"Watching TV" effect for film scene?

I need help with how to make the effect of "watching TV" for a film

scene. Two people are sitting in a sofa facing the camera. The

persons, and the entire room, will be covered in some kind of flashing

light that is supposed to look like it comes from the TV, but stronger

and exaggerated. I thought of using a video projector, and project

some flashy music video through a thick diffusion filter, but I have

no projector and almost no money to do it. Anyone who has an idea?

Please mail me!

filip@damienmail.zzn.com

You could go all out, and use an actual TV?

As he said, he's looking for an exagerated way to do it, so a TV wouldn't look that TV-ish.

 

If you have a monolight handy, you could put a bluish gel on the light (to get closer to the colour temperature of TV) and play with the modeling light, turning it and off to give the impression of changing images.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I feel you'd need a larger, softer lightsource to mimick a TV. So I'd use a gelled monolight with a softbox. As large as possible, of course.

Since you say film i sounds like you mean film as in video or movie filming not still

photography. Any diffused light source with a light bluish filter wll work. If you can get

away with using a TV set as alight source tune the TV to a blank channel and fiddle

withthe controls till you get the image on screen to "roll".

Cut 'n' paste.

 

Take one photo of just a TV, preferably up close, not tuned to any particular station (for the "static" effect) and at a shutter speed faster than 1/30 sec. if you want the "roll" effect.

 

Then photograph your subjects. Front light them anyway you like or with whatever equipment you have available: hotshoe flash, studio flash, slide projector, strong floodlight, etc.

 

The "background" (toward which the subjects are actually looking) should be clean and clutter free. This will make it easier to cut 'n' paste digitally. I don't know whether white, black or chroma green or blue would be best for this.

 

In Photoshop (or whatever) tweak the TV screen layer to be as bright and intense as you want. Etc. Really sounds like a pretty simple project when done this way.

A string of blinking multi colored x-mas tree lights in a box as used many times by the pros. You even get the realistic multi colored shadows.

Hi,

 

don't know if you have any cash to spare, but most cities have production houses where you can rent a "flicker box". Its a strobe light that fires at a random rate that simulates a flickering TV, or fireplace, or lightning, depending on the rate you set it to as well as the gel's and diffusion you apply in front of it. You could throw a blue sheet over it, prop it up in a creative way, and see what happens...

at Allen Gordon's in LA its $25/day, and if you pick it up later in the day on Friday you get it until Monday for the same price.

 

Shivaz

don't know if i'm too late, i do lighting for film and tv, we use whats called a keno flo with colour correction gel on it, it is basically 4 x 2 foot flourescent tubes in a housing, you could probably get 4 normal domestic ones cheap (or treat them nicely and return them to the shop afterwards) and tape them togeather. use daylight tubes then add put a blue gel over the top (we use a full blue colour correction gel) then simply move something infront of the light, it sounds crude but it works if you get the timing right