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Desirable Fluorescent Flicker

Hello,

I’m shooting a scene in HD (F900, 24P) where I want the effect of _sporadic_ flickering from practical and off-screen fluorescent sources. We will have Kino Flo fixtures and ballasts, but have a small Home Depot budget as well. I want an on-off flicker which ideally could be controlled by a lamp op (similar to a Lightning Strikes unit). Since the source is on camera, it must be a true fluorescent globe. Please share thoughts on the cheapest way to do this.

Regards,

Andrew Huebscher
Director of Photography
Los Angeles, CA

Don't know if this will help, but. . .

I just bought a 2 or 3 way torcherie lamp for incandescent bulbs. I used a fluorescent bulb in the socket, when the torcherie's on off switch is set to low the bulb slickers quite well. this effect is best when the bulb is cold, and hasn't heated up yet.

Steven Gladstone
Cinematographer - Gladstone Films
Cinematography Mailing List - East Coast List Administrator
Better off Broadcast (B.O.B.)
New York, U.S.A.

Steven Gladstone writes :

>I just bought a 2 or 3 way torcherie lamp for incandescent bulbs. I used a fluorescent bulb in the socket.

What is a torcherie ? Is It dimmer, a flicker generator, or ?

Thank You

Mike Franz

Mike Franz wrote:

> What is a torcherie ? Is It dimmer, a flicker generator, or ?

Sorry, Floor lamp for personal household lighting, not for film production. A standard dimmer might give you the effect you want, but I'm sure that the experts on flickering fluorescents that reside here will chime in.

You might check the archives as well, I think this has been touched on before. Best of luck, hope it was helpful this time.

Steven Gladstone
Cinematographer - Gladstone Films
Cinematography Mailing List - East Coast List Administrator
Better off Broadcast (B.O.B.)
New York, U.S.A.

I have produced a random flicker with fluoro’s just using a dimmer with a normal magnetic ballast fluoro, doesn't work with electronic ballasts.

The effect the Director wanted in this old building was the odd fluoro randomly trying to strike, as they do at the end of their life.

We just put small electronic dimmers in the line and set the volts so the starter would just fire but not enough volts to strike the tube.

Regards

Graham Rutherford
Gaffer
Australia

>What is a torcherie ? Is It dimmer, a flicker generator, or ?

What in the UK would be simply referred to as a free-standing uplighter.

Normally fitted with a 300W halogen lamp in the UK.

Clive Mitchell
http://www.bigclive.com