Check out “Barry Lyndon”, a film whose period interiors were famously shot by period lamp-and-candle lighting (director Stanley Kubrick had to source special lenses with which to do it).
More recently, some scenes in “Wolf Hall” were also shot with period live-flame lighting
and IIRC until they got used to it, actors had to be careful how they moved across the sets. However, it’s very atmospheric: there’s one scene where Cromwell is sitting by the fire, brooding about his association with Henry VIII while the candles in the room are put out around him. The effect is more than just visual.
As someone (I think it was Terry Pratchett) once said: “You always need enough light to see how dark it is.”
A demonstration of getting that out of balance happened in later seasons of “Game of Thrones”, most infamously in the complaint-heavy “Battle of Winterfell” episode, whose cinematographer claimed the poor visibility was because “a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly”.
So it was nothing to do with him at all, oh dear me no. Wottapillock. Needing to retune a TV to watch one programme but not others shows where the fault lies, and it’s not in the TV.
*****
We live in rural West Wicklow, Ireland, and it’s 80% certain that when we have a storm,
a branch or even an entire tree will fall onto a power line and our lights will go out.
Usually the engineers have things fixed in an hour or two, but that can be a long dark time in the evenings or nights of October through February, so we always know where the candles and matches are and the oil lamp is always full.
We also know from experience how much reading can be done by candle-light, and it’s more than you’d think, once there’s a candle right behind you with its light falling on the pages.
You get more light than you’d expect from both candles and lamps, because for one thing, eyes adapt to dim light. @dduane says she can sometimes hear my irises dilating. Yeah, sure…
For another thing lamps can have accessories. Here’s an example: reflectors to direct light out from the wall into the room. I’ve tried this with a shiny foil pie-dish behind our own Very Modern Swedish Design oil lamp, and it works.
Smooth or parabolic reflectors concentrate their light (for a given value of concentrate, which is a pretty low value at that) while flatter fluted ones like these scatter the light over a wider area, though it’s less bright as a result:
This candle-holder has both a reflector and a magnifying lens, almost certainly to illuminate close or even medical work of some sort rather than light a room.
And then there’s this, which a lot of people saw and didn’t recognise, because it’s often described in tones of librarian horror as a beverage in the rare documents collection.
There IS a beverage, that’s in the beaker, but the spherical bottle is a light magnifier, and Gandalf would arrange a candle behind it for close study.
Here’s one being used - with a lightbulb - by a woodblock carver.
And here’s the effect it produces.
Here’s a four-sphere version used with a candle (all the fittings can be screwed up and down to get the candle and magnifiers properly lined up) and another one in use by a lacemaker.
Finally, here’s something I tried last night in our own kitchen, using a water-filled decanter. It’s not perfectly spherical so didn’t create the full effect, but it certainly impressed me, especially since I’d locked the camera so its automatic settings didn’t change to match light levels.
This is the effect with candles placed “normally”.
But when one candle is behind the sphere, this happens.
It also threw a long teardrop of concentrated light across the worktop; the photos of the woodcarver show that much better.
Poor-people lighting involved things like rushlights or tallow dips. They were awkward things, because they didn’t last long, needed constant adjustment, didn’t give much light and were smelly. But they were cheap, and that’s what mattered most.
They’re often mentioned in historical and fantasy fiction but seldom explained: a rushlight is a length of spongy pith from inside a rush plant, dried then dipped in tallow (or lard, or mutton-fat), hence both its names.
apologies to anyone who ever thought i was cool and reached out to me only to discover i am just a weird little hermit who can’t carry on a conversation to save my life
i’m jewish and two of my closest friends are a muslim woman and a christian woman, and today we decided that this weekend would be a more opportune time of year than the month of december to say “happy holidays” since it’s good friday and easter sunday, passover, and ramadan all happening on one weekend, rather than like. hanukkah, christmas, kwanzaa, new year’s, etc. happening roughly over the course of 4-6 weeks. so. happy holidays to anyone celebrating this weekend :)
For people with anxiety about filing taxes, here’s what things that happen when you make a mistake on your tax return:
- it gets corrected
- you get a letter in the mail either asking for some additional information or a letter showing the adjustment
- you pay the amount (there’s options for payment plans too!) or get a refund
Things that do not happen
- you’re “in trouble”
- you are charged with fraud
- you go to jail
I know that most people are probably just joking/exaggerating when they say a mistake on their return means they get thrown in jail but when I worked with the public I always would encounter people who believed that would happen and they would be panicking about it. So I like to put this out there every year because if I can even prevent one person from feeling that way, it’s worth it
Annual reblog of this important information.
The thingy above where you sign your tax form says that you’ve filled it out to the best of your ability. “Sir, I am a dumbass” is 100% a valid defense
Yeah, the IRS is amazingly tolerant of explanations like, “I know I put 2050 in that spot instead of 2961, but 2 and 5 are right next to each other on the number keypad, and 0 looks very much like 9 and I was looking at a very tiny number on a large PDF when I copied that number in.”
