Ext. Marina - Night

T

ThousandWordPicture

Active member
I've got a night exterior at a Marina in a few days, and the production has agreed to pick up additional gear for the shoot, though I am positive will not spend very much. Do you guys have any economical recommendations to bring up the ambient level of a large space?

My plan is to hang something like 675w or so HMIs (or if you have any suggestions let me know) on each of the practical light posts to sweeten up their throw, in a downward pattern. I'd also like to fill in the areas between the lights with a low ambient level so the boats are visible and I don't just have hard edge lights on the people and boats.

The scene is fairly involved, and ideally I would like it to have some decent blocking and use as much of the space as I have gear to light for. We have several cast, and the scene is 5 pages, containing several setups worth of coverage. Unfortunately we'll only have around 4 hours to do it, so I'll have to work a balance between fast and good :( I'm having a meeting tomorrow to see if we can get longer in there or potentially come back the next night and do more.

I believe the Marina in question could this one: http://www.sewellsmarina.com/photos.html or this one: http://www.thunderbirdmarine.com/thunderbird-gallery.php Either way, the plan is the same.

If it sounds like things are non specific and up in the air, happening way too late and without enough money, it's because they are. Such is the nature of this particular production. I'm sure you understand.

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

Thanks!
 
without scouting, and keeping a low budget I'd put 1k open faced lights up on (2-3 or all?) the posts shooting down, and put 1,200 par HMIs up high and narrow beam on either end of the marina for backlights. For fill, I'd use a 4'-4 bank kino, or some tungsten bounced off a 4x4 or 6x6 or 8x8, wind permitting. Just off the top of my head.
 
I'd also put as many lights on shore as possible, aimed out onto the water towards the pier. Nothing looks better than ripples on water at night. Even 100 watt bulbs 300 yards back will give you something.
 
Yeah, that's a bit of a death wish, especially where you seem to be at in your pre-production. No scouting, no lighting diagrams, doesn't sound like much planning.
 
Even just one page in 4 hours is tough. You should always give yourself way more time than you think you will need. It will still usually take more than the time allotted.

If you have all of the lighting and cameras set up before any actors get there, it's possible, but highly unlikely that you will get it finished. Pre-production is very important if you want to be organized and prepared on set. When you arrive on location is not the right time to decide how you want the scene to look.

I'm not calling you unorganized and trust me, I definitely understand those low-budget rushed productions. I'm just speaking from past experience.
 
5 pages in 4 hrs ... if that is the schedule then you have to make the blocking/shot list doable in 4 hrs - so get together with director, DP , 1st AD and decide how you can do 5 pages in 4hrs - at some point you have to say this is what we can do in 4hrs and is that good enough - if it is not good enough then you either have to add hrs or come back a 2nd night .....
IMO you don't go out with a shot list that everybody knows requires 10 hrs ..
 
It seems like this production has had some issues all the way through. I'm new to the production, filling in for a DP who left with 6 days left, ostensibly to do a bigger project, but who knows the actual reason why they left.

In any case, that's why I didn't get to see the location until this morning.

We're hampered by an actor working his real job on a TV series here in town and a bylaw restriction, which is why it was only 4 hours. Just a little explanation so I don't seem retarded :p

Regardless, I veto'd the Marina due to the bylaw and other things. I basically said that it would be such a compromise lighting the damn thing so fast, that there's no point in paying the money for a location that I don't think we can do that well. We've changed the scene around and we'll make it work at another location with infinite time.

Thanks for your suggestions, everyone.
 
Wow, I can't believe I pulled that one off!

I decided to take a page out of Rodrigo Prieto's book (or American Cinematographer article, as it were), and give the characters flashlights.

I got emergency flashlights at a hardware store, taped some 216 over them to spread the beam, and showed the actors where to throw the beams - hotspot on the chest seemed to be working. The 216 evened it out and nothing burned out, and it threw well enough to people's faces that it made the scene work for coverage, without blinding anybody. Another thing that helped was that we have a documentarian character in the story who is making a documentary of the adventure, so I gave him a camera light, and some of the coverage plays from his camera (as it has throughout the movie).

I actually think it adds a really neat energy to the scene. In the scene the protag has failed a bunch of times and kind of has his breakdown scene, so the extra intensity of the light was working.

For the reverse on the people holding the flashlight I had to cheat, since the protag guy (who they find with flashlights, see it works in the story!) doesn't have a flashlight. For a wider over I gave the actor a piece of bounce to put over his shirt to fill in everyone else, and for tighter coverage I just walked it in to the edge of frame. That coverage is definitely a cheat, but I feel like I established this little pool of light in the blackness and that it's realistic enough that people will just be enthralled with the scene. If anything I can bring that coverage down to match if I have to.

I think people were feeling pretty sceptical about the scene, and I probably didn't inspire confidence with the panicked look on my face earlier in the day, having no idea how this could possibly work, nervously chewing my sides, my nails and my beard.

As soon as I saw that it was working, and to a very high degree, I gathered everyone around for playback, and I think everyone really liked it, and at that point completely relaxed and really got into it. That's pretty rewarding.

Anyway, I don't want to brag, but I had major anxiety over this scene from the moment I realised that it had no light motivation at all, and I feel like with a mix of ingenuity and outright theft (thanks Mr. Prieto) I rose to the occasion, and made the scene not only visible, but visually dynamic and neat looking. No one else in the world besides you guys really understands what I went through to make those words in the page into pictures, so I wanted to share.

It was very strange taking over someone else's movie, and the film presented a lot of unique challenges for me, most of all this next exterior. Coming in on day 17 was really hard, being only passingly familiar with the script, and not having seen much in the way of dailies ahead of time was all new to me and I found all of it to be quite difficult. But, nevertheless, that is a wrap on principal photography!
 
Sorry guys, I don't have any of the footage, it's all with the P2 assistant. You'll just have to wait and hopefully you can buy it on DVD sometime!

I also think something from that scene could potentially go in a trailer, so I'll keep my eyes open for that, too.
 
Shouldn´t you get sth for YOUR reel?
And no offence, but I just won´t buy a DVD because there might be an interesting flashlight scene in it, so please post some pics (or a video) when you get the chance - this might boost DVD sales;o)!
 
Night Marina

Night Marina

There is not a lot you can do for your master Shot. I think you need to confine your coverage to CU and Med in which case bounce and go Soft.
 
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