Recording / editing a scene where there is a playing TV in the shot.

Hello All,

For a project I am working on there are some parts where I want a television in the shot. The problem is that the content on the TV screen looks way overexposed / bright, and the colors get "washed out" (as in content that is blue on the TV would appear white, etc). How do I record/edit the scene so that the tv looks "normal" without screwing up the other elements of the shot (like the person sitting next to the TV)?

I tried lowering the brightness and contrast on the TV itself but that didn't seem to do much. Is this something that can be adjusted from the camera directly, something that can be mitigated by lighting the whole scene a certain way, or something that is done in post?

Thanks!

Simple method:

- Light your scene so the other elements in the shot are in balance with the brightness of the tv screen. This may give you a scene that is too bright overall, but you can compensate this in your camera by turning the exposure a few stops down. If you use a professional camera you can use an ND filter to correct the brightness of the screen. This may give you a decent result. You can also use a professional ND filter gel sheet and glue it to the screen to take down the luminance of the screen.

More complex method:

- If your shot is a fixed one: lock the cam during the shoot. Do a first take with the general elements of the scene correctly lit (the tv-screen will be over-exposed). Then do a second take but this time with the image of the tv correctly exposed (the rest of the scene will be too dark). Then in post use the first take, mask out the tv and replace the overexposed screen of your first take with the correctly exposed image of your second take.

- If your shot has a moving camera: put distinct tracker markers on the tv and record your shot with the general elements of the scene correctly lit. Then in post use the tracking features in Motion or AE (or even much better Smoke or Flame)to track the markers, mask out the tv screen, fill the mask with a steady and correctly exposed take of your tv-screen (or fill it with any other tv-screen image) and link the mask and the fill to the tracker information. Your mask and fill will correctly follow the movement of your camera. Only do this if you really have experience with tracking and rotoscoping.

Thanks for the informative response; I will mess around with this a bit and see what happens

Googling isn't readily finding where to buy ND Filter Gel sheets of the proper size to go on a TV screen, can you make any recommendations? (I think first I will try this in combination with lighting the overall scene more evenly). Thanks!

You'll have to most likely purchase rolls which then come in widths of 2 and 4 feet by various lengths. Most gels sheets I've seen are usually not larger than 24".
Here are a quite a few from a reputable supplier.

www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=ND+fil...=0&InitialSearch=yes

One other trick perhaps worth trying is to reduce the overall brightness on the tv and play around with the color settings of the tv so that when you white balance the overall scene, the tv image is acceptable.