How do you think they lit this scene?

[Kenneth Lau]

On a road that has so particle lamps, at night, how do you think this scene was lit?

I am about to work on a project that has similar situation.

Do you guys think that there are some Key lights from above and they toned it down in post?

Or the only light was the car/motor bike lights in this scene?

Whats your thoughts on this?

 

[David Jimerson]

I wouldn't be surprised if they lit the trees with an HMI or something. But it's really hard to tell from these shots.

I suppose it's not dissimilar from this shot from the Lighting DVD (short film Unawakening):



Where the fence, the rain, and the trees beyond were lit up with a couple of 575w HMIs.

There WAS some grading in post to take it down some.

 

[Kenneth Lau]

Hey David,

Because the motor bike and car are moving, I was wondering if they use a HMI to chase them or something?
It probably wouldnt be on stand is my guess

 

[Liam Hall]

There's nothing complex going on here. It's shot with available light.

 

[David Jimerson]

Hey David,

Because the motor bike and car are moving, I was wondering if they use a HMI to chase them or something?
It probably wouldnt be on stand is my guess

That's what's hard to tell, because these still shots do not give any sense of motion. In some of the shots, it looks like the trees are lit independently of the vehicle headlights (in the top right pic, trees behind the motorcycle look lit), so there's probably some artificial light going on those shots. It looks similar to the effect in the shot I posted above, so I mentioned what we did.

 

[Paul Hudson]

Available lights (headlights)

 

[DDirector]

From these stills, it looks like just the headlights.
It's very dark and kinda small on my phone, but that's what I'm seeing.
I don't see any other light source but the bike/car headlights

 

[David Jimerson]

There don't appear to be any headlights lighting the trees in this shot:

At least not the ones to the left.

 

[Liam Hall]

There don't appear to be any headlights lighting the trees in this shot:

At least not the ones to the left.

That's because they are not lit.

 

[David Jimerson]

I disagree; you wouldn't be able to see them if they weren't.

 

[drapeama]

I disagree; you wouldn't be able to see them if they weren't.

Even using a camera with a good sensor in low-light? Maybe, as you said in a previous post, the shot has been darkened in post. Maybe it was a bit more lit when they shot the scene, so we can see the trees and they darkened it in post to the desired level.
Isn't that from The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo? I know Fincher used one of the new RED for it.

 

[David Jimerson]

But some trees are lit and some aren't.

If it's natural light, it's natural light; it is what it is regardless of what I or anyone else thinks by looking at it. I just don't think it is. Doesn't actually matter to me either way, though.

What really matters is helping the OP get the same kind of shot if he wants it.

 

[Liam Hall]

I disagree; you wouldn't be able to see them if they weren't.

For my money, the foreground trees are lit by the tail lights of the car. It's available light - and it's as clear as night and day, or night in this case

 

[Liam Hall]

What really matters is helping the OP get the same kind of shot if he wants it.

Absolutely.

He should Google accent lighting since regardless of how it was achieved, that is what it is.

 

[David Jimerson]

For my money, the foreground trees are lit by the tail lights of the car. It's available light - and it's as clear as night and day, or night in this case

There's still a big gap of darkness.

 

[Kenneth Lau]

Yes this is a still from the movie ' The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo '

I once thought it was available light too. I am shooting with 2k black magic. I was just worried that I won't even get an exposure with just available light. hmm...

 

[drapeama]

Yes this is a still from the movie ' The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo '
I once thought it was available light too.

I'm pretty sure with these RED, it was mostly the available lights. Best way to be sure, grab the camera and do a test. With a prime lens and these sensors, I'm pretty sure you'll get something decent out of it.

 

[Andrius Simutis]

For my money, the foreground trees are lit by the tail lights of the car. It's available light - and it's as clear as night and day, or night in this case

That's what I thought too, and I think it was the intention of the DP, but the light looks like it's coming from the direction of the camera, not the cars. My guess is that it's mostly the headlights with a little bit of accent lighting on the foreground trees to add some depth to the shot.

 

[Samuel H]

By looking at the images, I would guess: headlights from car and motorbike, and dimmed headlights from camera car

Then again, this being GWTDT... I know someone who did lots of VFX work for this movie, it's unbelievable how much of the original footage was substituted by CGI in post, so I'm going to go for: headlights from car and motorbike, everything else is actually CGI (whatever is lit but you think it shouldn't)

 

[bruce southerland]

In the Fincher version of this scene(this is not the Fincher version-right?) they used an insert car to follow or chase
the motorcycle. They added some headlight fixtures with quartz globes and wide angle lenses, so the light would
fan out and hit the trees. There was a small bounced source on the camera car, about 2 stops under, and they used
narrow beam HMIs to project ahead of and above her to illuminate the forest