how to light the audience in a theater?

T

tomk358

Well-known member
I have to light a shot of 3 people watching a movie (from the screen's perspective looking back at the audience), any ideas on how to get that flickering light effect on them, as though the light was reflecting from the screen?

Do I need a flicker generator? or is their a DIY/cheat method? The shot has sound, so nothing noisy will work.

Thanks for any ideas,

-Tom
 
How 'bout asking the projectionist to show a few trailers. ---- If you want more light, get a couple of 4'x8' pieces of foam core, attach them to c-stands , and fire a 1 k into each of them.(That's one each) Put them on dimmers and have two different operators adjust them . You can also use blue red,yellow or any "party colored" gel on these tungsten lights, to simulate action or an emotion.
These pieces of foam core can also be placed closer to your talent.
I would also use a 150 or perhaps a 300 watt fixture to back light their heads, as if it's the projector giving them a slight edge light. Making this light believeable as a projector, would also need special attention in matching the the light on the screen.. This is why I suggested using an actual projector as your light source. You may even just have the projectionist use white light, and then randomly use gels in front of the projector to simulate action, even blocking , periodically,some of the light to give the apperance of projection.
Tired and just ramblin"... good luck.
 
Good thoughts. I'm filming in a theater (as in plays, not movies) so there is no projectionist. Hmmm... I could problably borrow a 16mm projector to use as a light source- what about some hard blue side light to add to the 'filming in the dark' feeling?

-Tom
 
Ron Dexter makes a small note of this situation on his website. The link is below, but I'll quote his excerpt to save you the time.

"There are various firelight and TV effect controllers. If you are caught without one strips of cloth and gel can be hung from a bicycle wheel and turned slowly horizontally. Orange for fire and blue for TV. The opposing strips will randomize the pattern. Reflections off a stretched sheet of Mylar mirror will also work. Test any effect before relying on it on the set. "

Taken From-
http://www.rondexter.com/professional/lighting/lighting_tricks.htm

Good Luck
 
I just helped light a project where we had to do exactly what you need. What we did was bring in a digital projector and hooked up a dvd player to it. We place it just out of frame to the side of the actor, facing it towards the front of the theater. We then set up a 1ft sq. mirror on a stand about 4 feet in front of the projector and angled it to reflect the image back on to the actors face. With 3 actors you may need a bigger mirror. The actor was then lit using a couple of 150w arri's as back light, and a 300w keylight. The key was flagged and diffused so it was just lighting their face. Another 150w with a blue gel was thrown on the back wall of the theater in a streak to simulate spill from the projection room. We played a high contrast black & white movie on the dvd player to get the best flicker effect.
 
Brilliant.

Does ozduc mean Aussie Ducati rider? I've worked in the motorcycle industry for the past 3 years.
 
I'll add one more suggestion. I heard a DP say one time he used an HMI with a shutter in front of it that he could open and close manually. He simply had someone sit there and randomly open and close the shutter and it produced an effect like what you're talking about here. I think you'll find the use of color is not so necessary as the flashing is what mainly sells the effect. Also, remember, most projectors these days use the same kind of point light bulbs that an "HMI" use--metal halide.
 
Low tech, low cost approach. You need a nice strong backlight to simulate the projector as well as give the image punch. You can vary the intensity of the backlight either with a dimmer or simply waving something soft or close to your backlight but really this is not crucial. You need a soft light coming from the direction of the movie screen (front light) It needs to be 1.5 to 3 stops less intense than your backlight. The front light needs to vary in intensity to mimic the changing brightness of the movie screen. This can be done with a dimmer, maybe two dimmers on 2 different lights bounced in to foam core or even waving a small peiece of black wrap or even your hand close to the lights that are bouncing into the foam core. Camera angle- It helps to shoot a little from the side instead of straight on. This way your front light becomes less frontal and you get a little more depth and contrast from your front light being less from the front. There is no absolute way to do this, but if you play around with these ideas you should be able to come up with a believable effect by trusting your eye.
 
You can also put a light behind a stand up fan for a cheap flicker effect. You can gel the light or the fan. Or if you want to get sneaky tape different colored gels between the fan blades so it flickers different colors. you can put it on a dimmer or use one of its 3 speeds. Adjust your shutter to match.

http://www.soleusair.com/Consumer/stand_fan.htm
fcm-30.jpg
 
If you want a super-easy pure post approach, do this: Shoot the scene, but without any flicker, just straight lighting. In post, apply a Flicker filter, such as Magic Bullet Film Damage Flicker. These filters are intended to make footage look like older flickering, film. However, when you use it on a dimply lit shot of an audience supposedly watching a film, the effect is perfect. I did this in a recent short and was blown away by how simple but effective it was.
 
some classmates shot the same type of thing:

while these grabs probably wont answer the question you asked, you might still find it interesting:

n17202441_32085090_3568.jpg


n17202441_32085092_4153.jpg


n17202441_32085089_3263.jpg


good luck!
-kyle
 
I have to do this exact thing this Monday. I was going to take a bunch of 1ks and point them at the audience and try having someone move acetate with colored magic marker shapes around in front of them to give the effect of color and motion. Don't know if it will work though and can't really test before hand but it sounds like it should work.
 
Joshua Provost said:
If you want a super-easy pure post approach, do this: Shoot the scene, but without any flicker, just straight lighting. In post, apply a Flicker filter, such as Magic Bullet Film Damage Flicker. These filters are intended to make footage look like older flickering, film. However, when you use it on a dimply lit shot of an audience supposedly watching a film, the effect is perfect. I did this in a recent short and was blown away by how simple but effective it was.
Click to expand...

Just read this after posting. That sounds like a plan too and I can have the editor put a transparancy of some footage over it also to really sell it.
 
I wound up pointing all the lights at the movie screen and using it as a bounce which worked well for what we needed. We added a blue 650 hitting everyone in the back to sim the projector. That would never happen in real life but it looked good on the monitor.
 
Kyle Stebbins said:
some classmates shot the same type of thing:

while these grabs probably wont answer the question you asked, you might still find it interesting:


[pics]


good luck!
-kyle
Click to expand...
Hah, I was totally going to talk about this shoot, but Kyle beat me to it. And with pictures, no less. Awesome.

I can go into a little more detail, though I don't remember everything for sure. I wasn't on the lighting crew (I'm the sound mixer in red in the background).

The "projector" was an HMI with CTO to balance to the 2k that was the "screen". For the flickering, a couple of grips just waved a couple bounce cards in front of the 2k. That's about it. I'd post a screengrab, but they haven't sent out copies the final film to us yet.
 
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