Search the Community

Hi everyone, I'm a long time reader and a first time poster and student. I'll be shooting a shooting a short film in about two months from now which calls for "a bar lit with neon signs". Think of the Bud Light and Heineken signs many bars have as reference. Obviously we won't be able to use any brand signs because of legal issues but I've been thinking of several alternative ways to achieve the same mood. Also real neon signs are expensive and a serious safety hazard. Also keep in mind that the bar will be filled with fog similar to heavy tobacco smoke you see in many movies. The director wants to have neon looking practicals as much as possible. I have two 4 foot quasar LEDs that could potentially be gelled and placed around the background but I feel as if only two tubes wouldn't be enough. 1) Has anyone had any experience shooting and sleeving (hard coloured tubes that fit snugly around the bulb) cheap fluorescent units? Do they have a chance of flickering? What about noise? Is there a way of powering them with unaltered wall power or do they require a ballast? If so can they be powered in a way that wouldn't require a housing frame around them? 2) Has anyone had experience with cheap neon LED signs? They basically look like neon signs without actually being neon? I'm afraid of cheap LED units because of potential flickering. https://www.amazon.com/Wedding-Suppliers-Operated-Lighting-Valentines/dp/B075MXR77D/ref=sr_1_7?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1524627473&sr=1-7&keywords=neon+sign 3) This piggybacks off the last one. Has anyone had good experiences with colour shifting LED stripes or ropes? https://www.amazon.com/NEON-110-120V-Waterproof-Controller-Decoration/dp/B01JZ754SG 4) I have tungsten lights ranging from 250W to a 2k baby and a set of 2 4' Kinos (tungsten and daylight) at my disposal as well. I'd be using the previous the push the lights. Are there any particular theatrical gels that you have found similar to the hue of neon lights? Green, blue, red, pink etc. Thank you for reading and also thank you in advance for answering!

Got some questions about pushing and pulling film stock after reading this fantastic article about shooting La La Land on film, and after a recent wedding I shot. I'm not a complete novice or anything but still only been shooting motion picture film for a couple years now. As I said, I shoot weddings among other things on Super 8 and sometimes, you just gotta deal with the light you're given. Last wedding I shot, the ceremony was EXTREMELY dark, I'm talking like, you could barely see the couple with your eyes dark... So I was shooting 500T on my Beaulieu 1008XL (f1.2 lens, 225º shutter) wide open then I had CineLab push it a stop in development. I DID get back an image amazingly but it is pretty darn grainy. It's ok but I'll have to work around it with my other footage. And it got me to researching it some... After reading about pushing and pulling online and on Kodak's website here it seems like pushing may not be the best idea for low light contrary to my thinking. Plus this quote "Push processing is not recommended as a means to increase photographic speed." I know pushing only increases light that's hit the film therefore more light gets brighter whereas little light get a little brighter hence more contrast. So why does Kodak speak against it so much? In low light should I just shoot at box speed and then fix in the scan. I know Phil of Pro8mm says on his site that pushing is largely unnecessary with the quality of scans these days. Thoughts from other scan labs like Gamma or CineLab? What's the point in pushing film then? Also... pulling film. In the La La Land article, they mention shooting 250 at 100 and 500 at 200 and then pulling in development. Does anyone do this? For film I've overexposed, I've always just done normal processing and fixed in post due to the large latitude of V3. Would it be better to pull? They mention finer grain and lower contrast in the article. I always just figured it was a fix for overexposure. A novice viewpoint, clearly. Also how they heck are they shooting nighttime at 200ASA!? Sorry for the long post but a bit confused and curious about more experienced shooters' thoughts.