Night scene in backstreet

[Jonas Hed]

Hi everyone!

 

I am currently working on a short film in 1890s environment with a horror/mystery theme to it.

It will be shot on HD with a homemade DOF adaptor and requires a LOT of light.

The scene I am going to shoot is in a small backstreet with two light sources, a yellow streetlight and blue-omni- moonlight. There is no electricity available around there so I am looking for a way to solve this problem at low cost. I made a test today with the spotlights of a car standing on a ramp to get it to look like streetlight and a 35W chargable halogen-spotlight.

It was all shot just before dark and it looks almost perfect but the light is still insufficient. The camera im using is a Sony HDR-HC1E so the mpeg artifacts are showing too much because of this low light.

 

There are two persons in this shot standing about two meters from eachother and I want them lit up by the street light. The moonlight (a blue omni) should lighten the surroundings.

Sorry about the long description but it may help to understand the scene a bit. :)

 

If anyone has an idea about this I will be very greatful, thanks!

[Matt Sandstrom]

you'll need power. rent or borrow a small generator. if it doesn't have to be silent you can probably find one for very little. or you can use an inverter off the car's battery (bring a spare). and don't forget that you can run cables long distances. i'm not sure what you mean by backstreet but i find it hard to believe that you wouldn't be able to find electricity within the radius of a bunch of extension cords. electricity's everywhere.

 

then get two 1k worklights, snoot one with blackwrap and use as a streetlight and gel one blue and shoot it through a white shower curtain or bounce off some foamcore from the side and above for moonlight. i'm assuming you're on a zero budget here. there are of course more professional solutions too... ;-)

 

/matt

[Jonas Hed]

Thank you Mattias, good advice!

 

Yes I have looked at some generators for rental and within an affordable pricerange. As you say the best solution would be to get electricity from somewhere near but it will be tricky (there should always be some challenges hehe).

1k worklights would surely do the job. I thought maybe i can use a board with (bumpy/wrinkled)aluminumfoil to bounce the blue light and keep it a bit stronger but it is possible it will be too hard light then.