Muzzle Flash in a dark room w/ flashlight

HBlack

HBlack

Underage Member
Looking for advice on how to do this.

Someone in a pitch black room with a flashlight and a pistol. He shoots several times, each time illuminating the room.

If the flashlight weren't present, I'd find a constant light source similar to the muzzle flash and cut from black to that frame, but the flashlight complicates this significantly. Also, I'm not sure how that light source would be simulated as it would have to be eminating from the gun.

Please keep it to solutions that only require after effects and basic lights. I would try to strobe a light source, but I don't really have the equipment to do that effectively.
 
A quick search on amazon has strobe lights running between $10 and $50-ish. As you said, use after effects, or any editing software for that matter, to add the 1-2 frame muzzle flash.

To time the strobe you can get something like the Chauvet ST-2000S for $50, which will allow you to set it at 1-20 flashes per second. You could probably have someone man it to vary the speed of the flashes too. I didn't look, but I'm guessing some of the cheaper ones on amazon can do that.
 
Come to think of it, I do have a strobe light. There's a knob on the back that you turn up to adjust the speed of the flash, but I'm not sure how effective it would be considering that I need it to be relatively precisely timed, and I'm not sure if the flashes are long enough to register consistently. I'll have to do some testing with it.
 
Ah, that's brilliant. Seems like that's what I'll be using, unless something better occurs to me. Only concern: how certain is it to be picked up by the camera assuming I'm working at a 1/48th shutter speed or similar?
 
I've used a camera flash before and it worked great for me. I may be mistaken, but I think if it shows up on the video monitor when you're shooting it'll be in the footage. The unknown factor is only when you're working with film and looking at a video-assist screen.
 
if your realy feeling gutsy just shoot the whole thing with the light you want the room to be when the muzzle flashes and then just darken everything but the gun and light in post. Then do quick fades when the gun shoots.
 
^^ Exactly what I would have reccomended, because then you can count on good lighting for the entire scene and adjust the darkness to your liking! However, about being concerned about if the camera will pick it up... the truth is is that sometimes when doing these things digitally, to make it look like film, sometimes its good to not show the muzzle flash or light once or twice because on real film, the muzzle flash is sometimes missed when firing real (blank firing) guns. I recently watched a video where a couple of the flashes were left out, however the sound remained, and it just felt more real. It must be subconscious from watching the real thing on film in theaters for so long.
 
I think I've found my solution. I couldn't do the darkening it in post thing, because the position and beam of the flashlight needs to be constant and that would look awkward. I tried it with my strobe light and camera flash, and it was very hit or miss.

So, I thought of the easiest solution: flipping the practical lights on and off. It's long enough to register. If it goes on for too long I can drop a frame or 2 without it being noticeable, and I can selectively darken it afterwards so that it looks more natural and less even.
 
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