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Question about mixing lights, that you want to be the same in the movie.

I am storyboarding a script which is a horror movie that takes place inside a house for most of it. I want use tungsten lighting, to give it that shadowy house feel. But there are some problems, like for example, there is a scene where a guy looks in his bathroom mirror and I want to use my friend's bathroom, which has a mirror that has lightbulbs going around it, like a celebrity's make up mirror.

However halogen lights burn at 3200 K. Regular tunsgten bulbs for house light sockets burn at 2800 K. You can see the difference in color and it doesn't match, as one is a little more yellow. I would like all the light to be white and match so should I gel the halogens to be 4 degrees lower, since the regular bulbs will be seen in the movie, or what should I do?

What do movies do in this case, when you want a house light to be in the shot, as the point of origin of the light, but it does not burn at quite the same temperature? Or do I have to gel the halogen lights to match on the screen lights, and then white balance to the on screen ones?

Thanks.
 
If you need them to be the same, use photo floods for your bulbs - you can get really high output bulbs, all at proper colour temp abd they only cost around $7 each.

They don't last nearly as long as household bulbs but they might be what you're looking for.
 
Okay thanks. I have found bulbs that burn at the same temperature as the halogens, 3200 K. So that solves the problem then!

Thanks people!

Since we are on the topic, I want to shoot in an office building with cubicles. The lights on the ceiling are flourescent, but I want the windows to be open possibly. There is one scene where I want the actors to walk from the cubicle room to an office, and in the office, I want the sun to shine through the window. I want to shoot this scene without cutting.

Now when mixing windows sunlight with fluorescents, I can either white balance to the fluorescents, which means that the sunlight will come out magenta, or I can white balance to the sun, which means the fluorescents come out yellow. I don't really care for the yellow or the magenta per say, and would like to things white, or maybe blue sunlight. But magenta and yellow are not as attractive. I could turn the ceiling lights off, but then the audience might question why the lights are not on in the mastershot's view, as it is a work day for the characters.

Or I could put gel on the windows so the sunlight comes out the same color as fluorescent if there is a sort of gel. i don't know if the building owner will be okay with doing that to the window, but we'll see. Would that be the best solution?

Thanks.
 
Okay thanks, but no matter how I frame it, you can still see the lights on the ceiling in the background. The only way to frame it, without the lights in the shot, is to use high angles, but I don't want to use those, if they are not emotionally appropriate for the scene.
 
If the sun's bright enough to light the scene, why would anyone question the lights being off? Do you turn lights on in your house when the sun is shining through the windows..?
 
The sun is not bright enough for the whole scene though. It comes through the windows in streams. Since it's a large room, the characters will walk through the streams, as they shine in through the sides. But I may need additional lights, for other parts of the scene, where the sun does not shine. If I shoot the whole thing in one master, I will not have to switch lights.

But of course I will use close ups and other shots as well.
 
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If you can't frame out the fluos, you have to balance everything else to them. huge plus green sheets for the windows and plus green to the tungsten. Then white balance for fluorescent.

Or, change the shot so you can block the window light and allow you to gel just the tungsten toward the fluos (plus green gels). to get your match.
 
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