Day for night INT. seeing windows / FilmSchool Shortfilm

[Alejandro Arteaga]

Hello there everyone,

 

Well i'm shooting my final short film at 3rd year in film school, the script takes place in a night interior house, my problem is that due to the shooting script in a few shots we see the window. We have to shoot in that hours (daylight) because the film school requires it. I asked one of my teachers and he told me that one easy solution could be to make kind of dark boxes in the windows for putting the lightning equipment and not allowing to pass the sunlight, then put Hampshire Frost filter in the windows for defocus the light and use little lights that seems to come from the street.

 

It seems to be a good idea but do you have any others?, I have time until the shooting day and I want to explore all the posibilities. The shooting will be 10 hours and we have 8 Ronin shots, the camera is the BMCC 4K with one and only Samyang XEEN 20mm, I want an f/4.0 and my gaffer will be prelightning the other two rooms in wich the action happens.

 

Thanx!!

 

-Alex

 

 

[Brian Drysdale]

You can create a black box out side the window using black out drapes, or whatever suits to construct it, although be aware of weather issues like wind or rain, the latter can pull down any roofing drapes. Obviously it's easier on the ground floor.

[David Mullen ASC]

Building a tent of black duvetine is standard practice, but usually you want blinds or curtain lace or sheers to break up the view, you don't want to be looking right at a black tent, plus a black window becomes a mirror on set.

 

Some frost like 1/8, 1/4, 1/4 Hampshire Frost on the glass will blur the view if you put something out there or you can sprinkle water drops on the glass and backlight them.

[Alejandro Arteaga]

I think I do have some distance for putting something between the light and the glass because the house is surrounded with a porch in every window so it wont be difficult to reach the optimal distance for the lightning and the iris I want. The water drops seems to be a great idea too, I will do something like that.

Thanx very much