It is suppose to be an eerie scene

The trick then is to put plenty of light on what you want lit and none on what you don't want lit but make certain the camera is only exposing for the highlights. Your camera will almost certainly have a spotlight setting, use it. To give an eerie look keep the lights low, even a little below eye level but don't overdo it or it'll look a bit comical. Certainly experiment in that area but the most important thing is to have enough light, remember you can always easily make the scene darker in post, trying to make up for not enough light is impossible due to noise.

((Weird... I thought i replied to this, but don't see my note here. If this is a repeat, I'm sorry))
Go to dv.com and register to log in. Then do a search for "Lighting For Darkness." It's a good article on lighting night scenes. May help a lot. (I printed up a hard copy for myself.)

One thing coming to mind that would probably save you a few bucks: if it's an eerie scene, why not try to shoot "american night" ? (I mean, shooting in the day with blue filtering/processing on your picture). You could possibly expand the technique to suit your precise "eeriesque" needs, since it can lead to unlimited ways to deal with the final quality of image... ?
Is that too naive, anybody?

I think its proper name is "Day For Night", in fact there a film of that very name by Truffaut. To me the technique looks just like what it's called. The problem is the lighting is still the same as daylight, it lacks the drama of real night, even moonlight is different to darkened sunlight.
Bob.

In our DV feature we shot a campfire scene in midday, then applied the curves filter which has a "night" setting. "Night" is very dark so I added the 3-wheel color correction to raise the gamma & gain to taste, and reduced the color saturation in the same filter (colors are much paler at night). No one realizes it wasn't shot at night.

I guess you didn't have the camp fire in the direct sunlight? No "on set" light control at all?

Yeah, I'm curious about that fire also. How did you simulate the light playing off the objects around it (like faces, rocks, etc).
I'm not sure, of course, but I dont' think I've ever been convinced by a "Day For Night" process.
Strangely, I was just watching "Deliverance" (AAAAAAAAAA! Scarey/tough movie) and was commenting to myself, "Yep, there they used a dark blue filter. Now they're solarizing it to remove the direct sunlight. Man, that looks hokey."
Powerful movie, but Day For Night is a problematic thing, at best.
I'd love to see some video where it's done well enough to make the pros happy (note: I'm NOT a pro - I'm referring to the real pros out there).
I'd be curious to hear Victor Milt's (www.victormilt.com) take on this topic.

Doesn't "eerie" =not "realistic" ?
THAT was my point here.




Hawh, my two cents anyway... ; )

(I'm also vitalforce at another location.)

On the campfire question: We used a few reflectors, but the campfire's yellow-red hue came through despite the processing, presumably because video is sensitive to red.

The characters in the scene weren't right next to the fire so there was no issue of having a flickering reflection on their faces. This would have required some manner of "gag light."

Hey guys - I'm back (sorta)

Have been working at "my other job" programming... if you thing editing is tedious and frustrating, well...

anyway - lighting for night...

here's my thoughts - from a gazillion "night for night "shoots

1 - I agree with mroddy - day for night basically doesn't work. Maybe a splash of blue gel across the pillow in a darkened bedroom, but outside?? never.

2 - So how do you light outside at night? Concept, kiddee's it's all about making the shot look like night. So a LOT of the frame has to be dark. Let's say I'm doing a scene in the city - on a dark alleyway.
If I leave the backgroud black, the scene is going to have no identity - we could shoot it in your bedroom. So the first light I'll put up will be a slash on a back wall, about one stop underexposed, from "normal". This will clearly give me the texture of the wall, light up a couple of garbage cans, and establish the location that we're in.
3 - now I'll set the talent in front of that slash - without any light on him/her (I"ll stiick with her for now) - she'll be a totally black silhouette. That's good. The slash should define her shape. Now don't forget that you're making "movies". People should move. As the director you will direct the talent to move around in a carefully circumscribed area - back and forth around the slash, so sometimes we're seeing the silhouette of the front of the body, and sometimes defining the back.

4 Now we're going to light the talent, herself. You can handle her with a single hard backlight. This light can be high to simulate a streetlight or even straight overhead. But it's got to be HARD. (If you don't understand HARD and SOFT in lighting - better borrow a copy of my video) |:>) .
Set the light so that it spills across her face - so when she talks, we can see her face moving. We don't HAVE to see her every expression - it's NIGHT - it's DARK - we have SOUND.

5 - Sometimes, if she's scared or in love or whatever... and I want to SEE her face... well, then I'll use a VERY DIM SOFT front fill. Maybe off of a card, maybe a carefully dimmed softlight. I'll genrally put it in some really WEIRD place - not the normal "near the camera lication". That will give your shot some excitement and an interesting and unique kind of look.
End of city lighting -

Now if I"m out in the woods - it;'s brutal to light. Outdoor night shots are HARD - realistically you need a lot of light and a lot of power to run them. I'm assuming that most folks reading this won't have access to 10k's and a generator. The trick is to invent something. My buddy Mutley did a wonderful night shoot utitlizing 50 gallon barrels filled with burning stuff. Again he silhouetted his talent in front of those barrels of fire (light) and it worked. If I'm shooting in the woods at night I'll always try to include either rain or smoke in the scene. In fact ANY time I shoot in the woods, I use smoke. A backlight on smoke or rain clearly defines the area, with out looking "lit".

