We designed our RoscoLED Tape Gaffer Kits so that filmmakers could add light any-where and any-way they need it into their scene. This is why we were thrilled when cinematographer Justin Black contacted us to share the various ways he had put the RoscoLED Tape strips from his kit to work. Read on to see how he’s been “rigging them with snot tape, gaff tape, Velcro and zip ties” to light almost every project he’s worked on recently.
During a commercial shoot for the University of Toronto, the director requested a beauty light that would create a pronounced eyelight and a soft, stylized portrait look. Justin normally would have used Kino tubes for this look, but he needed the effect to dim up from 0%. He mounted our RoscoLED Tape to strips of corrugated plastic and then used Velcro to attach a heavy diffusion like Cinegel #3000 Tough Rolux or E216 White Diffusion over the LEDs to soften their output. PROTIP: arch the diffusion in such a way that it tents above the LEDs slightly. This helps achieve a softer illumination for a beauty light effect. The more distance you can get between the emitters and the diffusion – the softer the light output.
Justin rigged his beauty light with parallel strips of tungsten and daylight, which allowed him to dial-in whatever color temperature they needed. One of their locations was a science lab that had warm white fluorescents in the shot, so after Justin mixed the LEDs to achieve the proper color temperature, he attached a strip of Cinegel #3304 Plusgreen onto the strips to match the green cast from the overhead fluorescents.
On the same Toronto University commercial project, Justin also needed to create a lens flare effect. To achieve this, he taped a 3” piece of RoscoLED Tape from the Gaffer Kit onto his matte box. He powered the RoscoLED strip from his camera battery using our optional D-Tap Power Adapter Accessory, and he controlled the LEDs with the Single Fader Dimmer inside the kit. Justin was also able to mount the dimmer onto his hand grip with Velcro, which enabled him to wash the flare in and out mid-shot. He reports that the set up was “fairly quick to integrate” and the director was happy with the effect it produced.
Sometimes, when you’re shooting, you need a certain element of the set to just pop a little bit. That was the case on a commercial Justin was working on for Sport Chek, Canada’s largest retailer for sporting apparel. The commercial featured an actor speaking at a podium in front of a green screen and they were looking for a way to accent the Sport Chek logo on the front of the podium. Justin used snot tape to mount two 3” daylight RoscoLED strips behind the “Gift Draft” graphic, and one 12” tungsten RoscoLED strip behind the Sport Chek crest. Because the shot was white balanced to tungsten, the crest backlighting ended up neutral and the logo backlighting ended up cool – all of which helped the “Sport Chek Gift Draft” graphics stand out against the primary red podium.
Overall, Justin reports that he’s “happy with the RoscoLED Tape system so far.” He finds the RoscoLED strips inside to be straightforward and easy-to-use, and he was impressed with their color rendering.
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