RSSI need info on working with fluorescent lights.
Internet Filmmakers' FAQ
Fluorescent lights ("Flos") have no filament; light is given off when exotic gases are subjected to a current and their electrons become excited, and they "fluoresce". Household flos are warm white or cool white. In film terms, warm white is analogous to tungsten colour temp (3200 k) and cold white is approx daylight balance (5600k). They are also very green. In practical photo terms they are corrected with "minus green" gel, a magenta colour, restoring balance to either tungsten white or daylight white. Sometimes if necessary, film light fixtures may have "plus green" gel (green colour, obviously) added to correct to match existing flo fixtures.
Modern film photography now uses many types of flo fixtures commercially produced especially for film. These are lightweight, with accessories, and utilise special flo bulbs that are green-corrected, i.e., do not photograph green. Kino-Flo is one company, Syne-Flo is another. Kino-Flo is the best known, and makes fixtures ranging from the Wall-O-Light, with ten 4 ft bulbs, to the micro flo, thinner than a pencil. Most often used are the 4 ft, 2 bulb or 4 bulb fixtures, used for everything from car commercials to features to tabletop to glamour.
Another concern when shooting with fluorescent lights is flicker. The chances of flicker are directly proportional to the frame rate you are using and where you are shooting. What causes flicker is the dead time in between bursts of electricity from the electric company. In the U.S., it comes at 60Hz (in Europe, Australia, 50Hz), which means that there are120 bursts and 120 dead times per second. When using this electricity directly with HMIs or fluorescents this means that there are 120 flashes and 120 spaces of no light per second. What this means for cinematography is that you must shoot at a frame rate that will catch a flash while the shutter is open. In the U.S., that means shooting at a frame rate at a multiple of 6 (i.e., 24, 30, 36, 60, 120 etc). All other frame rates will produce flashing (or changing between these frame rates during shooting will produce flashing) without an electric ballast. A ballast condenses these spaces of no light to very small brief periods of time, to the point that only at very high frame rates will flashing show up(like around 400 fps). Under a ballast, no flashing will occur under all normal frame rates (under 400 fps), including during frame rate changes.
More detailed info is available in the American Cinematographer's Manual, published by the ASC.