TV Illumination Lighting

[PJBarry]

Hey guys,

 

I'm trying to create that effect of the "Tv glow." I don't want it to be the really fake blue look though.

 

Any suggestions are appreciated

 

PJ

[David Mullen ASC]

Then don't make it too blue...

 

Just look at what a real TV set does in a dark room. The light changes when action moves on the screen and when there are cuts -- it does not flicker at a constant rate. More of an irregular pulse with some color shifts.

 

The blueness is because a TV set is closer to daylight-balance, so in a tungsten lit room, it would appear cooler. However, if all the shots of the TV screen are color-corrected to look natural in a tungsten-lit room, then the glow should not be too blue-ish.

 

You're basically creating a soft light, whether through a frame of diffusion or with a Kinoflo, etc. It doesn't really matter unless you are going to use two lights on separate flicker boxes, in which case you'd be using tungsten lamps (like two tweenies) shining through one piece of diffusion or bounced off of one card to blend as one light. One light can pulse more radically but the other should be fairly steady.

 

Just like with firelight gags -- it's the same thing almost.

 

The cheapest method is to just wave your hands, fingers, and occasionally arms in front of the soft light to create a soft dancing pattern. It's just hard for the actor to take you seriously when they see you waving your hands about...

 

You can also wave some strips of colored gels if you want to simulate some of the color shifting that normally occurs when someone is lit by the image off of a TV.

[Kevin Zanit]

A trick I like is to take a fairly large Chinese lantern with two Photofloods (on two separate stingers) and use two switches (or dimmers . . . or a flicker box for that matter).

 

It works real well in cramped sets. You may want to skirt it off of the walls, etc. Just experiment.

 

 

Kevin Zanit

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Fire a video projector into a diffusion frame?

 

Sorry, call me the techno-solution guy.

 

Phil

[stijnbarbe]

yeah very techno:-)

you can do the same thing with a small profile-spot like a dedo or a pepper. (go for larger fresnels if you want higher output.

my trick to make the movement natural is this: have someone walk in front of the light in all kinds of ways. if you're recording sound cut out weird shapes out of cardboard and wiggle them in front of the light. the right, arbitrary movement is important to make you believe a tv is there.

 

keep in mind that a tv is daylight-balanced. (4800K to 5600K, depending on brand and age) so in a tungsten environment it IS blue. Now I don't like the fakish blue tint either so I use the lightest blue gel available on the set or sometimes even none at all and then I dim the other lights to like 500K lower.

 

grab a miniDV and try some stuff.

 

good luck