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Car Interior at Night


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Hi,

 

I'm a film student and I'm shooting a short road movie, the majority of which takes place at night. I need some suggestions about how to light the interior of the car for night. The scenes only involve actors in the driver and passenger seats. I will be front towing and using a hood mount and hostess tray (which is all I can afford). The car is a Volvo station wagon (the back seats fold down), and I will be shooting on Vision2 500t (unless someone recommends otherwise). Thanks for any help or suggestions you can provide.

 

Matt Serrins

Matthew_Serrins@brown.edu

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One approach is to rent from a grip and lighting house a 12volt to 110v power inverter that can run off the car battery from either the picture, tow car or both. It s been awhile but I believe they come as hgh 2500w. What is the back-ground, city, country? If it is to City, at 500 asa You'll get mayb T1.4. or 2 so match to that. Country you'll get black. The best look, generally is for the interior to go in and out of light. The most difficult but do-ible is to rent from u-haul a roof carrier and find a way to secure speed rail to the rack. Have two pipes run front to back and two side to side. Make them long enough two overhang.To your lighting grid attach small fresnels such as 200w peppers that run to small hand dimmers whitch you and an assistant can fade in and out from the tow car. take careful readings and mark your dimmers. To the lights you can attach diffusion and color for effect. There are also car kitts that kino-flow Makes that will give you lighting from in the car. If you can keep the wats low you can also get Cigerate lighter adapters. It depnds on how ambitious you are and the dough of coarse. And remember Safety, safety, safety.

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Car interiors, (groan) have to be my least favorite scenes to light. I'll bet others here agree. That said, every DP simply HAS to go through this right of passage since it's such a common scenario for dialog. For that reason alone there's alot of ways to do this. I've found there's two schools of thought here-1. make it real and 2. make look good.

 

Real- passenger is practically a sillouette who is partially blocked by the rear view mirror. Is that the mood you want? If so there it is. Focus on the backlighting. if not, go to make it look good. I'm going to zero in on that for now so lose the rear view mirror or downsize it. If you keep it, use it for a shot angle.

 

Long sources like 24" portable 12V floro's can be rigged underneath the dash (photo corrected) which will give you a kind of a twin peaks looking up-light. Not a realistic dashboard light but good coverage. cut out bounce boards onto the floorboard and across the headliner in front of the faces.

 

The fact that it's at night actually helps with unwanted reflections from the hood mount camera. Wanted reflections can be simulated to appear to be passing streetlights. A fan and some water misting onto the windshield with the wipers going will force the eye through the winshield clearing and onto the more targeted focal points of the faces. If you're hauling a lo-boy, you can rig up some rim lights onto the window edges that can be flagged intermittently to simulate passing reflections.

 

drive through tunnels where possible for cieling light reflections. To dampen overall windshield glare in the tunnel, use a polo on the hood mount at a 34 degree angle to optimize the glare cancellation.

 

Things to watch for:

Communicate to the director-

Ensure that the actrors understand the language of who leans forward when from the hostess tray camera. Lens choice here is key, depth of field speaking that is. hyperfocal sweet spot often the answer here depending on operator availability.

 

Ensure the actors remember choreography like a head turn on which line so that the editor has an action cut where he needs it going from the hood cam to the door cam.

 

Anyway, that's a few thoughts to get you revved up for it. Good luck.

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Planning on towing is a very good idea. Get a small generator and put it in the back of your tow vehicle. It really does matter whether you are in a city or a dark area like a forest or desert. It a dark area I?d use most of your light to light the back ground from your tow vehicle. It will look like it is lit by the head lights. You just need a little exposure or it will look like poor man?s process. Hmm. Wait a minute? No money? Night photography.

 

You really want to think about shooting this poor man?s process.

1. The director can stand right next to the cast and really direct.

2. You?ll save film

3. It?s much faster and much easier.

4. You can shoot during the day if it helps your schedule.

5. You can spend your night doing some good night drive byes.

6. Really big movies with lots of money do it.

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Thanks for all your responses and your help.

 

To clarify my original post, the driving locations are suburban strip mall, suburban neighborhood, and interstate. I guess it's kind of a split between well lit city and pitch black country road, but these three will vary somewhat, with the more commercial locations having more light.

