind that the candle will be right in front of their faces when they do this.

 

3. we are getting some printed dailies from deluxe so i will have a chance to test it before i actually shoot the scene, so i can try multiple things.

 

if it is of any interest i will be getting some ambient light/background depth from the a 4k HMI PAR(gelled like mercury vapor) and a 5K tungsten PAR (gelled like sodium vapor, or with an 'industrial vapor' gel), which will provide slashes of light against the mouth of either end of the tunnel.

 

thanks guys, any advice would be a huge help.

[John Holland]

I think the answer to your question is no !! Why are shooting something like that with such a low speed stock ?

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

Most custom candlemakers can make some for you.

 

Try:http://www.wicksandwax.com/movie_candles.htm

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis

[Ian Coad]

I think the answer to your question is no !! Why are shooting something like that with such a low speed stock ?

 

i've shot with the 17 before in night scenes wide open/2.0/2.8 and had better results than the 5219 - my experience is limited though. the look for the film is pristine clarity, so i'm avoiding visible grain at all costs. i've considered (could still be persuaded) to shoot 19, but i feel there will be a contrast in the grain structure. i was very excited about shooting the 5260 but after review saw that it is quite grainy - though i haven't seen it rated at 320 ASA. 200t is only a stop and a 1/3 below 500t, right? the feeling should be dim anyway, so i'm okay with it playing under.

 

still impossible? isn't this film supposed to be quite powerful and good at tracing the underexposed images?

 

 

 

i will try that link and take a look (thanks).

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I've never found the '19 too grainy... personally, and I'm shooting that in S16mm as opposed to 35. In reality the grain you see will be based a lot on scene contrast. lower contrast scene and you'll notice the grain a bit more (think white room, or just any big block of solid light color.. that's where the grain pops to me).

I think you could do it with 200T at night, but you'd be fighting for some exposure and your puller won't be happy.. bit of a night-mare if there's much motion to deal with @ a 2 I'd say.

Also how much light your candle puts out will depend on how close to their faces you are..so you'd have to be pretty damned close. Depending on the context of the scene, expose for the candle let the faces fall away and make something interesting in pools of light in the bg... but, again, i'd say shoot '19 for the scene, no one is really going to question the grain change when you're changing scenes.

[John Sprung]

Of course there is a distance from the candle flame at which you'll have 25 footcandles. If you use an incident meter with a large hemisphere, such as a spectra, it may be dangerous to find what that distance is, as it's likely close enough to melt the plastic or set it on fire. If you can find a candle that really is capable of three candlepower, 12 fc would be six inches from the flame, and 25 fc barely over four inches from the flame (4.157" doing the math....).

 

Because the flame itself burns out completely on film, we've been able to get away with using a 200 Watt bare FEV halogen lamp with a dimmer and push button switch. The switch shorts across the dimmer. You have an electrician randomly riding the dimmer up and down, and rapidly tapping the momentary contact switch to create a flicker effect.

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.