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Question about flourescent-like lights in underground bunker scene in Parasite


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Hi, I just have a question about the flourescent-type lights used in the underground bunker scene in Parasite. They give off this greenish cast or tint in the shot and I’m wondering if that’s the color of the lamp itself or was it given a greenish cast by adjusting the color temperature in camera or was it given that color through color grading?

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I plan to incorporate these type of lighting as accents for a small hideout room scene for a short film. The room is going to be lit through a window (a window with a black screen, not glass) and exhaust fan. I plan to haze it with a haze machine to make it look dusty and dingy and to make the light rays from the light outside pop. That’s why I’m hoping I could get the green effect from the light itself so the color temp of the practical light is distinct from the light rays of the “sunset light” outside which is supposed to look warm. Maybe I could get the similar greenish tint effect with a specific tube-type light or a flourescent light that gives off this color.

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Basically, the shot is supposed to be a combination of the shot above from Parasite with this two shots from Cure:

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Akie,

According to this IndieWire article cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo used poor quality florescent lights.

Quote

 ...therefore, the cinematographer installed the same kind of low-end lighting lamps (greenish fluorescent and tungsten incandescent) used by Korean households in Ki-taek’s home. “A little more extreme setting here is the secret underground space of the rich house,” continued Hong. “In this space, we applied the same lamps which are used in Ki-taek’s house, but added some variations in their arrangement and contrast.

You might try RGB LED tube lights which would give you more color options. Consider using tube lights that dim all the way to 1%.

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When a camera is set to 3200K, then Cool White fluorescent tubes, which are about 4700K with some green, come out as cyan. The cheaper the Cool White tube, the more green it has in it, but you can always wrap the tube in Plus Green gel to increase the effect.

You could use a dimmable bi-color LED tube but you'd still have to add green gel, or you could use an RGB LED tube like an Astera Titan.

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1 hour ago, David Mullen ASC said:

When a camera is set to 3200K, then Cool White fluorescent tubes, which are about 4700K with some green, come out as cyan. The cheaper the Cool White tube, the more green it has in it, but you can always wrap the tube in Plus Green gel to increase the effect.

You could use a dimmable bi-color LED tube but you'd still have to add green gel, or you could use an RGB LED tube like an Astera Titan.

Thank you for the detailed explanation! I think I will go for using a fluorescent light with plus green gel wrapped with it (as long as it isn't too obvious). 

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1 hour ago, Tim Tyler said:

Akie,

According to this IndieWire article cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo used poor quality florescent lights.

You might try RGB LED tube lights which would give you more color options. Consider using tube lights that dim all the way to 1%.

Thank you! I'm also considering using an RGB tube light but I'm a bit worried that it might not pass off as a practical light for this particular scene (depends on where I will put it I guess) so I'm going for the fluorescent lights first ? 

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