Color is Not a Game of Chance

Sun Bingo is one of the UK’s best-known Bingo brands, with millions of players every month.  ‘Are You Gonna Bingo?’ is a one-minute TV commercial that leans into that popularity with a lighthearted game of phone tag, and is available to watch online

Director of Photography Ian Murray walks us through his approach to establishing color control on set with the use of a reference white and pairing softness of light to skin tone:

“I always like to start with a reference white in the frame, which on this occasion was our Kino Flo FreeStyle T24 key light, and then build the colors around that… integrating single Kino Flo LED tubes into the location. We lit our subject with a FreeStyle T24. These FreeStyle tubes are slightly softer than the FreeStyle panels and give a very flattering reflection on darker skin tones.”

The objective on set was to achieve a hyper-real aesthetic and getting there required color rendering that allows for adding realistic texture to the environment.

“To build up the hyper-real look, we wanted to have complete control of our color palette. You’ll see this in the monitor shots on our sets that the finished results are usually very close in terms of the color rendition. I really believe this is how you get high-end work, by having control of your color. Kino Flo have complete color control throughout their ecosystem, unlike the color chaos you often get with LED fixtures.”

Landing on the right colors on set is never a matter of luck and nothing like a game of Bingo.  The recipe for achieving realism on set calls for controlling the color palette and removing the element of chance.