Fairy lights as seen in Eyes Wide Shut Options

[justinbrown]

Hi,

Am shooting a music video and wondered if anyone knew which fairy lights i could use to create such an effect as the two stills i've added, one from Eyes Wide Shut, and the Other from Red Riding.

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Im thinking that kubrick wouldnt have had LED fairy lights when he made these, so was wondering if anyone new the size of bulb or what wattage to use, or is LED the way to go?
In both of these films it looks like all light is coming from the fairy lights bar a little ambience from a chandelier in Kubricks.
I'll be only using fairy lights and a 1000watt rifa. Rooms not very big, bout 3mx3m and 2 tall

shootin 200t kodak wide open most probably

Thanks in advance.

all the best

Justin





www.justin-brown.co.uk

[Chris Keth]

I would just get cheap white christmas lights and lots of them. They'll be warm tungsten, something like 2700K. That's probably what was in eyes wide shut. They don't really come in different wattages. I don't know the look of your video, but blue LEDs could look really cool strung in curtains like that.

[John Holland]

I agree with Chris , just 12 volt xmas lights ! Kubrick did push a 500 stock at least a stop for that film !!

[Stephen Murphy]

I agree with Chris , just 12 volt xmas lights ! Kubrick did push a 500 stock at least a stop for that film !!

Cheap white fairy lights but just make sure they're not on one of those cheap dimmers that can cause the lights to flicker.

[Adrian Sierkowsk...]

From what I recall EWS was xmas lights. I recently used the same as a subtle fill light in a "lightless hallway" on the '19 stock and the results were much brighter than I expected! Needless to say while kubrick needed to push 1 stop, I am not sure you'll need to do the same. It depends on subject distance to the lights and whether or not you're augmenting them with anything or just want to have them as a white-ish background.

[John Holland]

Kubrick didnt just push a stop for the fairys the whole movie !!

[Adrian Sierkowsk...]

Quite true John, quite true. I can't recall, at the moment, the exact reason why he pushed the whole film; and sadly as has been mentioned before, I think, the DVD version was "corrected" for that "mistake."

[John Holland]

Yes hence the corrected DVD doesnt look anything like the fantastic grainy image i watched at the cinema , Kubrick never liked "Movie " lighting , always pushed stocks to there max , so little light needed and super speed lenses wide open . If i remember think they were shooting with something like 10 fc . may have been a touch more ! and this was on sets at Pinewood Studios .

[Lester Dunton]

I think over 30 different types of Fairy lights were tested, and the final ones were from France I believe. Most of the film was shot using the Arri Variprimes.