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How to light a night scene.

Okay, so i have a scene in my screen play where a character is being chased through the front lawn of a country home, so its a big property. The front lawn is about and this is just a rough estimate but about 70-100feet by 30-40 feet. She is chased to the end of the lawn where there is a big tree. How would i go about lighting these scenes in the dark without making it obvious that there is a bright light being shined on the actors? I tried lighting outside my own house at night and it just looks wrong. Any advice? Maybe adding a blue gel to give moonlight effect?
 
The color you can change in post.

Problems you will have to battle is that if you use one harsh light close to the talent, you will get hot spots, need several lights far enough away. Test, Test, Test

Have you thought about Day 4 nite ?
 
Big lights, far away from the talent will get rid of the "spotlighty" effect. Find a way to add some texture to the background as well. A little light there goes a long way... then it's not jsut a spot light as it's lighting more than the actor, it's lighting the background too.
 
so, i need a light far away going towards actor and another one if needed to light whole scene? and then how many would i need to light the background? and if you have any examples of a layout of how lights would be set up. Thanks for the help!
 
Ideally the one big light is more of a flood and lights the actor and the scene, like the moon would.

Practical lights are good though too. Practical means you see the light source, like a car's headlights or a street lamp. If you're in a yard, it's not unreasonable to think they have some outdoor lighting. Garden lights, up lights on the houseand trees, security lights, maybe the person running has a flashilight? If they're bright enough the practical light can be the only source but you can also supplement it off camera if you see the car's headlights hitting the person from the BG, you can add a closer light off camera with a similar angle to boost it.
 
yeah, makes sense. Only thing is the one scene takes place at the end of the front yard which is about 60-70 feet from the porch lights and what not. I don't want the scene incredibly bright i still want it looking like night time very dark, but I want actors visible without a lot of grain, Lighting is confusing haha.
 
Since I don't know the blocking you're using and have no photos of the set/location, I can only make guesses (I would never actually light a set without at least having seen pictures of it, if not actually walking it before hand).

Workflow on my sets is, block actors, block camera, then light. If you can supplement the light from the porch with some slightly yellow/orange (CTO) lights, then throw a blue rim around the actors to show the moon light. Throw some blue (it's a special moonlight blue) into the trees behind.

block first, then light based on where you need the light to hit the actors in the shots you're getting.
 
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