Tv Screen reflection

I would recommend a light with a gel (probably blue) on a dimmer that someone from your crew continually adjusts the brightness up and down on.

The light from a tv screen generally isn't bright enough.

I've done this. I got the actor close to the television screen, turned up the contrast and brightness to eleven (anyone get that reference?) and filmed it. It worked very well, but the reflection was white. I agree with Will Vincent that a blue gel would help with the color, unless you're really talented at recoloring sections of the screen in post (tedious).

Unfortunately, I had to cut this scene out of BC3.

We used a blue light in my feature with a hand waved in front of it slowly and randomly to simulate the picture changing on the tube. If you wanted to go more surreal with it, we've also shot an LCD projector at someone's face for a commercial with a matrix screensaver running on it..then you can actually see the content of the reflection.

I agree with the projector method, with a twist: Throw the projector through a 2'x3' square frame of heavy gel and some nets to knock the brightness down and viola! You even have the rectangle of a widescreen tv reflected in the actor's eyes! (It's actually reflecting the frame of gel - if you use a square frame of gel it'll be more like a standard tv.)

BTW: I've heard you can always "rent" a projector for free by purchasing one and taking it back. Make sure they don't have a restocking fee. (Fry's Electronics is the BEST! They even have Sony HDV Cameras and a 30-day return policy... hmmm...) Not that I would ever actually do this, I mean. Of course not.

Cheers!

Jim

we have tried successfully with little lightboxes, the size of a standard TV set with blue gelled lights and waving strips of coloured gel and opage paper mix in from to simulate picture changing. the waving should be synchronised to the sound, if any, or to an imaguinary scene being played on TV, to make it appear realistic...