This is the second in a series that gives you the prompt for an effect I’ve been asked for on set and next week I’ll show you what I did.  Hopefully, it’s a good exercise for programmers that want to get sharp or stay sharp.

My gaffer (the legend Jay Kemp) is kind of a beast for driving work.  He wants a lot of layers and he wants both bold and incredibly subtle effects.  This one is very subtle.  We did this the first time on Outer Range Season 2.  

The scene- two people driving down a desert highway.  There is an S360 in 12 pixel mode that is serving as the key light.  (If you are a theater person, take a moment to look up the light instead of trying to translate this into strip light.)  The request is to make an effect that provides incredibly subtle, random dips across random pixels to signify moments that the car turns and the quality of light isn’t uniformly blasting like it usually does in the desert.  The light will get walked around the car as we do different camera angles, so don’t get caught up in angle very much.

A reminder- this should be VERY subtle.  So that means there should be moments where no effect is happening at all.  In this instance, less is more.

You can program on any console. I programmed it on Eos, but I know most of the major consoles and have led classes across five or six console platforms at a time and any of them can do it.

Last word of advice- in the classes I’ve taught, this one can be surprisingly tricky for some reason.  Be patient and get an effect that is barely noticeable and cannot be predicted.

Let me know your answers, and I’ll show you mine next week.

(Outer Range S2 Production Photographer Karen Kuehn)

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Mark LaPierre is a programmer in film, television and theater based out of Albuquerque.  He grew up in live entertainment and has been a designer/programmer for musicals, concert dance, live music, circus and corporate.  Mark is a proud member of IATSE, an ETC Eos trainer and an enthusiastic trainer of many other platforms and subjects.  He offers remote console coaching in 30 minute to 4 hour times as well as a full range of training in person.  If you enjoy his content, please consider commenting on his posts on the website to appease the Algorithm.