TV light

[Camila Freitas]

Hi

 

I have a scene in which an actress is watching television, and I'd like to know whether somebody has experience with that (in low budget!). Do you know ways of imitating TV frequency on a person's face (the tv set isn't in the frame).

 

Thanks in advance

[Chris Keth]

Hi

 

I have a scene in which an actress is watching television, and I'd like to know whether somebody has experience with that (in low budget!). Do you know ways of imitating TV frequency on a person's face (the tv set isn't in the frame).

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

I just use a soft source of approximately TV size. Then, during the shot, cover part of the silk or chimera with my hands to effectively dim up and down and mimic different shots in the program.

[Michael Collier]

I have had great success by capturing a short segment of tv, say 45 seconds and in premiere mosaic it, so there are only 4 pixels, which is an average of every pixel contained in that area. Then I get a projector and play a DVD which has been looped to get the right effect. Project it onto bit of diffusion in front of your subject, and bam instant TV light.

 

(the reason I have 4 'pixels' rather than averaging it to one, is with 4, you will see the shaddows bob and weave as one square takes dominance, and the other recedes.)

 

Use something that has a lot of visual contrast. The Rock works really well. cuts from bright scenes to low key scenes rapidly. use a filter on the projector if your film is tungsten balanced (most projectors display a 5600K light)

[Francisco Valdez]

Use common sense, if your character is far from the TV set, avoid giving the light comming from the TV to much presence. More often than not, starting filmmakers overdo this effect.

 

Subtlety is the key, what might look like almost nothing to your eye, is about the right amount, especially if the tv is of different color temperature, than your other sources.

 

I've used efectively a daylight balanced soft source, while moving slowly some folded gels (blue in my case) in front the source.

 

All that said, I guess that an ultra low budget way to do it, is to use a real TV and since you don't see it in the frame you can place it as close as you need to.

 

Are you shooting film or video?

 

Good luck,

 

Francisco

 

 

Hi

 

I have a scene in which an actress is watching television, and I'd like to know whether somebody has experience with that (in low budget!). Do you know ways of imitating TV frequency on a person's face (the tv set isn't in the frame).

 

Thanks in advance

[Josh Bass]

I did this once. On the advice of a DP I know, I used a 2K ziplight (with only one of the 1K bulbs on), and used a 1K max capacity dimmer, found two points on the dimmer's dial I liked, and had a guy flick it between there quickly (to simulate cuts in the movie). I put lee full diffusion on over the open part of the zip light, and covered that with full CTB. The ziplight was on the floor, below the real TV (which was in the foreground of the shot). That was kinda nice, cause the shadow it cast separated the people sitting on the couch from the wall. That was a happy accident.

 

A good tip my DP buddy gave me:

 

Don't have a constant flicker. . .think of the rhythm and timing of real cuts in a TV show/movie/whatever, and change the level accordingly. I guess if it was supposed to be a particularly intense scene, and the TV was a major light source, you could throw some believability out the window for dramatic effect.

Edited February 24, 2006 by Josh Bass

[J Lund]

the tv gag.... i have heard every different type of solution for this lighting situation.... you could go simple to complex with this. I didnt notice if you said if your situation is day or night, so i will let you know what looks good for either. During a daytime scene when you have an ample amount of daylight, and possibly a kino box available, i suggest wrapping each of the 4 tubes in a different coloured gel. depending on how intense you want it to fill your subject's face, put it on either 4ft or 2 ft. Have someone on the kino ballast to change the light subtley (one bulb at a time)- in this situation you can make it quite noticible without distraction.

 

if you're shooting at night, it can be much simpler to achieve a quality look with less effort..... if you have limited lights to work with, it will still work well..... take a ctb; preferably full, but if you have a half (color temp blue) gel, double it up and get it looking dark. throw the gel over a smaller light from your kit, or possibly a higher wattage practical, flicker your fingers in front of it, and watch the magic begin. <---- this one sounds horrible, but it works beautifully.

 

finally, if you want to simulate your subjects watching something from a projector (in a theatre, screening room, etc.) use what i just described above with a slightly higher wattage light, and flicker two objects in front of it at equal speed (as if you were drumming), and that will essentially simulate "24 frames per second" from a projector.......if you have access to a dimmer that you can wire up, you can do it like the pros. the way many people do it in the forbidden land is to take a fan and attatch it to a dimmer so that you can slow down the blade speed.... almost to 24 fps..........

 

well, hopefully something i have said in these past few paragraphs has applied to somebody, and perhaps helped some b.s. shoot go easier than it should have been. anyway, in the words of one of the most perverse filmmaker i have ever worked with..... "keep it tender"

[Kevin Zanit]

I guess it depends on how low budget low budget means for you.

 

On my last project I had a scene that took place with only the TV light. I really wanted it to be realistic, and I had a lot of luck with the Magic Gadgets flicker box with the TV presets.

 

I used 3 650s with 1/2 blue all on one stand diffused and then through a 6x6 frame of grid. It worked real well.

 

 

Kevin Zanit