Hey guys i'm about to film a short and I was wondering, if I get a china ball and someone to boom it and follow the actors can I film at night or will it come out very bad? I was wondering if i should film before sun down but I would have to e restricted in not showing the sky and add all the street lights in post. I just need to see the actors expressions and face and the theme is him walking home at night. any tips?
cinematography How bad is it to film at night?
- Thread starter Conner Kent
- Start date
I used pretty much everything I had in my kit.
Each boat was lit by an open-face flood through diffusion and blue gel. The lighting instruments and stands were obscured by the boats in front.
Although they're not visible in this angle, some baby fresnels were used to provide highlights on some of the boats.
Each intersection on the walkway was spotlit from above to give the impression of overhead sources.
The actors' key was a soft box off camera right.
Finally, there was a Mole Junior 2K on an embankment overlooking the mooring basin. You can't see the embankment in the far bg because I let it go black, but the Mole is just above center frame. It was spotted down and shot directly up the walkway to provide rim light as the actors approached camera.
I'd take shooting at night over shooting in daylight EVERY time. Whenever I shoot an interior without a visible window the first thing I have the grips do is blackout every window in the house.
I know your supposed to or it's good to do his but why? Is it because you will get better results with mostly your lighting? Like I watch videos were people film at restaurants but turned off all the lights and used there own and it looked like a regular lit restaurant but if they filmed it regular it would look like crap lol...
It's to do with having control over the light. If you start from scratch then you are able to make every lighting decision for yourself. What may look acceptable to the eye can come out awfully on camera - a fluorescent light that gives the walls a funny green tinge, a spotlight in the ceiling that gives a nasty hotspot on your lead actress's nose.
There's a quote by Bill Dill, ASC from the film Cinematographer Style that rather nicely sums up the key things that lighting has to do (and why, in your example, you can't just leave it as it is) [my emphasis].
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Also, when you're dealing with a micro budget, blacking out the windows saves you from having to match color temps. Unless you have HMI lighting instruments - an unlikely scenario for indies - you either have to color correct the windows - which, depending on their size, can mean a huge amount of CTO - or correct your tungsten sources with CTB, which cuts their light output by 70+ percent - i.e. a 1K fixture only provides the equivalent of 300 watts.
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Exactly, every bit of light is there because we want it there and it's all perfectly matched temp. Dealing with natural light is hard. It can give beautiful results if you have the time, gear, etc... to tame it and HMIs to match it, but that's out of my league for the most part.
I'll make use of tungsten practicals, but anything of dubious color temp is cut off ASAP.
I'll make use of tungsten practicals, but anything of dubious color temp is cut off ASAP.
Ha! Good question. Mainly because I live in a small town where nobody except me has film lighting skills, so I had to pretty much do it all by myself. I had a couple of assistants to run cables, etc., but they had no idea what instruments to use or where to place and focus them.
Also time-consuming is dressing all the stingers so they aren't visible in the frame. Plus, anytime you're working around water you need to be slow and methodical lest someone gets hurt or equipment gets damaged or lost overboard.
Had an interesting experience (pre-planned) on Kohlman Files this past weekend when we were able to motivate strong light in a night scene. Reporter arrives at house after the cops have arrived. What would be the first thing the cops did.... Hook up a generator and run work lights. So we show a lit work light in frame once and that motivates strong lighting in the rest of the shots. Lots of ways to skin a cat.
Tip I wanted to pass along.
This is a screen grab from The Kohlman Files.
There is an open face 650 out of frame to the right. In front of it is what we call a "branchaloris". A tree branch we cut off and attached to a C-stand in front of the light. It's creating the branch shaped shadow on the ground. Breaks that light up and stops it from being so obvious.
This is ungraded cinestyle.
This is a screen grab from The Kohlman Files.
There is an open face 650 out of frame to the right. In front of it is what we call a "branchaloris". A tree branch we cut off and attached to a C-stand in front of the light. It's creating the branch shaped shadow on the ground. Breaks that light up and stops it from being so obvious.
This is ungraded cinestyle.
Wow Gonzo that is actually a brilliant IDEA! It really does show the effect or fool your eyes that light is coming from above. Props for that and thanks for the tip!