How to choose the right practical flashlight

[aemon123]

Hey all,

First time posting here so forgive me if I missed some of the forum etiquette. I’m currently in pre for a short and I’m looking for guidance on picking the right flashlight for a particular scene. It’s a night exterior in a forest, where the character will primarily be light by a practical flashlight (some shots will be silhouetted, some are the bare bulb shining onto his face.)

I was having a look at some references, and I came across PRISONERS– the scene where Paul Dano is lit by a police officer’s flashlight in front of the RV. It got me wondering how you guys go about picking the right flashlight for your films. It seems like the one in this scene is around 6500K.

Obviously getting the right white balance and spot/flood is important, but do you also try and find a high-CRI light for these types of shots? Is that crucially important for these? Are there specific brands that you gravitate towards? What kind of output are you typically looking for?

Due to the limited budget, I’m not able to test all the possible variations, so any guidance on where to start would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Aemon

Topic

[LucaM]

Hi! While i’ve got no professional experience – so i can be of little help – i’m in your same situation (shooting a short with a flashlight scene) and from what i tested you could consider these details :

– some lights could cause flickering and bands in the camera (a frequency problem, if i am not wrong), so do a test if possible before buying or shooting the real scene. This said you can obtain good results even with cheap flashlights from DIY stores, as long as they are strong enough

– you could use a reflecting surface to lighten a bit the actor face (when i asked a similar question Roger wrote that he did something like that in the cave scene of Prisoners) in close ups, since actually the flashlight points forward, not on actor face

–  i am altering  the WB to mimick a night scene and i’m setting the other ligths color temperature to create some kind of color contrast or armony with the flashlight color, according to what suits better the scene

– to actually see the light beam you need thickness in the atmosphere, and it’s complicated to create it in a forest without hazing machines

– good luck and have fun!

[Andrew C]

I’m curious as well, I’m going to be gaffing a low budget film where we have a flickering flashlight and was wondering if there are certain brands to look out for.

[Author]

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