 

In terms of look, it's not a noir, so I would rather it look good than 'real.'

 

However, I think i'm going to be severely limited by what I can afford. In terms of money, budget, and access, unfortunately, I really can't do more than an inverter, some kinos, and a few 200w lights. I really wish I could do some of the more involved setups that have been described.

 

Will I have to worry about windshield glare? Should I use a polarizer filter for that?

 

I have also heard that cutting from a hood mount to hostess shot creates a perceived change in the speed the car is moving. Is this true? How do I compensate for this if so?

 

Thanks again so much for all your help and any other suggestions you have. I will be shooting tests this weekend based on this advice and will keep you posted.

 

Matt Serrins

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Forget about a polarizer, You'll loose a much needed 2 stops. The windshield is at a 45 degree angle so the only thing refleted back will come from 90 degrees such as street lights that will add to the effect. If you go for the dimming thing try getting e rythm with the street lights. In a city, light comes from everywhere, so anything goes. Glair at night shouldn't ba problem. Unless you have daylight sky and trees, a polarizer is recommended. If you're spending money and you're sweet and nice, grip and lighting house guys may give you a little help in figuring something out. Don' t forget your student discount, 20% to 50% if they like you.

From a side view passing background will appear much faster then the actual speed, so slow it down, maybe 15 MPH. Slower speeds will also assist in control all around.

Have fun and good luck.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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All good suggestions, a couple more tips:

 

Kino's come in 9" and 15" car kits, which can be powered off the cigarette lighter or hardwired to the car battery. They're dimmable and you can choose whatever color temp, you like. Even if you don't care for the dashboard-lit look, you can knock'em down with diffusion and still use them as fill.

 

A 200W light on the hood a punched through some diffusion can give a natural-looking ambience coming through the windshield. Try to place it at a side angle to make it look more like streetlight ambience, not so much a full-on keylight. You can do the same thing through the back window (for the hostess tray shots).

 

Another low-budget technique is to have a follow vehicle drive behind with its high-beams on. The back- and edge-light helps lift the actors' heads out of the dark. It takes a little practice to find a natural looking distance, but it helps. Switch back to regular beams for the hood mount shots, and position the follow vehicle farther back. The bright spot of the headlights lights looks cool and gives great depth when out of focus.

 

With a car on a trailer that means you'll have TWO batteries to work with, if you don't mind leaving the engine running on your picture car (the battery will go flat if you try to run lights off it otherwise).

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Hi,

 

This always sounds like a lot of farting about to me; in this situation I've always thought I'd go for some kind of rear-projection effect. It was done for "The Matrix" using really a pretty basic setup, purportedly because they wanted it to look slightly false and odd for the machine world, but to be honest this is one trick I did manage to completely miss - I never twigged it, and it looked fine.

 

Phil

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It's always a tossup whether to shoot process or poor-man's-process. There are strong advantages and disadvantages to both. Is it easier to rig all your lights, power, and camera support on a trailer and cart it down the street, or is it easier to try to replicate all the nuance of moving lights, vehicle and background in a studio? Poor-man's-process isn't always easier or better; sometimes it's just the best choice for the project.

 

As Bob and Phil pointed out, big-budget movies do it all the time. Big budget movies also go to elaborate extremes for process shots, like running an actual dolly around an ambulance while traveling through the streets of New York in "Bringing Out The Dead." It's a choice dependent on a lot of variables, including budget.

 

There's a really good commentary about poor-man's-process on the behind-the-scenes section of the DVD of "Frailty." Much of the movie takes place as a night driving sequence in the rain, and the filmmakers felt shooting on a stage gave them the most control. They were able to manipulate the subtleties of shadows across faces, rain on the windows, and even the tempo of the windshield wipers to accent the dramatic moments. Check it out, it's educational.

 

David Fincher's "The Game" also created elaborate moving light rigs and rear projection for poor-man's-process, and the effect is completely seamless. Not that it was easy or cheap to pull off! The last thing you want is for your dramatic film to look like a taxi ride in "Seinfeld." :P

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