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Lighting EXT. Desert at Night


Jonathan Bruno

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Hey all. Here's the deal. My director wants to shoot the climax of the film we are working on on the side of a desert road in the dead of night.

 

I'm not against this, but it's a student project and I don't see the possibility of making it look like the desert at night, or even to be able to seen anything at all unless we have a large budget with enormous lights and a relatively small space to light. I would love to have a few 12K HMIs at my disposal, but that simply won't happen.

 

Right now I'm suggesting that we film the majority of it as it gets increasingly darker and do some colour timing to bring it down later.

 

Any suggestions?

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You can't light large open areas at night with no budget.

 

You could try mixing day-for-night, dusk-for-night, and night-for-night depending on if other light sources are in the frame (like the car headlamps.)

 

You could set the scene under a lone streetlamp surrounded by darkness and rig a toplight to a pole.

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THANK YOU DAVID.

 

I will show this to my producers so they will believe me. I have been saying it is not important to shoot 3 hrs away if all we are seeing is the side of a road and a sea of black.

 

Thanks for the other tips as well. Perhaps I'll have them splurge for a musco light. ha.

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Ive seen that before on student projects where they go to a location that looks great but then they shoot it at night with the small units they have available and are then surprised when they can't see any of the location.

 

I think you have the right idea by shooting day for night or (dusk for night). If you are out in the desert without any practical light sources in frame that should be relatively easy to do.

 

Other methods get expensive to do on a student budget

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The desert magic hour fades pretty quick, but the "afterglow" lasts longer.

 

Be prepared to battle lighting/sky continuity in post. I think david's idea would work.

 

Maybe even shooting your characters in silhouette against some light source in the distance might look cool.

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