Exterior night scenes with no power source

[dirtee1]

You can't afford to properly light a night exterior action scene - trust me!! There's even a lot of independent 35mm low budget films that can't afford to do it!

Your best bet is day for night. Heavy ND and post effects
your best off doing it on overcast day, or if you can afford to silk large areas.

We'll be doing a lot of things that require actual night, that much is set.

PP to make actual and day for night look similar/identical is way beyond my abilities.

So I'll have to stay with all night ^_^

I'll see what I can pull off and hit you guys with the results...that is, if they are good XD

[MalcolmOng]

You can't afford to properly light a night exterior action scene - trust me!! There's even a lot of independent 35mm low budget films that can't afford to do it!

Your best bet is day for night. Heavy ND and post effects
your best off doing it on overcast day, or if you can afford to silk large areas.

Maybe if they had used a DVX instead they might have been able to afford it.

[novelt]

What "frames" were those? Metall? Wood? Foldable? 2"x8' is pretty damn large to fit into anything smaller than a bus XD I would think. Anywhere I can find instructions for a DIY crane?

no i meant i bought 1 piece of wood for $1.33 and since it was 8' long i cut 4 2' sections. so i made a frame 2'x2'...you said you were looking at 6' so buying an 8' and then cutting it would work...or for a few cents less or more they do have 6' pieces. the boards are like 2" wide and 3/4" deep. as for DIY cranes did you browse the DIY section of this board? i think somebody posted plans.

[Icarus2005]

You can't afford to properly light a night exterior action scene - trust me!! There's even a lot of independent 35mm low budget films that can't afford to do it!

Your best bet is day for night. Heavy ND and post effects
your best off doing it on overcast day, or if you can afford to silk large areas.

[dirtee1]

ah you may have me there...cheapest generator i found was $199. the inverter i have cost $69 and i have one battery it was $39 at walmart and i already owned a charger...if not i could borrow my parents.

however the real comparison...my set up makes less noise and costs less to operate..especially with gas at $3.00 per gallon...the generator i was looking at said it had the lowest consumption at 1.4 gallons per hour. i can run my set up for 7 to 8 hours before needing to recharge or replace the battery...that would cost you $29 to $33...i don't even scratch that using electricity to recharge the battery. so in the long run you will spend way more on gas than i will on electricity, but if you want to save money on the initial investment...go right ahead.

as for the DIY "silk"...i made frames and stapled my fabric to the frames...it was real inexpensive. i bought 2x8s at lowes - not 2'x 8' these 2" x 8' - ah you know what i mean - anyway they were $1.33 each. then either a DIY crane or have someone or sometwo hold it.

Lol yes I can't afford buying both those solutions so I guess I'll have to go with renting a genny. Your setup seems quite perfect tho. Will consider getting it if we get asked to do a series of films ^^

What "frames" were those? Metall? Wood? Foldable? 2"x8' is pretty damn large to fit into anything smaller than a bus XD I would think. Anywhere I can find instructions for a DIY crane?

[novelt]

A couple RV batteries, a high wattage inverter and a charger? Is there a reason why this setup won't cost more than buying myself a 1000W genny?

ah you may have me there...cheapest generator i found was $199. the inverter i have cost $69 and i have one battery it was $39 at walmart and i already owned a charger...if not i could borrow my parents.

however the real comparison...my set up makes less noise and costs less to operate..especially with gas at $3.00 per gallon...the generator i was looking at said it had the lowest consumption at 1.4 gallons per hour. i can run my set up for 7 to 8 hours before needing to recharge or replace the battery...that would cost you $29 to $33...i don't even scratch that using electricity to recharge the battery. so in the long run you will spend way more on gas than i will on electricity, but if you want to save money on the initial investment...go right ahead.

as for the DIY "silk"...i made frames and stapled my fabric to the frames...it was real inexpensive. i bought 2x8s at lowes - not 2'x 8' these 2" x 8' - ah you know what i mean - anyway they were $1.33 each. then either a DIY crane or have someone or sometwo hold it.

