Night Lighting Simulation Help
 

Im shooting a scene for a project that involves a guy sitting on a sofa falling asleep infront of the tv. The static of the tv light is not enough to get a good picture even on a vx2000.

I was wondering how could I get a good clean shot where it looks as if there are no lights on except the tv?

I have lighting available to me, and was wondering if I should get some blue gels that I have heard about, anyone have experience with these? If so, please tell me what wattage and gel color if any I should use ect.

Thanks.


Steve

My televison makes enough light to get a realistic image of sleeping in front of the TV. Especially if one sits close to the television.

Can you generate a tape in your editing system to play on your VCR that is mainly a white field with some blinks in it so you get that 'TV' flicker?

You should be able to white-balance your way into making a light source look blue enough. But I think you will need to add some flicker since that's 'sort of' what Hollywood does.

You mentioned tricking the whitebalance into going blue. This may sound silly, but how would I do that.

Thanks,

Steve

No, it is not silly.

To trick it, you need to let it balance on a color the opposite of what you want.

For a blue look, a slightly orange piece of paper would do. For red, a slightly blue piece will do. These are very subtle colors. There are professionally made cards to warm up a scene but they cost about $75 or so the last time I looked.

Another method is to just do it in post where you can control the color cast. Of course that will also add color cast to any other light source in the room (as will tricking the WB).

You can try just switching on the preset WB settings (in this case the incandescent setting) but I think that may be too much blue.

Monitor this on a television set or field monitor if you have one.

A handy thing I learned was to carry one of those gel sample booklets from Roscoe. There's a ton of different colors and shades. If you want something warmer, just stick a 1/8 blue in front of the lense when you white Balance. Or vice versa- a 1/8, 1/4, or similar cto in front of the lense when white balancing.

Its come in handy. Good Luck,

Jeff Patnaude

If you wish to warm your scene, (works either under tungsten or hmi sources) as suggested, use a 1/8, or 1/4 ctb gel (color temp blue) in front of your lens when you WB. This will make the camera think it has to compensate for the increased blue and make the scene warmer. The inverse is also true. If you want to cool down the scene (make blue) use a 1/8 or 1/4 cto in front of the lens when you WB. Cinemill or Roscoe will send you samples and more info than you can digest on light control on request

As far as your tv flicker is concerned, a simple trick is to use a piece of mylar stretched on a smal frame and bounce a small source like a pepper, dedo, or inky into it. small movements from the maylar will produce a flicker effect. A little movement is better than a lot. Make sure your scources are as close to the aparrent source axis as possible

Also, you can rent a flicker generator that controls both frequency intensity that will simulate anything from a campfire to a TV. Once again, keep your off screen effect source as close to apparent source as possible. slow changes are more realistic than quick.

S.