Home of Professional Cinematographers

Movie Theatre Projection

Published : 7th March 2004

Hello all,

Looking for suggestions for the following scenario:

We will be shooting part of a spot in a movie theatre. We never need to see the screen. However we need to see audience reactions. I'm looking for something special, maybe a little hyper-real. My initial thoughts are to use an LCD projector as a key light and have hints of action moving across their faces. Any experience with this? Or any other suggestions.

The director would like to go as wide as possible (300 audience members) for a few shots, but the majority will be tighter groups of people ( maybe 40).

Shooting with 5218. Any thought on powerful projectors?

Thanks in advance,

B Jonsson
Cinematographer - Los Angeles

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Hi Brengt

For people looking at a screen, you would expect to see the reflected light. I think aiming an LCD projector on actor's faces would look like they are staring directly into the projector. For something a bit heightened and surreal I think you could try using LED battens.

I checked out a range of these at PLASA this year, called the Pixel Line 1044, and immediately thought they could be very useful for projecting images across actor's faces, particularly where blue screen or rear projection had to match what the actor is looking at as you can feed a video signal into these battens and have them replay the images larger and brighter than a projector can. You can link them together in any combination and have full control over what brightness and color they kick out.

Check out their website for more info. I know they are available for hire, but wouldn't know where in LA...

http://www.pixelpar.com/mainframe.htm

I haven't as yet tried them myself for this purpose, only because I haven't had the opportunity yet! Usual disclaimers apply to me and James Thomas engineering who make it.

We basically don't know each other!

All the best

Roger Simonsz
DP/Operator
Paris (or where the work is)

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