Nina Reichmann

I've shot in cars several times now (day and night, with trailers and without) and I think one really important thing is to have a car that is big enough to host you and everyone that needs to be there and that gives you some space to get different shots. If the car is too small it will be a pain in the a**. If you worry about shakiness you might want to get a rather heavy camera...(something that really sits on your shoulder or in the cinesaddle) that worked well for me. Oh, and that said a cinesaddle shouldn't be missing on your list! Also consider having some additional led lights that run on batteries so you can mount them somewhere, otherwise you might not see too much especially when shooting with an exterior car rig and get reflections of street lights on the front window. Next thing is safety... i remember flying around in a car with an Alexa XT on my shoulder one time because the actor was driving and acting and hit the break hard all of a sudden. I hope that gives you some more inspiration for your checklist. Driving up and down the road you want to shoot several times in advance is also key (even better if it's already in the car you will be shooting with so you can check out possible angles and places for rigging lights). Good luck!

It depends... the people in your second reference pic get the light from the right side (and some additional fill from the left but that's not so important right now) so if you'd do it just like that, it would look like they are not facing the "set" with the camera (since their camera is obviously not pointing in the direction of the light...). So if you really want to do a shot/reverse shot (means you are standing in the white set facing the "team") you will have to have the light coming more from the angle of your camera (or slightly angled from one side if you'd prefer it to be not so flat..). Also your studio looks much smaller than the one in your reference pic AND they have black background, floor etc that sucks up a lot of light (which is still coming from the right side in the pic so it is easy to take it away from the background!)... so yes, the light might be too much coming back from behind the camera full force hitting not just your actors but also the background. So if you'd want the light to come exactly from the place it would logically come from, you could try using the bounced off light and just dim it/and use some flags and black duvetin t-bars to make the light source smaller. If it still hits the background too much (depends how far away the background is...) you can prepare a separate light source that you can have a bit more directed and angled from one side and slightly above tha camera facing down onto the actors to have the rest of the light hitting the floor instead of the wall behind them. You can also try to add black t-bars at the background walls as part of the set design since it's a film in film thing!? A slightly angled camera could also help with the whole situation (if you'd look at the "team" more from the side they would get the light sideways and you could block away more of what might drop onto the background of your picture (which will be the side walls of the stuio). Then you'd get closer to the light situation of your reference pic. So in the end it really depends on your shots. My suggestion is to go after what is possible in your studio and not get too much into the reference pic. Have fun!

Does anyone have experience with filters that have a similar color shifting effect as IR photography (I mean, as much as possible) - without using a modified camera? I know that there are filters that only let through light of a certain wavelength (550nm,630nm...) but it seems like I will still need to get rid of that internal IR filter first... I am trying to figure out the best way to do some special shots without carrying around a second IR-modified Alexa... Just curious if anyone came across some interesting color filters (or filter combinations) that might also do the job. Also appreciate other thoughts on that topic.