Day for night problem.

Brandon Rice

Brandon Rice

Distributed Producer
Ok, I have a scene that I am shooting in the day, but it happens at night... simple stuff. Black out the windows, we're good to go.... well.... we have to have the actors walk into the house... there in lies the issue. How do I black out behind them without it looking obviously blacked out? Thanks.
 
Depending on the configuration of the door and outside area you can hang a large black (duvetyne or something like an 8x8 or 12x12 black). You'll need to get some distance away from the door and might want to add some ambience so it doesn't look like pitch black...
 
Brandon Rice said:
Cool, I'll do that... also, what do people here use to black out the windows?
Click to expand...

I was helping on one a couple weeks ago, we taped black trash bags over the outside of the windows. They did not have the windows in the shots though.
 
Yes I have used black trashbags, and they work amazing. My last short I had the same day shoot/ night scene problem. I was in an old bank and half the place was made of windows!!! Trash bags from the local kroger saved me.

Word of caution, check the thickness of the bags. Get the strongest most industrial kind. The cheap regular bags are not 100% solid. If that happens you will have to double bag. Check ahead of time and be prepared. Good luck!
 
I sometimes like the thinner bags...it lets a little bit of ambient light through and when shooting tungsten balance adds a soft blue glow. If you are going for complete blackness thick bags are a good thing - nothing worse than telling the grips they have to double up or doing it yourself! If it's a small window duvetyne definitely makes life easier.

This is an example of a shot I did at probably around 10am in the morning. The window was blacked with an 8x8 Black with a 400 HMI fresnel coming through the corner.

window_blacking.jpg
 
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