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Worklights + Chinaball for comedy lighting


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Hey guys,

 

I am shooting a short comedy film for class, and was hoping for some suggestions with my setup! Mind you, I am very new to all this.

 

Since it is a comedy, I was planning on using a lot of soft light. I have a few softboxes, a few umbrella lights, and a few chinaballs.

 

The setup I was planning on running, was two 1000 Lumen LED worklights for my background (with orange or blue gel depending on the scene)

and a chinaball with orange or blue gel with a 105W CFL (600W equivalent) in front of my actor. If necessary, I would use a white reflector to fill the shadows on my actors face.

 

The reason I want to use worklights if possible, is that they are MUCH easier to gel. I have heard they run a little bit green, and have spikes in their color charts, but will that really affect me in a real life situation? The two backlights I use would probably have different hues of the same color, ie. frost blue and full blue CTB

 

Thank you all for the help! I look forward to learning with you!

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Both the CFL and the LEDs could have green spikes, however there are some good CFLs for daylight available at B&H. I think Lowel makes one with a high wattage.

As for the green on the worklights, you can add a pale sheet of minusgreen gel to compensate. The minusgreen is magenta in color, but I wouldn't use full minusgreen. Most likely that would be too much, just 1/8 or 1/4. This is assuming that your worklights actually do run a little green.

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The problem with LEDs, and even modern fluorescent, isn't often green spikes. There may be serious problems with the output, certainly, but it isn't necessarily, or even often, a preponderance of green. LEDs are often deficient in red and teal colours and modern warm-white fluorescents often look yellowish on camera.

 

Anyway. Comedy is hard. Often means big soft sources everywhere, everything bright, totally reliant on production design and locations that you probably can't afford.

 

Tungsten work lights are fine.

 

P

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Anyway. Comedy is hard. Often means big soft sources everywhere, everything bright, totally reliant on production design and locations that you probably can't afford.

 

 

It helps a lot if it's funny too which can also be difficult. As I often say, if you make a serious movie and it turns out to be funny then you are golden but if you try to make a funny movie and it isn't...

 

Freya

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