Going Night Exterior to Interior

[Drew Hoffman]

I'm doing a shot that follows a person as they get out of their car at night and go inside their house. It's digital and I'm trying to think of the most realistic and practical way to get them to, at least, show up while they're outside. I have been considering bouncing a bunch of light off an 8x8. Does anybody have any better ideas that I might want to try?

Thank you.

[Daniel Carruthers]

I'm doing a shot that follows a person as they get out of their car at night and go inside their house. It's digital and I'm trying to think of the most realistic and practical way to get them to, at least, show up while they're outside. I have been considering bouncing a bunch of light off an 8x8. Does anybody have any better ideas that I might want to try?

Thank you.

 

depending on your lighting package,and your motivation for the source of light, are the actors lit by moonlight or streetlight or both? is the light only coming from the house ,and make sure the house is warm and bright, I'd put some lights in some bedrooms so you can see it from outside.

its hard to make suggestions because i dont know the scene or location?

[Drew Hoffman]

I'm thinking both the moonlight and a porch light or some kind of source like that. I'm still trying to figure out what I need for my lighting package so it's still very flexible. The gist of the scene is: a girl gets out of her car in her driveway and goes into her house and the camera follows her as she walks through it, where it's revealed that there are bodies all over the floor.

 

I wanted to warm up the interior lights a little bit and cool down the exterior lights to contrast the int/ext and to contrast the warmth of the home with all of the dead people. I was looking at banging a bunch of lights into the 8x8 (or even a 12x12 if it'll be better, but I think the 8 would be more manageable for our crew) and using that bounce as a kind of general ambiance from the moon. I think she should be underexposed for the most part; I at least want to be able to see her. Then have her pass through a baby or a junior as a porch light to add a little depth to the exterior and follow her inside.

 

I'm mostly wondering if this sounds like a reasonable set up, or if something rings false to someone. Maybe someone has an idea I might want to try instead or in addition to.

 

Also, I'm trying to decide the best way to get my color contrast. The moonlight should have a blue shift to it anyway, right? So should I set my white balance for tungsten and put CTB outside and CTO inside? If I white balance to something like a 1/2 CTB under tungsten then it'll warm up my interior a little and cool down my exterior a little. Then I'd just have to gel the exterior lights to match the moon. (My lighting package is flexible about the number of units I can order, but I'm restricted to tungsten)

 

I'm also wondering if this sounds reasonable. I know it's a lot of questions, but it's the most complicated scene I've lit to date. I've crewed on productions that have done comparable stuff, but I didn't design them.

 

Thank you.

[Daniel Carruthers]

Hey drew

you got the right idea just a few suggestion for you

 

I wanted to warm up the interior lights a little bit and cool down the exterior lights to contrast the int/ext and to contrast the warmth of the home with all of the dead people. I was looking at banging a bunch of lights into the 8x8 (or even a 12x12 if it'll be better, but I think the 8 would be more manageable for our crew) and using that bounce as a kind of general ambiance from the moon. I think she should be underexposed for the most part; I at least want to be able to see her. Then have her pass through a baby or a junior as a porch light to add a little depth to the exterior and follow her inside

 

Id keep the keylight strong maybe a stop overexposed and have virtually no fill light for the exterior.

just make sure theres dark and bright parts in the frame, lots of shadows and contrast, then maybe the complete oposit for the interior?

 

Also, I'm trying to decide the best way to get my color contrast. The moonlight should have a blue shift to it anyway, right? So should I set my white balance for tungsten and put CTB outside and CTO inside? If I white balance to something like a 1/2 CTB under tungsten then it'll warm up my interior a little and cool down my exterior a little. Then I'd just have to gel the exterior lights to match the moon. (My lighting package is flexible about the number of units I can order, but I'm restricted to tungsten)

 

Id would balence too Tungstenlight for sure, then add the gels to the lights. I like to add a little bit of green to moonlight, like a 1/4 green or cyan15 works great mixed with half blue.

[JD Hartman]

If there is a lamppost near the driveway, then one solution would be to augment that souce from overhead. A 2k frenel would give you a nice pool of light for the talent to walk through. Or use the 2K as light from an unseen streetlight. I'd replace the tungsten globe in the porch light with a halogen (try 75w or 100w) and put diffusion on the inside of the fixture, so you don't get blown out. You will have to light the inside of the car too, or it will look very black. A couple of cheap under-cabinet, 110v flourescents gelled with 1/2 CTO might look okay. Taped to the sun visors, sitting on the open glove box door, etc.

[isaac_klotz]

other lights such as security lights for the house or landscape lighting for the yard may help you light your background so that you can keep the girl underlit as she approaches, but you can still see her against her background.

 

-isaac klotz

[Matt Workman]

I'm not the director or DP and I'm not trying to second guess your style for the film but:

 

If she is walking from EXT where she is unaware of the DEATH waiting inside I would make the EXT warm and the inside cool.

 

Hint at the moonlight with a subtle 1/2 blue rim light in the EXT but use a street light to give it an overall warm and SAFE feeling. When she walks into the house of death then drop the warm light and go all moon light. Having moonlight bounce of the floors and underlighting the face is always scary. This is a more theatrical treatment. Mixing green in place of orange tungsten is fun too.

 

Can you tell I do mainly music videos?

 

Just a thought.

 

Matt

[Matt Sandstrom]

other lights such as security lights for the house or landscape lighting for the yard may help you light your background so that you can keep the girl underlit as she approaches, but you can still see her against her background.

yes, that's exactly what i was going to suggest, and practicals like street lights, city scapes and christmas lights work well to create backgrounds as well. perhaps a faint and soft cross light would help give the silhouette some shape. i'd use neutral color on that one and go crazy on the background.

 

/matt