TV Effect

Overview

The TV Effect (also known as "TV Flicker", "Screen Light", or "Fake TV") refers to a lighting technique that simulates the characteristic light of a running television or screen on the faces and in the room of the actors, without an actual device needing to be visible or switched on. Typical features include irregular brightness fluctuations (scene changes in the fictional TV program), rapid color shifts between cool and warm tones, and a cool, bluish base tint that imitates the mixed light from a cathode ray tube or an LCD/LED panel.

The term is used in two senses: as a manual gaffer/lighting technique on set and as a permanently programmed effect mode ("TV") in modern LED fixtures, which generates the flicker automatically.

On-Set Technique

Classic and still common methods for creating the effect:

• Bounce/Pizza Box Method: A light source is bounced into a reflective surface (often a roughly 2'x2' bounce board) placed in front of the actors. The brightness is varied irregularly via a dimmer to simulate scene changes on the "TV".
• Moving Color Gel (CTO): A tungsten source is balanced for daylight, creating a bluish base color. A lighting technician repeatedly slides a CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel back and forth between the light source and the reflector to create color flicker.
• LED Panel with Dimmer Remote: A dimmable LED panel with diffusion is positioned a few feet in front of the actors; its intensity (and color, for RGB panels) is changed at irregular intervals.
• Flicker Box / Flicker Device: A special light controller that automates flickering – the same type of device used for fire, candle, or lightning effects.

To avoid direct glare and hard edges, the light is usually diffused (diffusion gel, frost) and flagged off, so that only soft, scattered light coming from the "screen" falls on the actors.

TV Mode in LED Fixtures

Many modern LED fixtures include "TV" as one of several pre-programmed lighting effects (Built-in FX). In the Aputure LS series (e.g., LS 300x, LS 60d/60x, LS 600d), "TV" is part of an effect package that also includes Paparazzi, Fireworks, Lightning, Faulty Bulb, Pulsing, Strobe, Explosion, and Fire, among others. The mode automatically generates the typical TV flicker. The color temperature can only be freely adjusted depending on the effect: while several effects allow a freely selectable base color temperature (according to Aputure, 2700–6500 K), this is not possible with the TV effect (as well as Fireworks and Fire) – only predefined CCT presets are available here. The effect is controlled directly on the device, via wireless remote control, or app.

On-Set Application

• Living room, bedroom, or bar scenes where a television (often not visible on screen) serves as a light motivation.
• Night scenes where the bluish, flickering TV color establishes mood and time of day.
• As motivation for an off-screen light source, whose origin the viewer automatically interprets as a screen due to the flicker.