Talent standing still during time lapse...

legrevedotcom

legrevedotcom

Veteran
Well... Apart from the obvious where the talent in fact stands still for a lengthy periode of time, is there any way to fake this? In think the lenght of the clip should be around 3-5 seconds, but the background should span across several hours, from late afternoon to beginning night. The talent is shown in full figure or atleast from the knees up.

It's low/no budget shoot, so greenscreen is out of the question. So are HMIs which I know I could dim up and down to affect the ratios in the shot.

Do you think one could lapse the background sensibly with 15 min. shots every hour and then cut them together to get that significant change in light?

Any tips and ideas are welcome.
 
Basically have come to a conclusion myself... Will do it by having the talent standing 15 min a time, then use cut aways that can signify change in time, then back to the talent for 15 min, until I have enough for that sequence.
 
Greenscreen isn't out of the question for a no-budget shoot. $20 gets you a greenscreen if you want one. And if you're talking about from the waist up type stuff, where the talent's taking up most of the frame... then yeah, I'd say greenscreen. Just go buy some green paint, or green cloth. It won't be fantastic, but it should more than be acceptable for what you want. I'm not quite getting what you're saying with standing 15 mins then cutting away then back... but as near as I can figure, that sounds like a terrible way to accomplish what you want. If that was my only other option, I'd just tell my talent to stand still for a long time.
 
If you shoot with strong vertical lines in the background - like the edge of a wall, or a pipe, or some other top to bottom feature, you only need to shoot the short time - then you split screen, or mask and then without moving the camera record the tome lapse. The vertical line will be where the two shots meet.

HMIs by the way don't dim. Some have two power levels, but most run flat out, and you can put scrims (wire mesh to restrict light output) in front - but discharge lamps have a limited range of electronic dimming - usually a min and max knob that goes from bright to very bright - but not really dim.
 
"Electronic ballasts can dim an HMI to 50% output. They cannot be dimmed below 50%, because the arc becomes unstable."
-Harry C. Box, in Set Lighting Technician's Handbook 4th Ed.
 
Last edited:
You can't run electronic dimmers on an arc light like an HMI. Mechanical blinders need to be used.
At any rate green screen would make the most sense here.
 
My only issue with the GS approach is emulating the changing light. TO make it look natural will require a fair bit of work. Kino's / other fluo / LEDS are all dimmable. Though I dont like this idea that much as the sun doesnt rise or set as a straight up ambience in a house or city street for example. Could you not jib a flag on a unit up or down? That would work in the way Id perceive the scene as a viewer.
 
Noel Evans said:
My only issue with the GS approach is emulating the changing light. TO make it look natural will require a fair bit of work. Kino's / other fluo / LEDS are all dimmable. Though I dont like this idea that much as the sun doesnt rise or set as a straight up ambience in a house or city street for example. Could you not jib a flag on a unit up or down? That would work in the way Id perceive the scene as a viewer.
Click to expand...

Yeah the changing light is the whole thing. I'll try to elaborate... (by the way... it's a music video. I should have mentioned that at first!)

The shot takes place in a garden, under a transparent plastic roof. The talent leans up against one of the beams holding the roof. Then speed changes into time lapse. I have no issue with the talent being slightly jittery, but I think she would have an issue standing still for 1-2 hours :)
I need the light change from late afternoon to early night. In other words.... condense a couple of hours of realtime into 2 x 3 seconds.

That's why I was thinking about just cutitng away to fx. a lapse of the sun moving for something like 2 seconds to help the audience perceiving the change, then going back to the talent and return to normal pace again.

So it would be:

3 seconds: timelapse - talent leans against beam, standing still

2 seconds: timelapse - sun across the sky

3 seconds: timelapse - talent standing again, time reverts towards normal speed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top