The Trevor Forrest Review

The Rosco View Polarizing gel.

When I came across the Rosco View polarizing gel in Edinburgh at Nick Shapleys display as part of the Cinematography area in the EiFF Festival.

It was also at a time tha I was right in the middle of a Production called 'Huge' . Starring Noel Clarke ( Kidulthood and Adulthiood) Jonny Harris (London to Brighton and Centurian) and Thandie Newton from ('Mission Impossible 2 'and Oliver Stone's 'W') It was a big day . We had a lot to do.

We were shooting on the 37 th floor or Centre Point in London , It is all glass and low ceilings . with little ventilation. The story time which we were shooting would happen over a few hours at around 7.30 on a summers evening. we had to maintain this all day.

The first scene was in a dining room over looking the city . The T stop outside was T22/32 If the stock was going to have a chance of seeing some the detail out side the Interior needed to be at lease T5.6.

Usually we just have to cram as much soft-light into the part of the room that you have organized 'not to see' to avoid reflections.

Often on a wide shot thats not enough for 2.8 At the moment I need 5.6. To maintain the illusion that this is early evening all day long.

 The Rosco View Polarizing gel was this thing that solved this instantly. My gaffer Barnaby Sweet and his crew pasted the gel onto the window and the camera team put a Schneider linear polarizing screen in the camera. "The exterior was polarized down to about T5.6, we could of taken it to black if we had wanted, but with microscopic control we chose 5.6 leaving the outside 2 stops over which meant that to attain an interior exposure of T2.8 was simple. It meant it could we could use a lighter unit, we could rig off the ground and it could be a broader light so we were set for other shots. The daylight from outside is not filtered out . We may of taken 4 stops out of our view of the London city horizon, but the natural light still flooded in to make this effect totally natural. Which helped because there was no way I could put a light out side the the window 37 stories up.

The Knock on effects continued . Now the one main backround ( a 20 foot window from waste to ceiling over looking the whole of London) had been taken care of except for a few tweaks of the Pola in the camera we could work really quickly, from set up to set up we did 27 that day.

In that dinning room which we were in for half of the day, heat was kept to a minimum which helped the actors concentrate and enjoy the multiple takes without constantly retouching the make up due to perspiration.

We used less light and less electricity. The Rosco View Pola Gel made the difference.

The Rosco soft light

The Rosco soft light was another great tool from Nick Shapley's collection. It is as thin as a piece of perspex and is as bright as a 2x4 kino flow.

On the same production 'Huge' we had to shoot for 2 days in a 30' Winnebago. It was a large and beautiful winnebago but there was one main point in the centre of the space that we could not get a light to separate Noel Clarke from the backround.

The light we chose was the the Rosco soft light.We rigged it flush to the ceiling ( it hung down about 1 inch so it didn't restrict my shot). We attached a tiny dimmer to it and there it stayed for the whole time. Depending on the shot we would dim it up and down. It was like we had cut a sky light in the roof of the winnebago. The beauty soft light that it produces also created a lovely glow to the skin male and female. It is light ,fast, controllable and with further development s totally controllable in colour temperature as well due to its LED source.

In enclosed environments it is cool. In places that you can't access electricity its battery operated even inside a car from the cigarette lighter.

Maybe next time I have an in car beauty shot to do against bright exterior I will team the two tools up to create a deeply detailed shot with soft beauty light . Something we often have trouble doing especially when pushed by schedule ,low budget and time.

Thanks very much for bringing them to my attention.

Best wishes

Trevor Forrest cinematographer.

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