Shooting At night (In a forrest)

[Grant Fergus]

Hey guys,

 

In a few months time I'm gonna have to shoot a few scenes in a forrest that are meant to be scary and moody, sections "only lit" with torch light etc.

The director has a pretty strong vision and is keen to avoid the look of day for night and thought about shooting at dusk onwards etc.

 

any thoughts about night shooting?

 

I guess the scene would have to be lit to some degree and how do you go about making something look like its really really dark and really really night-time, but not have a grain-fest when shooting on digital (HD)

 

Appreciate anything anyone brings to this one,

cheers,

 

Grant :)

[Jed Shepherd]

I know this is a lighting section and my reply isnt so much that but i think post might be the way to go. Light the scene so you dont have to crank up gain but still use barn doors to create focused light etc. Then in post add vignette, change brightness/contrast etc. Im sure someone else will give a more in depth and probably better reply but i thought i would give my two cents. Preferably i like to stay away from noise when possible.

[Saul Rodgar]

In terms of grain, it really depends what camera you shooting on. What you may want to do is to give depth to your shots, as opposed to just faces lit by torches surrounded by pitch black darkness. So generally speaking, bright torches and some distant daylight-balanced back lighting and a large fog machine go a long way for night-time forest filming.

Edited November 10, 2010 by Saul Rodgar