day for night on hd

[F Bulgarelli]

Hello everyone,

 

I'll be shooting a commercial on hd and we are entertaining the idea of shooting day for night, it's all day exteriors on the front yard and front entrance of a house, there is a nice tree on the frontyard that provides good shade for the most part of the day.

i was thinking that by using large silks, we could block most of the direct sunlight and use hmis to create a more controlled environment, we don't have a huge budget so having the neccesary lights might not be possible.

 

does anyone have any experience on this kind of lighting set up? i would really appreciate it.

 

francisco

[Michael Morlan]

Whether for film or video some common guidelines apply:

 

o Avoid seeing the sky dome. This is a dead giveaway.

 

o Another giveaway is the failure of practicals in the frame to be sufficiently bright against the daytime set. Avoid practicals if possible. If you can't, consider using the brightest possible replacement globe in them and support them with a bit of heat from cine-lights outside of frame to make the pool of light they would normally emit visible on the daylit set.

 

o After adding all this light, actor squinting is a bit of a giveaway too. :D

 

o While it was appropriate to underexpose film in years past to achieve the desired look, in this digital finishing age, that isn't so necessary. I usually expose to get the best possible picture and crush it down in post. Post-pro brightening of regions of the frame that would be normally lit by practicals might help too although you are working with diminishing returns.

 

o Consider allowing the sun to act as the moon. After your post-pro underexposure process, the shadows cast by trees and other elements will become a deep black.

 

o Consider shooting at night. ;) If your budget allows the use of HMI's, use them to effect on a darkened set.