How do you make flickering light on face?

[Landon D. Parks]

Okay, here's the deal: I'm shooting a teaser scene for my project in a few weekends. Despite my background in photography, I'm unsure how to make a lighting 'flicker' on someones face.

 

For example, the scene in question is a close up of a face next to a candle. Of course the candle light is not enough to illuminate the scene, so how do you allow the light to mimic the candles flame movement? I cannot seem to find any 'large scale' flickering bulbs, so is there another method?

 

We are talking about the GH4 here as a camera, so low-light performance is not spectacular.

 

Thanks!

Edited March 31, 2016 by Landon D. Parks

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Magic Gadgets flicker box-- or you can shine a head into a 4x4 stippled mirror bounce of some kind and wave your fingers in front of it to get a pulsation-- tons of ways to skin that cat, as they say.

Also you can try triple wick candles which would probably light up the face depending on how close in you can play them.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Keep in mind that an actual candle doesn't flicker much at all unless it is being effected by wind or movement. The Magic Gadgets flicker box is great but I've found what works best it to have two sources on the box, one on a low constant output while the other flickers gently. Otherwise the effect is too strong and is distracting. There are three channels on the box, so what can work well is to put the third light on the background or as an edge light on the foreground actor.

 

A lower budget method would be to put a fixture in a paper lantern and follow the actor around with it on a boom pole. Put the fixture on a dimmer and have an electrician ride the levels during the shot.