shooting at night

[rockydm92]

Hello everyone:
I am new to the film-making world and had another question. If I'm shooting a scene outside a restaurant at night, How much light do I need? Where should I set the lights up? What about the traffic in the street? Is it to noisy? What can I do to cut that out? Any info would be greatly appraciated.

 

[Bl33dingskyproductions]

Hi there, new to the site and the world of filmmaking too, hope the lil info I have can help?

Everywhere seems to reccomend using 5000w+ for a night scene, although the more ambient light on the scene the more you'll need to adjust this. It's mostly a case of trial and error, add as much light as you can and then remove until you've got your desired level There are a lot of lighting tutorials on the net, always worth a look.

As for traffic noise, try using a super or hyper-cardiod mic, the narrow pattern should cut down the traffic noise and concentrate on the actors. I'm still trying to get my hands on a shotgun mic myself lol.

Hope this has helped,
~D

 

[rockydm92]

Thanks had another question if you don't mind, What is a hyper-cardoid mic? I have no clue. And I will look at the lighting tutorials on the net. That's how I pretty much got the idea to film my own movie. Thanks again I appreciate it.

 

[WideShot]

Rocky,

I'd suggest you do yourself a favor and get your hands on some type of a primer (book or internet website) to understand what all of this is and how it works. Here's one that will give you some heads up, http://www.jamesarnett.com/sections.html .

You need to tell us and know yourself how much light you want on your actors. Want them totally lit like there is bright light around them and just a black BG? You'll need a 5k or even a couple of 2k's. Might even get away with 4-6 500w worklights. I'd suggest you have a gaffer or someone who knows about electricity because if you plug a 2k into a wall socket with a ballast you will probably blow the breaker unless you know what you are doing. If you want minimal light you can always use a couple of worklights or a couple of 1k's for ambient with a diffusion gel, and do the ol candle or small lamp in the center of the table trick, where you hide your tiny flashlight or something behind the candle/lamp base.

 

[Boz Uriel]

Hypercardioid microphones have a very narrow beam of reception. Think of a shotgun when you shoot it. The blast radiates in a tight patern, now think of sound waves as traveling back into the gun using this same tight pattern. Basically they only pick up sounds from one concentrated source. Like an actor's mouth.

I'm pretty sure most people would use two tracks for recording sound at an outside location. One track is for actor's voices. Using an omni directional microphone the other track is the ambiant sounds of the street. When you have two tracks you can mix them together and essentially lower one and raise the other in post production.

 

[WideShot]

True, as was discussed in another thread here on IT, in many ways if you have full control of the actors in the scene (the extras eating alongside your leads), it would be better to boom your leads with no noise from the other actors and then just get your ambient sound completely seperately and them mix them in post. This way you can control all of the levels.

 

[directorik]

Hello everyone:
I am new to the film-making world and had another question. If I'm shooting a scene outside a restaurant at night, How much light do I need?

If you want specifics - like exactly which lamps you need - you'll need to tell us a little more like what are you shooting on?

In general you won't need too much light - five or six lamps would be fine, you could do it with fewer. A nice set up would be:
A Baby 5k
4 Junior 2k’s
a kino-flo
2 650w tweenies
4 200w peppers
4 china balls

Where should I set the lights up?

I'm not sure how to help here. The "where" depends on your location. "a restaurant" is too vague.

What about the traffic in the street? Is it to noisy? What can I do to cut that out?

Traffic will be quite noisy. As Bl33dingskyproductions pointed out, you'll need a good mic. Check out
Sennheiser for good mic's. But even using a great mic won't cancel all traffic noise. You might have to re-redord the dialogue again in a quiet environment.

 

[Boz Uriel]

Where to put the lights... directorik is correct, we don't enough information to help with that one. Are you doing over the shoulder shots? Two actors in the same frame? Dolly in/out? Wide shots? All of these things figure into it.

I watched a Q&A session with Kieslowski as he explained a shot. Two women are talking across a coffee table. He starts with both of them at extreem ends of the wide shot, he dollies in so slowly you barely notice it's being done. As their conversation gets more intimate, so does the shot. It was wonderful. How he light the scene I wish I could tell you because it was wonderful. I'm pretty sure it was from the movie Red, the last of the Three Colors trilogy.