night on the beach

michael brierley · December 28, 2004

I am shooting a movie in the new year that has a lot of night exterior work on the beach. I need to create a 'swathe' of moonlight on the sea in order to siilouette the actors. Presuming I can get a barge out onto the ocean and rig a tower onto it, what light would create that path of moonlight better, a soft sun (100kw) or a big HMI- like an 18kw? I reckon I can get a platform about 500 feet (about 300m) out to sea.

Anyone have any advice please?

Kevin Zanit · December 28, 2004

Well the soft sun is a bigger unit in size, thus the specular reflection on the water may be more pleasing.

The problem with the soft suns is that they fall off pretty quick.

I would not use an 18k though, as they have far less spread than a "Silver Bullet" 12k. That said, the 18k is pretty punchy, and you are talking about backing the unit really far out, so the spread may not be an issue.

If you want a ton of spread, 20ks might be a good choice because they have a fairly large amount of spread. Problem is, if you go "moonlight" blue you will loose some output.

It is tricky what you are trying to do. To make the type of reflection in the water you are after, you need to get the unit(s) very high up.

I would use several 12ks very high, and far out. A MUSCO would be pretty well suited for what you are trying to do (assuming you can get one out on the barge).

Day for night might be another good plan. A lot comes down to the look you are going for.

Kevin Zanit

michael brierley · December 28, 2004

Thanks Kevin,

I have never used a soft sun and am interested in the fact that it falls off really quickly, the rental manager at the lighting compay told me the opposite! He showed me a picture of the 100k on a sand dune in the desert that Seamus Mac Garvey used on Flight of the Phoenix and it looked pretty impressive as a backlight- with a nice hard shadow, and it looks like it's about 700m (about a 1000feet) away from the subject.

I think the solution might be to bring the source in closer to the shore, thus enabling me to get it higher in the air. A Musco is not an option (we don't have any in SA). So, I think I'll look at a 12kw Silver Bullet.

Day for night isn't an option because the beach locatiion is only backlight first thing in the morning and we have about ten pages of dialogue and a fire in the scene.

Weather permiting, I was thinking of hanging a helium baloon over the beach to create an ambience. Any suggestions on what to use?

Thanks,

mb