What can be done for squinty eyes from bright light?

[Edmund Olszewski]

What can you do if someone has very sensitive eyes in front of a bright light on camera and it makes their eyes all squinty?

[Matt Read]

What can you do if someone has very sensitive eyes in front of a bright light on camera and it makes their eyes all squinty?

 

I'm not quite clear on what you're asking. It sounds like you're talking about a light mounted on the camera. If that's the case, then in all seriousness, just turn the light off. If the shot won't work without fill of some sort (I'm assuming and hoping that's all you're using the on-camera light for), have a grip rig a C-stand with a bounce card or reflector off to the side of the talent and bounce some light on their face (and if you're running and gunning, just have the grip hold the bounce).

 

If you're just talking about normal set lights blinding talent, changing the angle that the light hits them from can make a difference, i.e. raising or lowering the light or moving it further off axis.

[Sherman Johnson]

An old trick that I use pretty regularly on bright exteriors is to have the talent close their eyes and look towards the sun for a minute or so... The pupils iris down and I can usually get a couple of good takes without any squinting. And of course, the sun isn't necessary as this trick will work with any bright source.

[Edmund Olszewski]

I apollogize for not being as clear on that as I could have beeen.

The other day I took a green screen to the park with me and clamped it to the fence behind home plate at the baseball field.

With the sun facing the greenscreen... I thought it was going to be a great idea but then what I found out was that the sun was too powerful for the person who was acting. I may have been all wrong? Any ideas!

[Matt Read]

I apollogize for not being as clear on that as I could have beeen.

The other day I took a green screen to the park with me and clamped it to the fence behind home plate at the baseball field.

With the sun facing the greenscreen... I thought it was going to be a great idea but then what I found out was that the sun was too powerful for the person who was acting. I may have been all wrong? Any ideas!

 

In that case, pick a different time of day, when the sun is higher in the sky. Assuming that your green screen is without wrinkles and hanging vertically, the sun should evenly illuminate it from any height in the sky, so long as it is in front of the green screen. The higher up the sun, the more it will be in your talent's peripheral vision. If the backstop is the type with three sides, you also might try hanging the green screen from a different side so as to make the sun to the side of your talent, rather than directly in front of them.

 

Usually the simple solutions are the best ones.

[David Mullen ASC]

There is a basic unsolvable problem in movies: in real life, when it's very bright outside, people wear sunglasses. It's only in movies that we want to see the actor's eyes so we force them to not wear sunglasses during the scene. But then they squint, even if you don't put anything in front of their eyes. Because it's bright outside and it's natural to squint. Some actors can put up with it, some cannot.