how to do flickering light effect?

[phreejimmy]

Ok I want to have a light bulb or sometghing flicker at random (youve all seen it in a movie or video game somewhere) so no strobe light cuz that wouldnt be very random now would it? You know, kind of like a flourecent light coming on.

Im kind of hoping for a DIY method. I don't want to go out and have to buy some special 'flicker light' or some bull **** .

Thanks!

[Filmmaker58]

There are several ways to do this low tech. One is to make a hand dimmer. Go to a hardware store and buy a regular dimmer for a houshold light fixture (get at least 650 watt, depending on the size of the light you will use) and some hardware to put it inline of an extention cord. Then you just plug in your light and have someone raise and lower the dimmer randomly. I've also created a campfire effect by gelling the light with double "O" gel and moving their fingers in front of it randomly. Wear gloves because your hand has to be close to the light to avoid hard shadows. If what you need is a really fast flicker. I've created the shadow of a helicopter rotor by attaching a board to a drill motor, mounting the drill firmly on a stand, and spinning the board rapidly in front of a light. You could also do this with an electric fan on a dimmer (because fans go to fast, even at their slowest speed) Good luck, and I hope this helps.

[belovedmonster]

if you want a light to turn on and off randomly id say the best way is to get someone to turn the light on and off randomly [img]wink.gif[/img]

[TomAJensen]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by phreejimmy:
Im kind of hoping for a DIY method. I don't want to go out and have to buy some special 'flicker light' or some bull **** .

Thanks!</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Try looking up DIY Haunted House Info. I know that the folks that do their own haunts have lots of tricks up their sleeves. I seem to remember reading about some kind of flicker thing.

Hope this helps.