47 votes
Accepted

Are lights a worthwhile investment?

The short answer is: You've picked three of the most talented and, significantly, indulged directors in history (Stanley Kubrick, Terence Malick, Milos Forman) and asked "Why doesn't everyone work ...
moviegique's user avatar
  • 2,498
38 votes
Accepted

What exactly is a “European style of single-source lighting, which involved the use of incense burners?”

The technique literally uses smoke in scenes to diffuse lighting. I found this description on the director Alan Parker’s own website: “The European style of single source, diffused light — dubbed ‘Le ...
Giacomo1968's user avatar
  • 6,095
19 votes

Are lights a worthwhile investment?

There's a lot missing with natural light and there's a lot that can't be done if you rely on natural light and most of it relates to being in control of your set. Natural light is great... if you ...
Catija's user avatar
  • 26.4k
8 votes

Are lights a worthwhile investment?

As @sanpaco commented, there are many reasons for using artificial lighting: Any set on a sound stage will intrinsically have no lights (or just lights way up on the ceiling). It will need to be ...
BrettFromLA's user avatar
  • 23.6k
8 votes
Accepted

Why was S08E03 so dark?

This was intentional, utilized to strengthen the effect of the episode: Unclear outcomes in the fighting This reflects the idea of the fog of war and chaos that arises during battle. Like the ...
DukeZhou's user avatar
  • 6,939
7 votes
Accepted

Why do lights have a streaky flicker in some movies?

The question detail added since I wrote this pretty much eliminates my early theories. I've now split the original answer out below what is still mainly guesswork. If you examine this sequence frame ...
Tetsujin's user avatar
  • 53k
6 votes
Accepted

Why did they choose green lighting for the lounge shootout in John Wick 3?

As per Cinematography, Dan Laustsen it was done for the exclusive look: “It was really expensive in terms of human resource to install a hundred metres of LED, but I didn’t want to do a shootout ...
Ankit Sharma's user avatar
  • 118k
5 votes

Do movies and TV shows use extra-bright flashlights?

Links are mainly to 'educational' refs with background info on each topic, rather than IMDB/wikipedia etc. You can see the beam because "movie smoke" is used in nearly every shot these days. You ...
Tetsujin's user avatar
  • 53k
5 votes
Accepted

Spiral-projectors / holograms (?) - how do they work? (as seen in Gambinos SNL performance)

This thread on Reddit somewhat explains the effect: A very clever use of the camera frame rate, rolling shutter, and a CMOS censor, combined with timed projection. You would only be able to see ...
Holt's user avatar
  • 166
4 votes

Are lights a worthwhile investment?

You also have to consider hard light and soft light. The first is direct and makes skin look hell, so fashion photographers doing a bikini shoot on a beach might have to erect diffuser screens to ...
ump's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes

If you coat a lightbulb with (human) blood, will the light be tinted red?

It would tint the light, but very badly, and unevenly (quite unlike the photo). Of course, blood is a translucent liquid that will -- at first -- coat the bulb. Recall that hospitals use a gizmo that ...
John's user avatar
  • 8,522
3 votes

How are the natural sunlight effects achieved while shooting?

Two simple ways. Shot on Location or an outdoor set in real light. Any number of lighting sources that have daylight white temperature and CRI (color quality). It's not difficult to have artificial ...
cde's user avatar
  • 67.8k
3 votes

Why do lights have a streaky flicker in some movies?

There is a lot going on in this clip, and while I cannot claim to offer a definitive answer, I would like to add some observations. (Edited) I originally noted that the flickering in the GIF was not ...
Sara's user avatar
  • 131
2 votes

Why did they choose green lighting for the lounge shootout in John Wick 3?

During an interview, Reeves himself said the following: “I mean we literally do a line from ‘The Matrix’ in ‘John Wick: Chapter 3′, and it’s in the nomenclature…’The Matrix’ has the oracle, ‘John ...
Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry's user avatar
1 vote

Why was S08E03 so dark?

I saw the episode on Monday on HBO (day of release in Germany). It was very dark, and I thought it was meant to be this way. I tweaked the settings of my LED TV to light it up a little with limited ...
TvdH's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote

Why was S08E03 so dark?

Compare Tormund and Beric entering Last Hearth, which I suspect was a daylight shot cast with a blue filter to make it look like night, to S08E03, which really was filmed at night. The difference is ...
Mark Pepoy's user avatar
1 vote
Accepted

Why was the final shootout scene shot in a very dark violet tint?

Essentially, because that's what the director, Wayne Kramer wanted. From an interview... It was very expensive to light and the producers were trying to talk me out of it — which I’m glad didn’t ...
Paulie_D's user avatar
  • 133k

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