green screen driving... at night.

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Despin

Member
So I have a little scene in a car with two people talking while driving down a dark country lane. Half of it will be with them moving and the other half with them parked up.

I guess I'm after some advice from you guys on doing this kind of shot.

I'm pretty confident I can achieve this kind of process shot to a decent standard using green screens and having the car parked up.. I've done plenty of reading and tutiral watching... but all of it has been for daytime set shots.

I have no idea where to start for a night time shot.

Now the location will be a country road so outside of the window would be quite dark anyway. It's not like there will be lots of lights/buildings/cars to see... I was considering a poor mans process kinda shot. It's something I've never attempted before and again.. Would love some advice from you guys.

This is a real low budget affair. I have no pro lighting gear.. So it would have to be stuff I can cobble together from the local hardware store.

I'll be shooting on the sony EX1.

I'm gonna go out tomorrow and shoot some reference material at the location. see what the camera can do in no light and what can actually be seen outside the window while driving.

Any tips or advice on the subject would be great. Cheers.
 
I think it would be the same for a night time shoot.

Do as you would for the characters greenscreening, but when it's time for the night shot, then get the night shot.

Take a ride and film from the front seat to the back for a while in the night.

Robbie
 
I did a similar shoot. it didnt come out great only because I was more of a noob back then. I am sure if I was to do a similiar shot again I would get better results. What I did was luckily i had a garage to film in so I could control the environment better. I used a green cloth to cover only the areas that could be seen through the car. Light the scene well because remember even if you are in a night scene the moon gives off light as well as small lights in the car like the dashboard lights. So you might want to get a small light inside to eluminate your subjects faces. Then when thats done. Like Robbie said drive around the area of choice and film it from different angles similar to the ones you had when you shot the first scenes.

Make sure you light the Green screen really well. The better you light it the easier it is to key out later. Trust me.
 
Don't shoot at night- shoot at dawn or dusk right when there's still plenty of light to shoot but the automatic street lights are on. You can then make it into day for night in post. Shooting completely at night is not going to look that great without bringing in your own lighting, unless you are on a very well-lit street.

Noah
 
fuzzylogic34 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBvDG-KrOu4

This is the video I did. It was my first time shooting green screen so its not the best but you get the idea
Click to expand...

This could look a lot better if you color balanced the exterior to match the interior more. Right now the green exterior jumps out as fake next to the very blue interior. The compositing and cinematography are actually reasonably solid. If they matched better it would be a lot less obvious that it's a comp shot.

Noah
 
NoahK said:
Don't shoot at night- shoot at dawn or dusk right when there's still plenty of light to shoot but the automatic street lights are on. You can then make it into day for night in post. Shooting completely at night is not going to look that great without bringing in your own lighting, unless you are on a very well-lit street.

Noah
Click to expand...


The Wife always comments about how it's always raining in California, according to movies... that is the streets at night are so often wet looking... then it struck me... wet, glistening streets look a hell of a lot better on film, than blank black unlit streets at night, even if there are street lamps...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
The Wife always comments about how it's always raining in California, according to movies... that is the streets at night are so often wet looking... then it struck me... wet, glistening streets look a hell of a lot better on film, than blank black unlit streets at night, even if there are street lamps...
Click to expand...

Yep- and that's what the water truck is for though it's not exactly a low-budget item:

2384653581_376c1ec422.jpg


-Noah
 
thanks for the advice guys. Will defo take it all into account. I went out a few days ago and got a bunch of reference photos and video material. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get away with having the car stationary, lighting for the characters within and having some movement on the car and some slight movement reference out of the window. Anyway.. We'll see how it goes.

I also have a few day for night shots Im gonna have to do for the exteriors.. Never tried anything like that before either. Seems to be a bunch of writing about it online. Can't wait to get stuck in.

Here's my very first test. Lots of problems with it. But I thin I know where I'm going wrong.

original shot
http://vimeo.com/2819727

and then there was night... kinda.. with a big fake moon. ha.
http://vimeo.com/2819745
 
Despin said:
thanks for the advice guys. Will defo take it all into account. I went out a few days ago and got a bunch of reference photos and video material. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get away with having the car stationary, lighting for the characters within and having some movement on the car and some slight movement reference out of the window. Anyway.. We'll see how it goes.

I also have a few day for night shots Im gonna have to do for the exteriors.. Never tried anything like that before either. Seems to be a bunch of writing about it online. Can't wait to get stuck in.

Here's my very first test. Lots of problems with it. But I thin I know where I'm going wrong.

original shot
http://vimeo.com/2819727

and then there was night... kinda.. with a big fake moon. ha.
http://vimeo.com/2819745
Click to expand...

That actually looks fairly convincing- and it's not even with sound yet. I think if you get lucky with slightly less clouds you'll be good to go. That or a little more selective color correction to the sky and fuzziness on the moon. It's pretty solid.

Noah
 
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