Shooting exts in the UK with no lights

Morgan Peline · June 7, 2005

Hi,

I'm shooting an exercise on S16 in an open 'plain' for two days in the New Forest in the UK probably on 50D. The story is 3 page wordless sort of homage to '2001' where spacemen go back in time to capture some primitive men to take them back to the future.

We're going back to our location to get a better feel for it but I just wanted to ask if anyone had any suggestions about matching wides to cus when there is the chance that the weather could completely change from sunny to rainy or vice versa within minutes as it does in the UK. Also we will most likely shoot 360 degrees throughout the two days - what is the best way to shoot this? Wides and reverses in the morning and evening and c.u.s in the afternoon with silks and reflectors? What other methods are there?

And of course as it is just an exercise we're not taking any lights...

I'm also looking into filters to disguise reality - so if the weather changes drastically we can disguise this under a strong colour. We're still discussing whether we want a cold or warm look.

Thanks for the help!

Edited June 7, 2005 by MorganPeline

Rolfe Klement · June 7, 2005

tough but...

always shoot wides first - then you match CU later - except for sunrise magic hour

Use magic hour for CU - means 4am call time - sunrise is at about 4.43am this week

Diffusion, bounce boards, negative fill etc work wonders

Bright sunlight - use overhead diffusion on talent and white poly bounce board for fill

Figure out which shots need sky shots then shoot them in a quick row - when the clouds are all over or bright blue skies

Use color correction filters for matching sunrise, sunset and day time

Don't panic about the weather (style over content!) if you have TK lined up then even easier

I prefer to shoot in cloud - means you don't need to diffuse talent - easier to work with - but bright blue works well but you need grads and Pola filters and mirrors for fill

Motorcycle Diaries was pretty much shot with one diffusion board (exteriors) the DOp used contrast from pushing to maintain consistency - but it involves huge testing and lots of rolls

so take some diffusion, bounce boards, mirrors, negative fill (black curtains)

Pola filter, ND grad, ND, 81ef, some cooling filters - and enjoy

thanks

Rolfe

John Thomas · June 7, 2005

Morgan,

As you said, I would try to shoot the wide shots early or late in the day. My goal would be to keep the sun behind the actors so that the wide shots are back lit. If your actors are lit from the hard sun directly in the wide shots it makes cutting to a close-up with no sun pretty rough. If you shoot your wide shots with no sun you stand a chance to control the sun with the usual grip equipment as your shots get tighter. Of course if the location restricts you from shooting the wide shots with back light, or you need to shoot in continuity order for any reason, I would take some stills as I moved along and try to match a sunny wide shot with a overcast close up with a reflector and some negative fill. With S16 I would use no diffusion or lo-cons on the camera except for an effect. Your use of a strong color (colour) B) may be just what you need to help smooth out the inevitable miss matches in lighting. You may also want to consider shooting a faster film stock so that you can shoot later into the day without changing filters or stocks. For your own sanity, and for your project's subject matter, you may want to concentrate on the dynamic use of the camera and not get too hung up on lighting continuity.

Good luck,

JT

Sam Care · June 7, 2005

Hi,

I have recently finished shooting a short film on S16mm in the UK. I was worried about similar things to you like matching wides and close-ups with the weather constantly changing. One day it went from bright sunlight to a dark overcast sky with light rain. I was really worried about it, but since seeing the rushes and seeing the scenes shot on that day cut together, I have realised that you can actually get away with quite a lot. If you look carefully you can see slight changes in the weather, light, tones of colours. But most people who aren't DP's wouldn't notice.

I have to say though that I would suggest shooting on Vision 2 250D 7205. It really is a great stock and the grain isn't any more noticable than the EXR 50D 7245. I feel that the 7205 is actually better when you are shooting outdoors in the UK with irratic weather. It allows you to shoot all day, in any lighting condition. Maybe it is the slightly lower contrast and colour saturation which makes weather differences match a bit better with the 7205 than the 7245. I was very pleased with it anyway. I also used a 1/8 Coral filter to help warm up and match the shots when the weather became overcast. It did help in making footage shot in overcast conditions look warmer and brighter. However watch out if you have a lot of green grass in shot beacuse it can sometimes put a bit too much yellow/orange into the grass, which could cause you more harm than good continuity wise.

Hope this was useful.

Sam.