The end result will be a strongly-worded letter that says “you underpaid, PAY UP. Contact us if you need to schedule payments.”
(I know one guy who was late filing his taxes, so there was a penalty. So he calculated that - there are charts - and included that in his payment. He got a very harsh letter that basically said, “Sir, you overpaid by $X.xx. Also, you were late, so you owe us $X.xx in late fees. Total amount due: $0 AND WE WANT IT NOW, DAMMIT.”)
shout out to the literal fan fiction happening a few blocks from my apartment. there has been this halal meat market on the corner for like 19 years that the owner’s son just inherited and directly across the street this woman opened a kosher grocery store and since day one they’ve had this very friendly fake rivalry, playing it up for the customers, it’s always been super goofy and light hearted. so turns out last night she proposed in the middle of the afternoon rush in the meat market and he said YES and she’s moving her store to the adjacent empty storefront on the left so they can have a JOINT GROCERY STORE it is so fucking cute I wish them the happiest marriage ever
It’s April, and that means it’s time for the OTW Membership Drive! Check out our launch post to find out about the benefits of membership and how you can support our work: https://otw.news/membership-drive-600f3f
They’re a thank you gift for donating to AO3! You can click the banner at the top of the page on https://archiveofourown.org/ or you can click into the news post for a link.
And just for kicks, I’ll give you the link right here. That’s for a one-time donation, but since the cards are the gift for a donation of $100, you might want to check out the recurring donation link from my post.
$100USD is a lot to give at one time, so I give a recurring donation of $10/month and request the cards as my gift after I’ve donated $100 total.
I just watched Detevtive Pikachu and let me tell you, I absolutely loved it. The animation was adorable, the storyline was interesting, the acting was great.
But before the film even started I’d already guessed what the twist ending was going to be.
And it ruined nothing.
Not only did I get an immense sense of satisfaction, but watching the big reveal was actually my favourite part. It’s almost like audiences wait the entire movie to see the plot-climax.
But you know who didn’t guess the plot twist? My five year old brother. My little cousin. The kids I babysit for. You know, the majority of the target audience? And my dad, who wasn’t particularly invested in the plot, but thought the ending tied the story up nicely.
And you know what else? No one on the creative team for DP needed to put out a big announcement saying ‘do not under any circumstances spoil our film’ and yet I hadn’t encountered a single spoiler prior to watching the film today.
I know a million people have said it already, but the types of people who guess the endings of films/books/series usually do so because a) they’re just as invested, if not more so, than the creators b) they’re a writer themselves, therefore very familiar with plot structures c) the creators intentionally laid groundwork for their big reveal.
When DP ended I didn’t think ‘God, that was predictable.’ I thought ‘wow, that’s exactly how I would’ve ended it if I was writing!’ And that’s not a bad thing: that’s 100% customer satisfaction!
Stories should surprise with the little things: unexpected friendships, startlingly beautiful quotes, bursts of character development. But I’m all for the plot being carefully laid out and easy to follow.
This!!! I’m so sick to death of writers trying so hard to surprise their audience that they butcher characters and satisfying storytelling along the way.
Like I’m editing an author’s fantasy series at the moment and have accurately guessed all the major stuff that was going to happen, and that is a good thing. It means that clues were left. It means that if someone is trying hard enough to find the little details and piece it together, they’ll be able to get a good idea of where the plot and characters are heading.
An “out there” plot twist does not = a satisfying story/ending.
guys. guys I just had a fucking vision of the next tumblr meme
you can do this with basically every cartoon animal and some real animals as well. I’m picturing fucking otters and like. snoopy and shit but garfield was the perfect prototype
[I.D. Two drawings of Garfield. The first is sitting down like a normal cat, as he used to be portrayed in the comics. The second, he is standing on two legs like a human and points to himself with a red glint in his eye. Text above and below reads “Become Bipedal.” End I.D.]
Thanks for the text ID! Anyway I did more of these and you guys can too
April Fool’s Day is in a few days, and I just wanted to make this clear. This blog is safe, and I can promise you no screamers, nothing emotionally abusive, no fake posts, and nothing to intentionally trigger dissociation. You are safe here.
Applying for jobs is a hell designed specifically to torment autistic people. Here is a well-paying task which you know in your heart and soul if they just gave you a desk and left you alone and allowed you to do it you would sit there and be more focused and enthusiastic and excellent at it than anyone else in the building. However, before they allow you to perform the task, you must pass through 3-4 opaque social crucibles where you must wear uncomfortable clothes and make eye contact while everyone expects you to lie, but not too much (no one is ever clear exactly how much lying is expected, “over” honesty is however penalized). You are being judged almost entirely on how well you understand these very specific and unclear rules that no one has explained. None of this has anything to do with your ability to perform the desired task.
