Fluoro Flickering ??

Dominik Muench · February 25, 2005

Hi guys,

next week i am dop on a 16mm music video shoot, were using the arri sr2 (4:3) with kodak vison 2 500t and then reframing it to super 16. we are shooting in a laundromat which is lit with fluorescent light, and i want to keep as much of the natural lighting as possible.

am i going to get into trouble with flickerig? we are shooting at 25 frames the whole time, except for a slowmo scene which will be shot with 60 frames.

how will the color of the fluoros turn out on film ? will it be a sickish green color ?

Michael Nash · February 25, 2005

were using the arri sr2 (4:3) with kodak vison 2 500t and then reframing it to super 16.

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I assume you mean you'll be cropping the 4:3 original and letterboxing the image to some other aspect ratio on 4:3 video. Super 16 is a film format, with a native aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Saying "reframing to super 16" is a little confusing.

Fluorescent flicker follows the same rules as HMI flicker. Shooting 25fps under 50Hz. power cycle should be safe from flicker (do you have 50 Hz. power in Australia?). 60 fps however is not an HMI safe speed under 50Hz. power. You'll need to shoot either 50 fps or 100 fps to avoid flicker.

The color of the flo's can vary depending on the tubes installed in the location and the filtering you're using on the camera. In general cool-white tubes have the most green, and will appear a kind of pale blue-green on tungsten balanced film. On daylight-balanced film (or tungsten with an 85 filter) they'll appear more yellow-green.

Dominik Muench · February 26, 2005

yes of course i ment reframing to letterboxed widescree sorry.

oh ok, im not planing on using any camera filters at all, so i hope all the tubes in the place are the same color balance. yes australia has 50 hertz current so that shouldnt be a problem then.

Laurent Andrieux · February 26, 2005

i hope all the tubes in the place are the same color balance.

I'm sorry, but I would have check this before.. The problem is that they look different when they get old, and might flicker as well. If you want a good look, the best would be to fit "your" own new tubes, that would be of the quality you like. Have a look around these forums, make a search, I remember there's a thread with all the tubes references.