Making a Dance Video? club scene

S

shortfilm

I am a student and need to make a dance music video in a club scene.
I am going to be using a jvc hm100e, which is not that friendly to light.
So was just wondering if i am filming in a night club, with strobe lights and the room itself if painted black and quite dark, how to i get the clarity of the picture. I only have access to red head lights. but these are quite bright.
I have light dimming paper sheets. was thinking of bouncing the light of the celing.
Basically how do i get the dark club look with good picture clarity and quality, with the equipment i have. Am i better of using green screen and just darkening the shot via software? please help or even keeping it fully lit with red heads, then just making it dark via software?
 
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IndiePaul said:
OP said he had limited lighting resources available and his camera is not low-light friendly...
Click to expand...

Probably best for him to revise his shotlist, then. Figure out what he can light, how best he can work within that space, and then light that how he wants it.

In the end, though, +1 to Chimp; test shots are your best friend.
 
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Well you can gel redheads with some light diffusion if u have,and put 2 as cross backlights. 1 put as straight on backlight,if you can hide the stand or can put it somewhere up.

Than you can simply use a white board or reflector to reflect any light into characters while still being able to control spill to a reasonable degree.

If you can smoke the area that will be super cool
 
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What is the look you're going for - and what's your access to the club?

Are you bringing in your own extras and have full access to the club to light it how you want? If so, I'd get some colourful gels and put them on the redheads. See if the club has a mirror ball and/or moving lights that you can utilise to add interest here and there. Avoid strobes, they look terrible 99% of the time on CMOS sensors (rolling shutter).

Bouncing off the ceiling isn't going to do a lot if the ceiling is painted black. You could bounce off your own inexpensive foam core or bead board.

That might be your easiest way to do it - have the club's moving lights do most of your effect lighting, then bounce a redhead on some bead-board for a low-level front fill (adjust level with nd gels, moving back etc to taste). You might be able to rig the other redhead overhead, and diffuse it and have it as a soft backlight with some party gel like blue or red.

If your access is simply yourself and one or two others whilst the club is open to the public, you're likely going to have a much more difficult time - an on-camera LED might help but mostly you need a camera that is better in lower light.
 
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thank you, this helps a great deal, I am asking the club to let me use thier space for free so not sure what they will give me access to at the moment, but hoping to film it during the day, so there is less or no people there. Thanks for the strobe lights tip. I am hoping I can use the clubs colour lights aswell
 
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also what about ND gels? can these work on red heads? also can i use more than one at a time, for e.g could i use the ND and the layer it with a colour gel or would this not make any difference
 
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shortfilm said:
also what about ND gels? can these work on red heads? also can i use more than one at a time, for e.g could i use the ND and the layer it with a colour gel or would this not make any difference
Click to expand...

Yes and yes.

Depending on where you rig your redheads, you might need to use them to dial in the dark look of a club. I think, however, that you'll be struggling for exposure in the first place though so may not use NDs as much as you may think
 
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Years ago I shot this music video on a Sony Z1 or something like that: a HDV camcorder. Not very light sensitive.
And we had 1 light only: a red head on a c-stand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXLfGyFrTpE

So, depending on the looks you want, there are always possibilities to find a creative solution.
 
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Things I might try:

Renting a better camera, even if it's just for this one scene
Using a really fast lens
over-light the scene, then under expose on your camera
over-light the scene, shoot normally, darken in post

definitely do some tests
 
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