Cinematography Mailing List

Glowing Pills

I have a pick up shot where the bad guy spikes the good guys drink with a pill. The Director wants the Pill to glow !!! I have had a look at the shot and wires are a problem as the shot to be replaced has the pill in the palm of a hand or alternatively I may be able to change the shot so as the pill is at tha base of the fingers allowing wires to pass up through underneath.

The shot is a high key one so the pill needs to have some kick. :) Picture lock down is only days away and the budget is spent and I have fourteen other shots to do with a tiny crew. I think I am having fun.

Tom Gleeson

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Without wires : You can wrap the pill in 3M Scotchlite ( front-screen projection material) and illuminate it near the camera lens axis (or better yet, through a front-surface mirror/beam-splitter). The material throws light back to it's source.

It's similar to the effect of the glowing costumes in the first Superman movie, and the light sabres in Star Wars.

Add a squeeze box (dimmer). to pulse the light.

I've picked up (free) samples/remnants of the sticky-backed adhesive material from projection screen companies like Stewarts in LA.

Good luck!

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Scotchlite sounds like a winner. Or, how about blacklight paint & illumination?

John Stewart

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There used to be Scotchlite Paint. This would be easier. Does it still exist?

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The paint does still exist. Find the largest sign-painter's supply house in town and they will probably have it. It is also used to paint lines on roads and parking lots (aka car parks.)

Mark H. Weingartner

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How about UV pigmnents and UV fixtures for a glowing pill ?

Mark Doering-Powell

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I don't know if the "pill" could be a capsule, but if it could that opens up some possibilities: replacing the innards of a clear capsule with the glowing goo from a Cyalume(tm) lightstick (may not be high key enough, but a lovely shapde of green or purple) or filling it with glass beads and hitting it with a special. I imagine that keying it in is out of budget ...

Let us know what you do...

George "pills on his mind a lot lately" Nicholas

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Maybe a Wildfire light and the (correct) fluorescent paint would work.

Since it's a c/u of a pill you might get away with just the paint and some other more inexpensive *blacklight*. Using some white ProMist would help the light value *glow*.

David Perrault

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I'm sure Mark Doering Powell can give you a treatise on this. You might consider some florescent paint and a UV light source.

Joe "don't drink it!" Di Gennaro
Director of Photography

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Yeah, UV pigments and lights, seemed like a good way to go, but...

Not another treatise from me...PLEASE ! Spare us...

Mark "my questions are treatise enough" Doering-Powell

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For a small self illuminating look, my first thought went to UV techniques since I have done so much of it. Second would be having a model builder make duplicate pills with bulbs inside. If it has to get too hot in relation to the ambient light created in the room, then a model hand may be needed. Other camera techniques include in various combination: shooting specials at the pills, double exposures/ motion control, diffusion/ filtration, and Chemical light.

The Post options are many too many to cover but I can throw out tech terms like, rotoscoping, color difference, Pill (name your color) screen, hand and/or 3D computer animation. Let us know how it went.

Take care,

Eric Swenson

Never take pills myself. Not even Magic ones.

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Ladies and Gentlemen many thanks for all the wonderful advice on glowing pills. In the end due to time constrictions I chose the advice to use the mag light bubble inserted into an opaque pill casing trick. I shot '48 key at f4 with f8/11 from the pill The pill glowed with a bright warm light and this made for one happy director.

I did get one surprise on this shoot when I used Christmas lights in a shot of a flying cockroach (I get the best gigs) I used those small coloured Christmas Tree lights in the back of a long lens shot out of focus for an effect. I shot at 150fps to capture the spinning cockroach but at 150fps the little lights started to strobe/flicker. This surprised me as the lights look like little incandacents so I did not expect flicker. No other elements in the frame flickered ( Sorry John the camera is innocent of all charges). So next time you do a high speed cockroach shot with those little Christmas lights don't say I didn't warn you !

-Tom Gleeson

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