Why don’t film makers use polarizers?

[unpopular]

I am a compositing and vfx artist by profession and so one of the things I do a lot of is remove crew and camera reflections from windows. I work on a lot of prime time shows on major networks, some with extremely large budgets, and yet I frequently get shots that anyone could look at and realize reflections are going to be a big problem.

so why don’t filmmakers use polarizing filters and gels to reduce reflections? Is it a matter of light loss? Maybe inconsistency in contrast and color? Or is it just laziness (trust me, I do clean up a lot of laziness!)

just curious.

 

[480sparky]

They're cheap. Anything they can do to save a few cents.

 

[Rickbb]

Fabric, sometimes a person’s clothing will create a morie pattern or turn weird colors from a polarizing filter.

Which would be harder to fix in post, reflections on a flat pane of glass or weird colors and moving patterns on an actors clothes.

 

[AlanKlein]

Polarizers only work best at certain angles. If you shift the camera, the polarizer might not work from the new position.

 

[compur]

Are you trying to put yourself out of work?

But seriously, I have worked on a lot of sets here in Hollywood and seen many errors of various kinds and also wondered why.

Film production is a complicated activity done on long days of tedious work and people miss things and just make mistakes,

 

[zulu42]

Maybe because the lights are coming from so many different directions? Might cause banding. I saw a photo of a soap opera set and the ceiling was covered with 100 or more lights. plus all the fill lights everywhere

 

[unpopular]

But seriously, I have worked on a lot of sets here in Hollywood and seen many errors of various kinds and also wondered why.

Film production is a complicated activity done on long days of tedious work and people miss things and just make mistakes,

oh I don’t think there’s any shortage of mistakes to fix!

but man, I could do without these camera reflections in windows. Lots of paradox and no good way to solve a 3D track…

 

[compur]

oh I don’t think there’s any shortage of mistakes to fix!

but man, I could do without these camera reflections in windows. Lots of paradox and no good way to solve a 3D track…

They're all wearing RayBan polarized sunglasses, you see, so they don't see the reflections until they view the dailies and then it's too late.