"Dirty" look.

[lwinters630]

I know this is a late post, but someone may find this useful.

The answer to the post is in the question "Dirty look". Dirt is black, however you can't project black. Light is a reflective value so if want to make a red wall turn black I would light it with blue or green (any color that does not contain red). So in this case he has tan walls (made from red and green) so using a blue gel will cause the wall to turn dark. To make it Dirtier try several ideas. Use No color blue and a darker blue crumple them up and stuff them into the gel frame. adjusting the creases and folds, softening the focus will dirty the wall. Using donuts of the color gel will also let white light in the center and haze the edges. experiment with partial crumples or searated edges. Gels do not have to be flat or fill the whole frame, mixing some of these ideas will get the look you desire.

 

[TimMiller]

Personally I use a breakup in a 50 deg instrument then run it out of focus typically barrel ran almost all the way out. Put in some CTO or run the fixture at about 30 - 50 percent. When going for dirty looks you are not going to have a bright stage. I will typically run more instruments to get the stage wash but all at lower levels.

 

[Les]

I think achieving a "dirty" look can be done by using many of the above methods, but also experimenting with intensities and shadows. One could try lighting the set from extreme angles and introducing shadows, or changing the relative intensities of the front light vs top light.

 

[ship]

Just what I was thinking in re-reading all the old post that has lots of useful ideas but mainly I also got down to lighting angle so as to get this done in primary mover supported by the techniques. Can perhaps McCandless "dirty look" in help with paint and accessories in faking it, but once you design that look better results. Believe I mentioned the Photo Morgue in college I did and for some photos had to do a study onto how to make a photo in it look on stage. Studied the beam angles, gel and fixture type to do so etc. as with intensity for each light doing so in how to reproduce a photo on stage. Believe this method is still valid in how to reproduce what the photo say the director sees in a photo presented for a requested look. Director sees a picture most like what he/she wants to see in the dirty look, than working from there in reproduction of that image on stage.