Half Hampshire For Night?

[Jesse Carver]

Hello,

 

I'm working as a gaffer for a student film this January. The story is a drama/thriller that follows a man who dies and becomes trapped in a sort of limbo state of being. It's dark. It's fantasy. Our budget is very modest, but I'm very interested in using half hampshire on the windows for all day interior scenes - I love the blur it gives. However, those scenes make up only 30% of the film and the rest is night interiors. I'm wondering, can hampshire be used on windows at night to any great effect?

 

I've looked into using dirty water and a spray bottle, but I imagine it will lack what the hampshire will deliver. Any advice is appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Jesse

[David Mullen ASC]

Half Hampshire on windows is great to get a defocused view, if it's uninteresting when sharp. At night, it's less useful because your depth of field is already shallow and there isn't much view, at which point the gel on the windows may just create some milkiness on the glass since the interior is brighter than the exterior. You may also see gel rippling if the gel isn't tight. But I used it at night on some scenes in "Extant" where I had bamboo plants right next to to the windows, creating more of an abstract blurred effect as the bamboo swayed in the wind. However, in many cases, you may want to remove it for the night scenes. The trouble with the diffusion on the glass is that anything distant from the windows is more or less erased, what's interesting are things close to the glass that get blurred by the Hampshire.

[Jesse Carver]

Thank you, David! I greatly appreciate your words.

[Mathew Collins]

Hi David,

 

Just a question.

 

> The trouble with the diffusion on the glass is that anything distant from the windows is more or less erased,

 

What is the meaning of 'windows is more or less erased'?

[David Mullen ASC]

The blurring caused by the Half Hampshire diffusion gel on a window gets heavier as objects get farther in the background, to the point where you just see fuzzy, blobby shapes.

 

Half Hampshire can work at night as long as the background is lit and the window wall inside is dark, but if there is too much ambience in the room hitting the windows, then it lights up the frost on the gel.

[Mathew Collins]

> window gets heavier as objects get farther in the background, to the point where you just see fuzzy, blobby shapes.

 

What is the meaning of 'Objects gets farther' ?

 

1. object is farther from camera or

2. objects farther from Hampshire diffusion gelled windows

 

but in both cases objects in-front of the window while framing?

[David Mullen ASC]

I'm not sure you understand the basic concept here. We're talking about using frost on the windows to blur the background view seen through the windows. Think of the privacy frosting on a bathroom window or shower stall.

 

So obviously I'm talking about the blurring effect on what is seen beyond the window, through the frost, not inside the room in front of the windows.

 

Some object right outside the window (with the camera inside the room) almost touching the frosted glass will look less blurry than when the object gets farther away from the glass (and therefore the camera) outside the windows.

[Mathew Collins]

Thank you David.