Mark McCann Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Hi all, I have a shoot coming up and one of the scenes i need to light for is a pretty commonplace one which I haven't had to light for yet. The main character is sitting on the end of his bed whilst watching tv, its a frontal medium shot on him, i need to light for the tis light on him. "I was thinking for the flickering effect of a tv i would bounce a CTB'd 1 k onto a reflector just in front of him, and flicker manually a half CTO gel in front of the light, Does anyone have experience with this type of lighting? Would this idea work fine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted February 18, 2012 Premium Member Share Posted February 18, 2012 Hi all, I have a shoot coming up and one of the scenes i need to light for is a pretty commonplace one which I haven't had to light for yet. The main character is sitting on the end of his bed whilst watching tv, its a frontal medium shot on him, i need to light for the tis light on him. "I was thinking for the flickering effect of a tv i would bounce a CTB'd 1 k onto a reflector just in front of him, and flicker manually a half CTO gel in front of the light, Does anyone have experience with this type of lighting? Would this idea work fine? Sure, though I'd use a soft white surface not a shiny reflector to bounce into. But that is one technique, to soften some lights through bouncing or shining through a diffusion frame and then passing some pieces of colored gels in front of them to get some shifting colors on the face. I think you don't want it to be too regular though, then light being dimmed by the same piece of 1/2 CTO passing in front of it, that would be like the TV image was intercutting between a bluer shot and a dimmer, warmer shot. You want some variations in brightness that is separate from the color variations. The lowest-tech method I've used, and it is often the best if the person doing it has some feel for it, is to randomly wave fingers and hands in front of the soft light to create the shifting, flickering variations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Schmidt Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 I often use a contraption called a magic gadget flicker box. It has many settings to "mimic" firelight/tv/candle flicker etc. I would recommend getting one with three 20amp channels. That way you can connect three separate sources, each with different gels and intensity if necessary. From there you can individually set a high and low point and alter the flicker rate to taste. This doesn't require any of your crew to be used during the shot, allowing them to be utilized elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark McCann Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 Hey thanks for the replies, been a fantastic help. David- i will have to try the waving fingers and hands technique, it sounds promising thanks. Austin - I will definitely look into one of those, maybe not for this production but it sounds like it could be of use in the future, appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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