"Showtime" look

[DS Williams]

Greetings Red community,


I'm shooting a promo this week for a local school video program and they asked for this specific look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1qA3_vj9RY

As far as I can tell the majority of those shots are shot against muslin fabric with a strong backlight, maybe 2k or even 5k, couples with a frontal soft key, seeing as there are no shadows on the faces of the talent.

I see a number of lens flares as well. Perhaps there is a small tweenie or inkie off camera purposefully shooting into the lens?

It looks to me as if the key is a soft and toppy... there are minor shadows directly under their cheeks and jawline. I understand a large portion of this look could be created in post as well, including the lens flares, but I'd like to create it organically on set if possible.

Anyone care to clarify or correct my assumptions? Any comments or recognitions would be of great help

 

[donatello b]

IMO the flares , the strong spot light FX's are post ( there is a real backlight spot but the light FX from it are post) ... in general i think you have it figured out .. do some post test using some light FX plugin's ...

you could try to create the FX's live but you loose control of when exactly you want it to happen .. and if you are working with a 3rd party beleive me they'll decide later that they want the flare to happen at a different moment/second ..or they want it smaller /bigger etc !!!

 

[Andrew Ceperley]

Oh I know this promo well. It gets put on every Showtime DVD (and I hate that damn song). The flares, while applied in post, are more than likely real photographed flares (shined lights into the lens in front of a black backdrop), just put over the image with different blending modes.