Red Lighting - Confined Space

[SupaFILM]

Hi Everyone

I would say I'm an enthusiast rather than anything else at this stage of my film making - so apologies if my question is basic!

I'm wanting to get a red glow for a scene in a confined space (at dusk), either static or pulsing. (And I'd rather not spend any money if at all possible!)

What's the best way to achieve this - with lighting during the shoot or in post-production via effects?
Have considered background lighting (ie a red light in a darkened room), or a red filter over either the lens or over the camera's built-in light.

Are either of these options any good?

All advice much appreciated!
Carla

 

[knightly]

As if there's a red light coming through a wondow (i.e. noir neon sign glow coming in from outside) or as if there's a red light in the room or as if there's a supernatural something going on in the room?

Did you want to effect the whole frame, just the background, or just the foreground?

What IS this red glow? What is its motivation

 

[SupaFILM]

As if there's a red light coming through a wondow (i.e. noir neon sign glow coming in from outside) or as if there's a red light in the room or as if there's a supernatural something going on in the room?

Did you want to effect the whole frame, just the background, or just the foreground?

What IS this red glow? What is its motivation

It's 2 people in a car at dusk, and we want to create a seedy atmosphere with the red light.
So we don't want the light to be seen, just to give a red hue.
We also don't want to negatively affect the image quality of the shot.

Thanks in advance...
C

 

[JakeSully]

Your best bet is to get a cheap work light (there is even lamps that you can attach to the car's battery) and use red gels/filters, or something like that.

 

[knightly]

No worries, I'd still like to know what is causing the light, where it's coming from (or is it just random light?)

The whole image or just the foreground or the background?

 

[directorik]

The best way is to use gels on lights. The best way would be to use several
lights, red on some of them, nothing on the others. Unfortunately that will
take some money. Since you would rather not spend any money, you should
do the red in post.

 

[knightly]

gels can be purchased (relatively cheaply) big enough to cover windows as well... and you can get red flood lamps that screw into a normal socket for cheap just about anywhere.

 

[dlevanchuk]

I'd second directorik's answer - do it in post.
You want to do red in the small space, which means you ll need to use pretty wide lens. Red light does a poor job lighting a scene because it is pretty faint, so you ll need to use wide angle lens with something like 1.4 arpeture.. Those lenses are pretty pricy.
I d say try to get as much contrast in the shot as you can (if your bg is ligh, wear dark clothing) light the shot dramatically, then bring the test footage to your editor and lower blue and green channels. Then you could tweak around with the red channel..

I'm maybe wrong but that is what I would do..
I wouldn't raise ISO because that would give u a noisy shot

 

[knightly]

If you keep some color separation between the back and foreground, you'll be able to make chroma mattes for doing separate corrections later, then you can pull just the subject or just the background toward red (even just the highlights of each if you like).

 

[David.rhsc]

It's 2 people in a car at dusk, and we want to create a seedy atmosphere with the red light.
So we don't want the light to be seen, just to give a red hue.
We also don't want to negatively affect the image quality of the shot.

Thanks in advance...
C

Maybe I am reading this wrong, but I'm thinking that this is 2 people in a car parked in some seedy neighborhood.

Let's say that the "red light" is a neon sign from the local strip joint or something. It could even be rigged on a dimmer so that you can fade it up and down as though the sign were slowly flashing or something.

To simplify, let's leave the car parked and assume that you are doing a 2-shot through the front windshield.

In that event, it's very simple to hide small fixtures (LED obie lights work well for this) within the dash to give some frontal fill from the dashboard of the car.

I'd still probably key them with some sort of "streetlight" effect on the smart side. Then somewhere as a kicker style light, rig your red light gag - red gel on a strong light, preferably with a wide throw.

Then just fade it up and down during the shot. Alternatively, swap the streetlight and the red light gag, that way their key fades up and down, leaving them with just the spooky dashboard light and whatever is specular behind the car when the red light is down.

This does require access to power, but if you have a Home Depot or a Big 5 Rents near you, getting a honda put-put generator for a day shouldn't be prohibitively expensive.