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Colouring lights?


Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

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Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Basically, in a up-coming production I'm making called "Check Mate", I want to experiment a bit on certain scenes.

 

I want to create this look:

purple.jpg

 

The problem is, I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to get hold of a filter to make it purple, so I'm planning on actually painting the light purple.

 

I?m going to diffuse it slightly, digitally. Diffusing the light on the camera won?t be practical.

 

Throughout the duration of this scene, I'm going to try and keep to the house lights as opposed to studio lights. Purely because I want the lights to look overblown, I want it to look a bit un-natural.

 

I would color it in post but I don't want any digital noise.

 

Have you guys ever actually painted a light? I'm looking around to see if you can get pre-coloured lights. Probably can and it would be better than painting one myself.

 

And another thing, I can't afford any studio lights right so I'm resorting to 150watt flood lights. At £5 for two, you can't argue. You have to connect a wire and plug to it thought. What is the best method for gelling lights? I still can't see how people gel these lights without melting the gel.

 

Well, any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan.

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Basically, in a up-coming production I'm making called "Check Mate", I want to experiment a bit on certain scenes.

 

I want to create this look:

purple.jpg

 

The problem is, I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to get hold of a filter to make it purple, so I'm planning on actually painting the light purple.

 

I?m going to diffuse it slightly, digitally. Diffusing the light on the camera won?t be practical.

 

Throughout the duration of this scene, I'm going to try and keep to the house lights as opposed to studio lights. Purely because I want the lights to look overblown, I want it to look a bit un-natural.

 

I would color it in post but I don't want any digital noise.

 

Have you guys ever actually painted a light? I'm looking around to see if you can get pre-coloured lights. Probably can and it would be better than painting one myself.

 

And another thing, I can't afford any studio lights right so I'm resorting to 150watt flood lights. At £5 for two, you can't argue. You have to connect a wire and plug to it thought. What is the best method for gelling lights? I still can't see how people gel these lights without melting the gel.

 

Well, any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan.

 

They use lighting filters, designed to take the heat and not quickly burn or fade:

 

http://www.leefilters.com/LP1.asp?PageID=21

 

http://www.rosco.com/uk/promotions/supergel.asp

 

The surface temperature of an incandescent lamp is usually so high that any attempt to "paint" it burns off, or blisters, cracks, and fades.

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Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith
They use lighting filters, designed to take the heat and not quickly burn or fade:

 

http://www.leefilters.com/LP1.asp?PageID=21

 

http://www.rosco.com/uk/promotions/supergel.asp

 

The surface temperature of an incandescent lamp is usually so high that any attempt to "paint" it burns off, or blisters, cracks, and fades.

Ahh... thanks John. (The amount of time I've spent looking for that answer...)

 

That looks like a b&w image tinted purple, as opposed to a color image with purple light.

Uhh, yeh.. I edited it. It used to look like this:

JB035.jpg

Even so.. it still looks like a B&W picture tinted turquoise.

 

Basically... I've never really seen purple being used before. (I probably have but just didn't notice it)

 

I'm experimenting with different things, and working towards an original style to use. It's pretty much the only way to get anywhere in this industry.

Edited by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith
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What kind of camera will you be shooting with? If you're shooting on video, you could trick the white balance to make the image go towards magenta/purple. Then you don't have to worry about gelling the light or using a filter on the camera. Go get some different colored sheets of paper and do a manual white balance on them. A pastel green would you give you a magenta tint, so just experiment and go from there. I think this would be the cheapest and most effective solution. Good luck.

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Purple is a really difficult color for video cameras to reproduce (if you're shooting on video). It comes out blue instead.

 

You'll probably still end up doing some color-correction (whether it's film or video) to dial in the color you like.

 

I'd probably try shooting with a purple filter on the lens, and then desaturate the image further in post. That's assuming you want eveything purple, and not just the area lit by a purple light.

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Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith
What kind of camera will you be shooting with? If you're shooting on video, you could trick the white balance to make the image go towards magenta/purple. Then you don't have to worry about gelling the light or using a filter on the camera. Go get some different colored sheets of paper and do a manual white balance on them. A pastel green would you give you a magenta tint, so just experiment and go from there. I think this would be the cheapest and most effective solution. Good luck.

