Jump to content

Lighting gag - prismatic reflections from giant crystal


Recommended Posts

  • Premium Member

Hey guys,

 

I'm looking for some ideas on how to create a large lighting gag for sunlight refracting through a boulder-sized diamond onto a wide 4-shot of actors around a small table. The effect needs to cover all the actors in the wide and move across their faces. I'd like to have a mix of rainbow refractions and sharp-angled prismatic reflections. It's a Gilliam-sequel fantasy sequence in a comedy - one character is dragging a giant wedding ring on a boat anchor chain behind her to a tea party. Location has not been locked down yet but it will be a day interior restaurant/cafe that I'm hoping will be dark enough for the effect to read.

 

My ideas so far are:

 

- Create a composite still or video image and use a video projector to light the actors faces. Relatively easy to control and should be good coverage. Might be too dim if the location is too bright.

 

- Pound an HMI into a large broken mirror or crumpled Mylar, put the light on wheels and move it toward the mirror. Good intensity but will be missing the prismatic refractions of color. Might be too harsh, difficult to control spill.

 

- Pound an HMI though a crystal bead curtain or into a mirror ball. Might move and spread too much, may not look like sun though a large stone.

 

Any thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Maybe there's a way to create a rainbow striped gel and use Lekos to project the pattern? Obviously you need a beam of white light to hit the diamond on the table, so you'd be faking the patterns coming out of the crystal back up on faces, which will be hard in a wide shot. And if the crystal rotates or gets moved, the pattern should move, so that would be hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Maybe there's a way to create a rainbow striped gel and use Lekos to project the pattern?

 

That was my immediate thought. Or, slide projector. Or, video projector. The prismatic effect from solid blocks of common transparent materials is pretty slight, in reality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Oh that's a good idea, thanks David! I'll do a test run with a Dedo projector and the gel cuts. Just to be clear, we never see 'the diamond' at all, it's purely an off-screen lighting gag. The idea is that the person is dragging it toward the table from behind the camera, and the lighting gag slowly rises over the table to cover the talent looking back towards the lens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you tried bouncing light off of a layer of broken glass? Maybe broken safety glass from a tempered window or tabletop would produce the effect you're looking for. Maybe bounce your projected color pattern off a small stationary mirror ball so you have a spread or the sparkle pattern?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Satsuki,

 

What if you used the Dedo projector or Leko through a large glass "diamond".

 

http://www.amazon.com/Giant-Clear-Glass-Diamond-shaped-Crystal/dp/B007L5OLNE

Don't you love the random stuff you can get off Amazon now days? Plus, it's an awesome looking paperweight after the shoot.

 

Stuart

---------------------------

illuma.blogspot.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Thanks guys,

 

I tested the broken mirror gag, it looked ok:

post-5721-0-98407200-1445404798_thumb.jpeg

 

Also tried David's idea with the rainbow gel pack and projected pattern:

post-5721-0-06420200-1445405296_thumb.jpeg

post-5721-0-41416400-1445405320_thumb.jpeg

 

Had a meeting with the director today where we decided to simplify the effect significantly. The ring will now be a large prop that the talent will hold over her head. We will see the shadow of the wedding band ring and diamond over the table. The art director bought a 37" inflatable engagement ring float made out of Mylar, so I figure we'll use that for the shadow:

 

post-5721-0-75491600-1445406033_thumb.jpeg

 

Will test it tomorrow to see how reflective the Mylar is. Am thinking of having art cut silver stipple material into faceted panels that we can glue onto the diamond:

 

post-5721-0-07901800-1445406992_thumb.jpeg

 

Then pound a light into the diamond as the actor holds the float over her head to create the sparkles. Will also have a Joleko backlight her and the ring for the shadow on the table:

 

post-5721-0-93751800-1445406674_thumb.jpeg

 

Obviously the Joleko needs to be higher to have the shadow cover the table, but that's fairly easy. The main issue I foresee is that the silver stipple material won't give hard enough specular reflections unless it is very close to the talent. So maybe some other less diffuse material is needed...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...