Brooklyn Street Ext Night

[A Hain]

I am cheaply producing a short film, which requires a shot of four people on a street at night. The widest will be from about 50ft away and the mediums and closes at standard ranges.

I'm shooting on the HVX200 @ 24PN.

The crew consists of about 5 people.

The "look" hopefully will be something along these lines: Two guys walking down the street in and out of pools of light coming from the street lamps above them. When they are out their faces are fully exposed by the moonlight. I think that I can achieve the street light with the actually street lamps. It?s having enough ?moonlight? that I?m worried about.

I know that the HVX200 is notoriously bad in low light, I also dont want to boost the gain anymore than is absolutely necessary.

 

How can I achieve this look on a shoestring? And my shoestring is about 500 bucks.

[Joseph Nesbitt]

Hey don't count on the street lamps to illuminate your shots, I've shot under one before and it still came out too dark. If I were you and you needed moonlight here's what you do, do that actual pull in 50ft shot at night or if your crew is willing do it in the morning and darken it in post. For the walking down the street part shoot it day for night on a cloudy day, set your white balance on your camera to indoor, or buy a day for night filter,( look it up on google ) after that bring your exposure down to the desired level, this should work nicely.

[Chris Keth]

Joseph is on the right track, I think. Shoot dawn for night and be there plenty early. You want to avoid showing sky and wait until the sky is just abrely light enough to provide fill-level light. The streetlights should still be on at that time in most places.

[A Hain]

Thanks guys. I'll run some test the next couple nights.