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Ideas for night interior during the day


mal

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I am shooting at a hospital in a room on the 2nd floor. I need to make it look like night and make it moody. Blackening out the windows might be possible, difficult, but possible. I was thinking about using a ton of ND's to bring it a stop or 2 below key and covering it with half open venetian blinds. I prefer not to just black out the window since it is an an "urban" place and usually you get some night light from outside. I am wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to light this to make it moody. It is supposed to be the climax of the film. I am shooting a Kodak 250D Reversal cross processed and printed for skin tones. Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

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I am shooting at a hospital in a room on the 2nd floor.  I need to make it look like night and make it moody.  Blackening out the windows might be possible, difficult, but possible.  I was thinking about using a ton of ND's to bring it a stop or 2 below key and covering it with half open venetian blinds.  I prefer not to just black out the window since it is an an "urban" place and usually you get some night light from outside.  I am wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to light this to make it moody.  It is supposed to be the climax of the film.  I am shooting a Kodak 250D Reversal cross processed and printed for skin tones.  Any suggestions are welcome.  Thank you.

One good way to make it look like night is to actually shoot it at night. Why aren't you?

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scheduling issues and school issues. The hospital will not let us shoot there too late. Something to do with a public relations person having to be on set at all times. Also, our film school won't let us shoot past 1am for some reason. We will be shooting toward the end of the day however. Around 5ish but the sun doesn't go down completly until 9. Also, we need the time after 9 to shoot the exterior establishing shot. Trust me I wish I could just shoot at night!!!!

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You have some issues.

 

Sounds like you will be shooting during the daytime but night will come during your shoot inside. If that is the case you may want to black out the windows for continuity.

 

You may want to cheaply black themout for you shoots looking away from the windows and then take it down when it is night and you actually see the windows. That may lead you to shooting out of order, but we do that all the time.

 

If you just try and ND them down, you may want to do it more then a stop or two. More like 4 or 5 stops. You may want to add some half or full blue to the mix if you are using tungsten inside, but that may be completely up to you. It may look bluish enough with just the ND.

 

Then there may be an issue if the window is close to your action and actors. If the window is deep in the background, you may be able to get away with this method. If it is too close there, may be a soft ambient light coming through which would be unnatural for a night look.

 

When I think of a night interior, I think of some sort of sharp shadowed moonlight effect on a wall or floor, or perhaps a sodium vapor or mercury vapor colored light coming in from the street like what was done in the film Awakenings in the hospital for example. Check out how they lit the ceilings.

 

Depending on your shoot and blocking, you may be able to black out the window and re create a window pattern with some bluish color of your choosing with a Leko and a window pattern.

 

If there are overhead fluorescent fixture turn them off and use practical lights on the night tables and perhaps kino flos or color corrected fluorescent light over the beds or perhaps on a floor in the background to light a wall. Depending on your set, try lighting some of the chrome or stainless steel set dressing with reflections of the actual lighting units. The hot spots they create will add to your shots.

 

Also Chinese lanterns on grip stands are nice soft cheap lighting for night interiors, but they spill light everywhere. You would need some flags and cutters to keep the light where you need it and take away where you don't. Lanterns work better in a larger room for that reason. Also many paint lanterns half black to help control.

 

I hope this helps with ideas and solutions.

 

best of luck

 

Tim

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If the window isn't prominent in the shot you can try covering it with blackwrap but experiment with leaving a section uncovered at the top or in the middle. Sometimes you can get a dim swath of light to appear on the next wall. Since you're shooting on daylight stock maybe cover the open section of the window with 1/2 CTB to make it feel more like moonlight.

 

Here is an example. The windows on the right have been covered with blackwrap except for the very top. You can see a hint of "moonlight" on the wall and some hitting his knee, which provides a nice edge when he is upright.

 

mikephone.jpg

Edited by J. Lamar King
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