Adding flashing lights over footage in Post Production

[LightupChoiceFry]

Hi everyone,

I wonder if this is possible to pull off where it looks believable and not phony, especially given a small budget that doesn't include hiring ILM.

I have a daylight scene (overcast weather) where a character is driving towards (framed left, looking to the right of screen head) It's a medium close up of her face, and I'd like to have some visual to show that there is an ambulance ahead...so I was looking for an effect where I can flash some lights on her face. Now I know the best thing to do would have been to do this in production. I actually have a night scene where I used a light that emulated ambulance lights. BUT, this scene was something I decided to alter this way while I've been editing. So basically I'm wondering if my sudden change of visual is possible, and if it's something I can do easily myself or if it would require some pro post person that specializes in that.

I know during the daylight there wouldn't be much showing up anyway, but I'm just curious if anyone knows of such an effect where I can at least put something on there.

I am editing in Premiere Pro CS5.5 (I have Creative Suite.)

Perhaps there's an effect I can download for Premiere or After Effects?

thanks for your time

 

[Noel Evans]

Ive done similar on a night shot. Use AE. You can create coloured solids, drop opacity to suit and mask areas where you want the flash to occur. The trick to making it look right is simulating the light variance. Remember police lights flash and you need to simulate the varying components of that.

Watch this clip as a sample point - different flash patterns. Choose 1 and simulate. To do right it takes awhile. Be patient.

 

[ddixon]

I can't tell if you're on Mac or Windows - there's a $49 FxFactory plugin that has light flicker/pulse options that might work for this with some colorization. I think it's Mac only though but it does work in Premiere and AE:

http://www.lucavisualfx.com/lightkit.htm

 

[Andrius Simutis]

If it's a daytime shot and the ambulance isn't in the frame, why not just add the oncoming ambulance siren instead? That would be a whole lot easier and sell the scene just as well since the flashing lights wouldn't appear anywhere but within a few yards of the ambulance or on only the most reflective surfaces.