Ah, good idea. Thanks Kris. I'll experiment a bit with it, see what happens... I'll probably post the results up here actually, just incase anyone else wants to have a go.

 

Purple is a really difficult color for video cameras to reproduce (if you're shooting on video). It comes out blue instead.

 

You'll probably still end up doing some color-correction (whether it's film or video) to dial in the color you like.

 

I'd probably try shooting with a purple filter on the lens, and then desaturate the image further in post. That's assuming you want everything purple, and not just the area lit by a purple light.

We?ll be shooting on video, most likely a PD-150. (I'm going to try for an XL2)

I'm not sure how easily it will be to get hold of a purple filter, otherwise it would be straight forward. But, as usual, I'm being cheap and cutting corners and costs.

 

I think what I might end up doing, from reading your posts, is install a blue light bulb (which I know I can get hold of), gel the flood lights blue (if we even need them), set the white balance to 3200k to enhance the blue, and then in post production, add some red.

Edited by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith
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Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

(I'm not sure what you guys think of this, but I'm going to shoot the entire 1st scene in dutch angle.)

 

This is what the films about:

The main character "Andrew Black" basically has an over addicted love of Chess, he acts a little like "Harlen Maguire" played by Jude Law in "Road to Perdition".

Bit of a psycho.

 

The 1st scene consists of him sitting in a dark, empty room, with a plain wooden table with a chess board on top of it. He is giving a commentary (non-diegetic) about his love of chess, and how his wife has left him but taken his daughter with her. He goes to kill her and take back his daughter.

 

But the thing that differentiates this film from the average teen slasher movie, is that there's a bit of a twist. Every move he makes, he relates it to a chess move. For instance when he kills his wife, he relates it to taking the queen, and when he takes his daughter back he relates it capturing one of the enemy?s pieces.

 

The ending is kinda predictable (what with the name) but I think it would make quite an interesting film.

 

I'm going to make little inserts of a chess board, to put in every now and then, I'm going to surround the chess board which will be on a table, with some black cloth, so there?s nothing in the background. Beam a light down onto it (try and control it without lighting the black material).

 

So as he is walking down the street to his ex-wifes house, you will see a little insert of a chess board, where a piece moves forward and advances towards the enemy.

 

I will shoot the inserts on a dolly, just to give it some movement. Make it look more interesting. Plus using a dolly seems to hold some production value. (The fact that the cameras being placed on top of a bit of plywood drilled onto some electric wheel chair motor, has no relevance.... hey they won't know that...)

Edited by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith
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Hey Danny,

 

They're right about purple in digital. My Canon XL1s couldn't capture purple irises to save its life. Since the whole shot is going to be purple, get it as close as you can by tricking the white balance and shift it in post.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Basically, in a up-coming production I'm making called "Check Mate", I want to experiment a bit on certain scenes.

 

I want to create this look:

purple.jpg

 

The problem is, I'm not sure how easy it's going to be to get hold of a filter to make it purple, so I'm planning on actually painting the light purple.

 

I?m going to diffuse it slightly, digitally. Diffusing the light on the camera won?t be practical.

 

Throughout the duration of this scene, I'm going to try and keep to the house lights as opposed to studio lights. Purely because I want the lights to look overblown, I want it to look a bit un-natural.

 

I would color it in post but I don't want any digital noise.

 

Have you guys ever actually painted a light? I'm looking around to see if you can get pre-coloured lights. Probably can and it would be better than painting one myself.

 

And another thing, I can't afford any studio lights right so I'm resorting to 150watt flood lights. At £5 for two, you can't argue. You have to connect a wire and plug to it thought. What is the best method for gelling lights? I still can't see how people gel these lights without melting the gel.

 

Well, any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan.

Ashley,

If you haven't finish your production yet,

Go and get for free some calcolor samples, they come in a small booklet, from a gel store, and try to put one green infront of your lens while white balancing.

See what happens.

The only problem is that if you want the actors to look normal lit, then u definately want to use gels.On the house lights.

Regards

Dimitrios Koukas

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