moonlight Forrest Moon Backlight

[Tate Looysen]

Hey everyone! I'm looking to light an exterior night scene in the woods, and really want that unrealistic powerful back moonlight look.  All of my actors will be keyed by their own lanterns, but I just want to have that moonlight in addition.  I came across this scene from Stranger Things season one, shot by Tim Ives, that really resembles the look I'm going for.  My question is, does anyone know how this scene was actually lit? I can't tell if it's a single soft source or several sources, and how the characters are not backlit but the fog behind them is.  Also, if anyone knows how they would have achieved this color, that almost bluish green look, what kind of gels over what kind of lights.  I would greatly appreciate any input on this! Thanks guys!

[Albion Hockney]

A big HMI far away with some large foggers/hazers will do the trick.  The talent in the still you sent is silhouetted so the light isn''t hitting them it's just on the background.

If your frame size is about that size it might be possible to use a couple 1.8k hmi's for this on tall stands hitting different ares of the BG. if you have more resources something 4K or bigger on a condor would do you even better. You may want multiple sources hitting different area's of trees, or one big source backed far away could also work. 

I think the color is just a camera balanced for warmer light 4000Kish, so the hmi's appear cool. You can dial in more green in post our put something like 1/4 green gel on the lights. 

[David Mullen ASC]

If my camera were set to 3200K, then I'd probably add 1/4 CTO and 1/2 Plus Green to an HMI to get that color but it could also be tweaked in post with an ungelled HMI backlight. 

One advantage of multiple lights is that you have more chance of getting through gaps in the trees.  This is also one reason to consider something like a 12-light or 24-light MaxiBrute / Dino with gel (maybe Steel Blue) because a large multiple-bulb unit tends to get around some obstructions like tree branches.

Enough haze and you could just glow it with a row of lights on the ground shining up, like behind a low rise.