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Cutting Cloudy & Sunlit Ext Shots


Dan Hasson

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Hi,

First of all, I have tried searching for old posts and cannot find much. If there are I'd appreciate being show and letting off for starting a new post.

I'm cutting together a film. In one exterior scene, the sun was coming in and out of thick clouds. It was a super low budget film and I'm doing this for free so this is not something we could overcome in the short time we had the exterior location for. Fortunately the film is black and white and it seems to help cutting the shots together. The story is strong enough where it seems to cut together fine so far. But after watching things dozens of times its hard tell now....

My question is, are there examples of films/scenes where this happens? Cutting together of a sunny exterior shot and a cloudy exterior shot? It would be reassuring to see where it has happened before where most audiences (general audience, not skilled folks like yourselves) probably have not noticed.

I'm not asking for people to see if mine cut together, rather if there are examples of other films where it has happened.

Thanks,

Dan

 

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You see it occasionally, and yes, you do notice, not in a film I could name- it's impossible to put ourselves in the place of a general audience, we can't ignore it. Minimise it if you can- maybe something can be done with tone curves or contrast in the grade.

Perhaps you can show the cut to a non- film friend and ask them if anything looks "odd" without priming them to look for problems. I do it with my OH for stills sometimes- she's intelligent enough to tell if something looks "wrong" even if she can't say what it is.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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I shot a long exterior birthday party scene with constantly changing light. We didn’t have time to wait for consistent lighting.

The original edit really showed the light changes, but after color correction it played very well and looked rather natural.

My suggestion to you, as an editor would be to cut for the story and not worry about the changing sunlight.

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1 hour ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Happens all the time. It got so bad on "Heaven's Gate" in Montana that Zsigmond had them shoot a shot of the sun going in and out of the clouds to explain why the light kept changing even in mid-shot during a dialogue scene.

Probably one of the first shots the studio suggested they lose out of the five hour cut.?

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4 hours ago, Mark Dunn said:

You see it occasionally, and yes, you do notice, not in a film I could name- it's impossible to put ourselves in the place of a general audience, we can't ignore it. Minimise it if you can- maybe something can be done with tone curves or contrast in the grade.

Perhaps you can show the cut to a non- film friend and ask them if anything looks "odd" without priming them to look for problems. I do it with my OH for stills sometimes- she's intelligent enough to tell if something looks "wrong" even if she can't say what it is.

Great advice Mark, thank you.

4 hours ago, Bruce Greene said:

I shot a long exterior birthday party scene with constantly changing light. We didn’t have time to wait for consistent lighting.

The original edit really showed the light changes, but after color correction it played very well and looked rather natural.

My suggestion to you, as an editor would be to cut for the story and not worry about the changing sunlight.

Reassuring to hear others have gone through similar Bruce. Thank you I'll be taking up your suggestion for sure!

3 hours ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Happens all the time. It got so bad on "Heaven's Gate" in Montana that Zsigmond had them shoot a shot of the sun going in and out of the clouds to explain why the light kept changing even in mid-shot during a dialogue scene.

Thank you David. That has been on my to watch list for a while now. Seeing as England seems to be slipping into another lockdown I may have the chance!

 

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