Muzzle flash lighting up a character

Eric Coughlin

Eric Coughlin

Veteran
Okay, so the effect I'm wanting to achieve is to have a character fire a gun in pitch darkness, so you see him for a few frames from the light of the muzzle flash, then it all goes dark again, he fires a half second later and is lit up again, but is now closer to camera, rinse and repeat.

So, I don't own prop guns so a real muzzle flash for the lighting is not an option and the project is too small to buy one for it. Thus, airsoft guns will have to suffice. So I guess my question is, how do I light it and grade it?

The way I see it, I've got two options. One, I shoot it in darkness, and flash the character with some kind of light, perhaps a camera flash or the strobe mode on my Luxli Timpani LED. Set it to a warm temperature to mimic a muzzle flash. Then just make one flash for each simulated muzzle flash, and obviously add the muzzle in post.

The second option would be to film the scene with plenty of lighting (as much as I'd imagine the muzzle flash giving), then darken everything to pitch black in post for all of the shots where the muzzle flash is not going off, and then choose the desired brightness levels and where the light hits for when the muzzle flash goes off.

A similar effect was used in The Dark Knight Rises at 1:12 in this clip.



Thoughts?
 
A realistic effect would last just one frame. You can make it longer if you want, it's not a big deal. The no-budget way to do this is to use a photography flash with a wireless trigger, but if you're using a rolliing shutter camera then making it fill the entire frame may give you a few headaches.
 
LED big torch with a flash button and a split gel - try amber and a yellow, and rotate the torch each flash for variation,
 
DM Charles Papert. I recall him doing something similar for a Key & Peele sketch where they were firing shotguns in a dark room.
 
captslomo said:
DM Charles Papert. I recall him doing something similar for a Key & Peele sketch where they were firing shotguns in a dark room.
Click to expand...

I can't find the post where I talked about it, I think it was this one: https://youtu.be/y_qZggrYHRQ?t=38

This was before LED units were arriving with pre-programmed effects and it was hard to find instruments that could produce a flash that was long enough duration to avoid rolling shutter issues. This was one of the last times I used my homemade effect which involved a par can aimed into at a small shiny board. We would cut a hole in a piece of foamcore of a given size so that when held inbetween the par and the board it would allow the beam to pass through, then I would have a grip slide it from one side to the other which effectively turned the light on then off again with a controllable duration based on the speed the card was moved (and because it was delivered via the bounce, you don't see any side to side effect). What I felt looked best for a large blast like a shotgun was a frame of half intensity, one frame of full output, and a half intensity frame of decay. We'd practice the swing of the foamcore until the timing was good. Not at all scientific or highly repeatable, but it worked well once everyone got the hang of it.

Well, that's old history (but maybe it will help someone who needs to do this without the aid of a flashable LED unit). To answer the specific question, if it is really intended to be pitch black outside of the muzzle flashes, I'd think the easiest way to do it would be to light the scene to the desired intensity of the muzzle flash with a continuous unit, then cap the camera and shoot some black footage (theoretically the same as a black slug in post, but possible that the camera has a little DNA in its black look) and simple create the flash frames in post. That way you can really pick your desired moments without having to capture them down to the frame on the day.
 
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