manipulating hair color with light?

[Elliot Rudmann]

I'm shooting a film (16mm) next weekend and one of our lead actresses decided (without telling the director) to dye her hair dark red. This has created numerous problems for us, as now she does not fit the "look" of the role. Is there a gel that I could use on her hair-light to subtract some of the red in her hair? Or is this a hopeless idea? Let me know. Thanks!

[Daniel Carruthers]

I'm shooting a film (16mm) next weekend and one of our lead actresses decided (without telling the director) to dye her hair dark red. This has created numerous problems for us, as now she does not fit the "look" of the role. Is there a gel that I could use on her hair-light to subtract some of the red in her hair? Or is this a hopeless idea? Let me know. Thanks!

 

I wouldnet bother with finding a gel to change her hair color, focus more on ways of exposing her hair. like making the edge of her hair over exposed.

stupid actors, Ive been on so many sets when an actor gets a hair cut because he wanted to look good for an audition he had on the weekend.

[Ken Minehan]

would it be easier to get her to dye her hair back to the colour you want. it only takes a couple of hours to do. But i understand your pain. I have been on shoot where the actor decides to shave his beard half way through shoot. Why do they do that??? Surprisingly no one noticed the fake beard in the end.

Ken Minehan

[Elliot Rudmann]

would it be easier to get her to dye her hair back to the colour you want. it only takes a couple of hours to do. But i understand your pain. I have been on shoot where the actor decides to shave his beard half way through shoot. Why do they do that??? Surprisingly no one noticed the fake beard in the end.

Ken Minehan

 

redying is not an option for her, as it is very expensive and (according to her) could damage her hair a lot -- right now our best option is to go for a wig, assuming I can't minimize the red color with any light.

[David Mullen ASC]

No, using colored light on the hair is not an option, unless you want a very cyan (blue + green, the opposite of red) face with black but grainy hair (from underexposure due to filtering out all the red in the hair...)

 

Or want to turn this into a b&w movie.

 

You could always recast (or put a bad wig on her) -- that might teach the actress a lesson.

 

Or live with a red-haired character.

 

Even using D.I. technology would be difficult -- simple color keys would be hard to pull since fleshtone also has red in it (it would have been better if she had dyed it chromakey blue or green!) You'd have to draw and track a window on the hair. Much more expensive ultimately than a wig.