shooting night exteriors

[P S Manushpsnandan]

:) hai

am currently working as assistant dop,i need some help regarding lighting for night exteriors ,because whenever i encounter anight shoot very few options come in to my mind ,so pls give me references of good nightexterior films and also some tips on lighting

manush

[Saba Mazloum]

:) hai

am currently working as assistant dop,i need some help regarding lighting for night exteriors ,because whenever i encounter anight shoot very few options come in to my mind ,so pls give me references of good nightexterior films and also some tips on lighting

manush

My humble and maybe not helpfull suggestion would be, dont lit of alot of areas, make some parts just plan dakrness.. find out the path of the actor and light his path on and off.. Sorry if it didnt make any sence.. but sometimes when u watch some night exteriors, some of them are just full lit, and it looks sorta fakeish..

 

My humble suggestion.

[Corey Bringas]

Hey,

Though I am not SUPER experienced I do believe I have a decent eye for lighting. The more I watch films the more I feel a certain distain for specific types of lighting. I find that may sources are unmotivated and tend to "follow" a lead actor/actress without any real reason. The actor just happily "falls" into a perfect backlight, this doesn't always cut it for me. There are other films that incorporate lighting with mood and location perfectly, this is more believeable for me. Onto night scenes. Lately I've had a real problem with extreme blues shinning through windows. I like (if you can't tell already) "real" lighting, i.e. lighting that would occur in real life and is motivated. In a perfect world the moon would just happen to always be full on the day the event in question is occuring, but not in my world ;-). I also feel even on a full moon the light created is just not that blue. I have been having a real problem with this and find myself more and more observant both during the day and particularly at night as to how people and objects are lit. I guess I'm some what of a realist. To make a long story short, I agree with the person above. Don't over light. Don't be afraid of shadow and darkness. Do what seems right and real.

-Corey

[Greg Gross]

First of all what is your story, how does your script read? What format are you going to use? Film,

HD video,Digital cinematography,DV 24fps. What kind of DOF do you want with your night lighting.

Just some considerations to make. If you know your format and your story(script) then you will kn-

ow what lighting to order up.

 

Greg Gross

[P S Manushpsnandan]

:) hai guys

thanks a lot 4 sharing ur experiences and ideas on this issue,my question was general,its not about shooting 4 any project particularly,so there is no question of formats,my worry is am not able to think of too many schemes 4 night compared to day,it will be nice if u could suggest me some movies which has a lot of night effects

[Sam Wells]

Lately I've had a real problem with extreme blues shinning through windows.

 

I've used CTS & other warming gels for night scenes, actually.

 

(Sometimes it's fun to create a cool colored shadow against this, though, even using odd greens etc. This is good for video (or DI I suppose) where you can bias w/ these colors & pull chroma back a bit later)

 

-Sam

 

 

This popped into my head; "in dramatic cinema realism is sometimes a border not a territory"

 

I'm not totally sure what I mean either :D

 

-Sam

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Emmanuel Lubezki, Khondji and Harris Savides are all very good at night lighting. The late JY Escoffier was also quite adept at it.

 

Take a look at Savides The Yards and The Game for some really solid night stuff. Savides tends to light the environment a lot with practicals and he often uses big moon boxes for a non-intrusive feel.

 

Khondji's night work speak for itself. Especially have a look at Panic Room, The Interpreter, The Beach, The Ninth Gate and Evita.

 

Lubezki's work on Great Expectations (especially the NY stuff) and his night work on Sleepy Hollow (same approach as Savides) is outstanding.

 

I also quite like the grittiness of Dante Spinotti's work on Heat. It's not polished, but it has a unique vibe that makes that film stand out. Robert Richardson did some fantastic work on the Kill Bill films for the nights.

[Janez Stucin]

:) hai guys

thanks a lot 4 sharing ur experiences and ideas on this issue,my question was general,its not about shooting 4 any project particularly,so there is no question of formats,my worry is am not able to think of too many schemes 4 night compared to day,it will be nice if u could suggest me some movies which has a lot of night effects

 

 

I believe that almost every movie has its night scenes(EXT and INT). It is hard to suggest movies without knowing in wich direction are you aiming at. I mean it is different to shoot a night scene in the desert or shoot it in Las Vegas.

I would agree with Greg, that you have to be more precise regarding situations you would like to shoot at night and then we could suggest you some movies that best siut your questions. And format in the end is allways an issue. There are different aproaches on different formats when it comes to lighting a scene.

 

JS

 

Emmanuel Lubezki, Khondji and Harris Savides are all very good at night lighting. The late JY Escoffier was also quite adept at it.

 

Take a look at Savides The Yards and The Game for some really solid night stuff. Savides tends to light the environment a lot with practicals and he often uses big moon boxes for a non-intrusive feel.

 

Khondji's night work speak for itself. Especially have a look at Panic Room, The Interpreter, The Beach, The Ninth Gate and Evita.

 

Lubezki's work on Great Expectations (especially the NY stuff) and his night work on Sleepy Hollow (same approach as Savides) is outstanding.

 

I also quite like the grittiness of Dante Spinotti's work on Heat. It's not polished, but it has a unique vibe that makes that film stand out. Robert Richardson did some fantastic work on the Kill Bill films for the nights.

 

I 100% agree with you. And you shouldn't let out Jeff Cronenweth's "Fight Club".