i still think he can really shoot the shot at night...i see no reason he cant...and nothing any program is going to do that will come close to shooting at night and haveing that contrast and long shadows....
please email me with a drawing of the location...i will draw a map of lighting for you and email it back...
birds eye view please
what you want to do is really not that hard at all...dont give up so easy
The location is simple a lonely road with vegetation on both sides. Our characters are on a sidewalk.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help out.
I remember reading (a long while back) that day-for-night gets a lot harder when you have a lot of sky showing. Probably 'cos in order to darken the sky suitably, the below-horizon areas end up extra-dark.
Have you tried using a horizontal mask in post? It should be fairly simple to experiment with, especially with a non-moving camera.
Just an idea. I've never played with day-for-night myself.
Yeah, the more sky, the harder everything is to do. The very first thing I tried was a horizontal mask feathered outward. It didn't look natural at all, so I decided to make an eliptical mask. Surprisingly, the elipse worked better than even masking the sky manually.
As for the thread you linked me to. The films were great, but the D4N was poor. I mean, not that I'm much better at it or anything -- but the shots looked more like day time through blue sunglasses than night. Maybe if something was done about the sky, the shots would've looked more convincing.
What are you using to do that D4N (Day for Night) - software wise? The dark grad filter you have across your actor makes it not look quite right... but you can use the luma matte stuff to get that stuck to just the sky. You may also want to add lights to the windows of the house to let people know that the people in the world think it's night time too. I like the blue tint, think it works quite well and makes it look as though it's a fully moon lit night (moon layered in behind upper left corner of screen might sell the shot here).
For the video I posted, I used Sony Vegas (I prefer it for the really quick edits). The previous D4N stuff I did was in AE. I have access to both programs.
I agree about the filter kinda-sorta screwing the shot up. Thought I'm not sure what my alternatives are. It worked better than a rectangular mask, and looked more natural than luma matting the sky. Maybe I'm not doing the luma matting right. I can get my shot to a point where it affects 99.9% of the sky, with only a very tiny edge showing (around the house, the trees, etc.) Rather than going insane over perfecting the actual matte, I did the logical thing, and tried to add blur to the adjustment layer. It fixed the issue of rough and ugly edges, but instead of blurring outwards, it blurred inwards. Unfortunately, I can only feather masks outward. Gaussian blur works a slight bit differently.
I've considered the following: Working a bit more to improve the colors. Keeping the eliptical mask over the sky. And finally, rotoscoping the character to keep the eliptical mask from affecting him.
If I do end up shooting this film entirely during the day, I'll minimize the amount of shots with the sky visible. I can't entirely omit them, so I'll just have to do some rotoscoping in post.
This is only assuming that I don't figure out how to light my wide shot.
Also, thanks for the compliments. I choked out the red and green channel, crushed the saturation quite a bit, and toyed with the luminosity. I'm sure I can improve on the colors at least a slight bit more though.
I didn't think of adding lights to the houses. Great call! I'll try that out when I have time
If you would post a short (smallish) original footage clip... or even a large one (I'd be willing to D-L to play with it). We could have a NIGHT OFF! and see who could make the most convincing D4N effect with your clip that makes you happy with it to see if it's an option. I would agree that the tests aren't living up to your vision, but I'm not sold that D4N isn't an option for you, perhaps just beyond your current experience for editing tricks. Having a couple of folks take a stab at it may teach you tricks you haven't had to worry about yet, therefor aren't aware of.
I'll post an AVI of the same clip tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I see what you're getting at. I am afterall, still a complete newbie when it comes to post. Even if I'm not happy with the final results, there's surely a thing or five I can learn from you guys