Questions???

Oh... a little more... one of the best uses of night lighting I"ve ever seen is a little known film called, "The Photographer". I rented it because that's one of the things I've done, but was deLIGHTED (forgive the pun) with the lighting. He had the cojones to do the ENTIRE film with exactly the kind of light that I described above. Hard back lights and limited or no front fill.
BTW - young high school student - first, BEFORE you shoot your video with all your classmates looking on, TEST IT OUT. You can do your test using the garage alongside your house as a background. If you think an experienced pro like me never "pre-tests" lighting setups - well, that's not only how you Get to the Top - it's how you STAY there. On a set, with crew, equipment and talent, you've got to KNOW that everything is going to work - thus, a little secret PRE-TEST. Then when your teacher, backer, director,client or whatever, looks at you with terror in his eyes and sez, "Is this going to WORK?" - You will be able to nod wisely, smile... and say nothing - because you will KNOW it's going to work.
Everybody - check out "The Photographer " - no I didn't shoot it - I don't even remember who did - but it's a whole lesson in lighting at night.

best to all -

My Uncle owns a construction business, so I think im just going to use his work lights. This film im trying to make is only for fun, and doesn't need to look spectacular. i will try to use some of the techniques you mentioned, however, I dont think my mom will let me burn things out in my backyard woods.

Fire - dangerous....

mom's right (and I KNOW you didn't even ask her).

Send me your pretest, and I'll help you make it look fabulous -
vicmilt@interpubco.com

I started in photography as a professional assistant when I was a sophomore in high school. My son Adam won his first prize in a national contest when he was the same age. Spielberg started shooting films in high school - you have the interest and can learn to be as good as the best - give it your all, don't let the turkeys bring you down - good luck.

My Uncle owns a construction business, so I think im just going to use his work lights.

If these are powered by a generator, you may get some very nasty surprises. I filmed a football game that used construction lights powered by generators. The lighting "pulsed" bright, then dark, about once every three seconds. No way to fix it in post. I just had to live with it. Of course, in my case, I was simply filming an event and like most event videography, had to accept the conditions as they were. However, if you are lighting your own production, I'd sure look into this problem before committing to the shoot (go to the yard where the lights/generator are stored, fire one up at night, and tape 2-3 minutes of video from several different angles).

I picked up several two-head halogen lamps, 500w each head, at Sears. About $29.99 on sale, but not much more expensive non-sale. They have a built-in tripod and an extension, but the extension isn't very high, about 5 feet. Otherwise, ideal for the price. Adjustible, too. Click a switch and they change from 500W per head to 300W.

Also, if you want "Eerie" look to your lights, get a tree branch with a lot of leaves on it (for safety's sake, not dry and not too close to the lights) hang it before your lights and you will have a lots of interesting shadows. Very good during close-ups.

Great eerie effect for close-ups is to have the talent move from a pool of darkness to light, you can get some really nice looks that way.

Lots of great advice. Started this in high school and still continue to this day on night shoots where we may not have a genny and larger lights handy. You can pick up a 1 million candle power re-chargable spotlight for $20 at a local auto parts store or costco / sams club - a couple of these and some bounce boards (foamcore) work very well in situations where you need light out in the sticks and can't get power to them. Clamp them to a tree branch 15 feet up and out of frame and voila - even gelable without the heat like you'd get from open faced halogens.

These for the $$$ provide the most light you can get IMO. You can even pick up LED flashlights for very little dough that work well when bouced for CU's and such. Lots of really cheap ways to get the light you need especially on a high school budget. When I was in high school, we used a car and cabled spotlight to the cig adaptor. Worked like a champ. If you can get a car into where you're shooting, headlights work really well if you can flag them off a bit. El' Cheapo!

Vic's given great advice on how to make it look "right"

my $.02

cheno

Amazing advice Cheno !
I am on my way to check out those lights - NOT kidding.

Remember guys - Light is Ligtht - you don't NEED a grillion dollars worth of equipment to get "good stuff" on the screnn.

Cain't Wait to try out my new million candlepower $20 lights.
(Yet another reason why I LOVE this forum).

If they work the way I expect them to, watch me demo them at the upcoming NAB in NY.

If you're there, be sure to stop by.

best,
v

Great idea about the spotlight. I just checked at Sam's Club online. I think this is what you're talking about:

Sam's Club Spotlight

Yup... I'm finding now 15 million cp lights for $65 online.. Cabela's (I now have one 10 min from my house woohoo!) has some Optronics 1 mill for $17 bucks.

I can't remember what brand I have but got 2 at AutoZone in SLC a year or so ago. Get about 45 minutes per charge which isn't bad if you conserve in between setups.

I was bouncing studio light off a used pizza box yesterday for my students for a fill light example. Vic's right, you can light using just about anything. I've created a $25 dollar kit based on Vic's example in the Light It Right DVD that the students use all the time. 1/100 of the cost of the Arri kits we have :)

One of my goals is to light using nothing but the sun, mirrors and bounce boards... stick my gels on the mirrors for color correction :) - when I was in college I had a piece of plywood with silver foil on one side and gold on the other - used it outside all the time.

reminds me of this quote

"Without an impossible task, there is no reason to innovate"

~ Mark Read

cheno