[dirtee1]

A couple RV batteries, a high wattage inverter and a charger? Is there a reason why this setup won't cost more than buying myself a 1000W genny?

Bcheong, I can only afford a set of worklights if we do not recieve any more funding. At 1000W, and maybe an additional 250W and 100W I can probably rent a lower-powered genny, like a 1500W right? I believe those come in considerably smaller sizes than a 2000/3000 would.

Is it possible to drain the car battery flat with it connected to the car and the engine running? Can anybody give a figure as well as to what wattage average car headlamps are rated at?

Riff R4ff, you're talking about the night for day technique, if you don't already know that. I've seen it used on TV and I hate it and can absolutely tell it's fake. Considering the fact that I'm only starting out I doubt I can pull it off realistically.

Does anyone have any idea how I could DIY a portable muslin sheet about 6'x6'(give and take)? I've seen it being hung tilted about 50-60 degrees above the actors on movie sets. If all else fails I can always ask my grip and best boy to hold it up XD

[MalcolmOng]

The DVX also has color temp adjustments built in, so raising it would make it bluer...

[R!ff R4ff]

RED! Ah that's the ticket, thanks novelt!

[novelt]

Are you referring to the tiny little cooling fan?

a lot louder than a CPU fan definitely.

you're right about the card...i'd suggest go the hardware store and try various shades of red...too much might give you green instead of blue.



this isn't mine, but it was done with a red card.

[R!ff R4ff]

inverters make a whirring noise a little high pitched

Are you referring to the tiny little cooling fan?

I think I remember reading somewhere you can white balance the camera to a colored card and it would record the image with a blue/night tint to it? Anybody remember something like that? I don't remember if this is correct, if it worked good or not, or what the color was.

[novelt]

my take on car batteries...first you really don't need them connected to the car. second i use a marine RV battery and it lasts pretty long...consider that it's used in an RV...

okay on my setup the RV battery with a 750W inverter lasts for quite some time. if you read the battery it will say (X)amp hours...for a better understanding read this . a 500W worklight will use 4.x amps...if the battery is rated at 200ah then you have approximately 50 hours of battery usage.

noise...inverters make a whirring noise a little high pitched, but definitely less noticeable then the noise made from a generator. then again noise isn't really a factor if you know how to do ADR.

you can make the "car battery" set up work especially if you use more than one and connect them in series or parallel. series will increase the voltage, parallel will increase the amp hours.

just my opinion.

[bcheong]

I have a different definition of an unmotivated rim light - its a light that appears to not be coming from any source. It doesnt matter if you have established the source by showing it or not.

Example - you can have a light simulating moonlight and never show the moon - that is completely motivated.

Example of unmotivated. I light over the actors heads and then in a wider shot you do not see the light. Some unmovitated lights work for artisitic purposes - its like any rule - know the rule -"only use motivated lights" - then break the rule when you want to - you just should always know when you are breaking a rule

You're right smelni. That's a better and more complete definition. Thanks for clarifying!

[bcheong]

bcheong: From what you say it sounds like a genny would suit our lights just fine! Why do you say I will need a van tho? Is it really too large to fit into a trunk or a car's back seat?

It's big - if you can get a van you'll save yourself a lot of headache. You're going to make it difficult on yourself with a car I think. You can probably try to get it into an SUV or station wagon if you don't have a van. But certainly go check it out and see - some models are smaller than others. They're also heavy - 150lb if I had to guess.

[smelni]

I have a different definition of an unmotivated rim light - its a light that appears to not be coming from any source. It doesnt matter if you have established the source by showing it or not.

Example - you can have a light simulating moonlight and never show the moon - that is completely motivated.

Example of unmotivated. I light over the actors heads and then in a wider shot you do not see the light. Some unmovitated lights work for artisitic purposes - its like any rule - know the rule -"only use motivated lights" - then break the rule when you want to - you just should always know when you are breaking a rule