How to make a Daytime scene seem romantic.

[Jonathan12uiz]

So I'm working on a short, no budget... so the only actors I have are my friends that are into having fun and acting for me. Granted though, videography is not my full time job, so we are usually only available on the weekends during the day, not night.

Is there any way to make a daytime romantic lunch scene. I see low light dinners done all the time, but is there any way to make this work during the day? I have no lighting system, so natural light is my friend so I don't want to block off window and try and make it look like night, any ideas?

 

[Snapper123]

The thing with short films, you can't write the script without basing everything on availible locations, or else it'll look horrible. Instead of a romantic candle-lit dinner, consider a sweet park table lunch with considerable depth of field to make it portrait-esque. There's other things as well; the patio or outdoor eating area of a city restaurant, a blanket picnic in the yard, a brunch on the tail end of a truck, or whatever else. It'll matter more what you do with the angles and image, I suggest at least shooting on a cloudy day or getting a ND filter to keep that aperture low and dramatic. Close-up shots (chest and upward) are always good for romantic conversations, yet don't be afraid to think out of the box - try to set up every angle as though it would work as a beautiful, independant photograph that needs to convey the same emotion and direction to the viewer!

 

[Brandon J. Garcia]

I would take some time to find a great location.

Even if you have to drive 2 - 3 hours to get there.

It will be worth it and add a ton of value to your scene and will help make up for the faults of your film.

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Lighting is always key, but the romance of the scene and intimacy is what is going too sell it.

Some of the most romantic scenes in film history have had nothing to do with a particular lighting style, it's been the energy of the moment, the actors, the story.

Light it for what is real in the moment. The lighting isn't going to MAKE IT romantic,

 

[Matthew B]

Soft lighting will help to sell the romantic feeling. Make sure you pick an interesting/picturesque location and find the best time of day to shoot there, even if you have to spend all day on location just to find the right time. Since you have no budget for lighting you can use the sun as your key, but you'll want to diffuse it. Next you'll want some fill to soften the contrast ratio, just a couple of reflectors will do the trick. Then step back and let the actors sell the romance. You might want to try and find a similar scene in a big budget feature and look at some stills to get a rough idea of how they lit it, then try your best to replicate. At the end of the day though, if your actors can't sell it, the lighting won't make much difference.

 

[David G. Smith]

Well, I don't know about that, "Natural light is my friend" comment. I understand what you are saying, but, in actuality, shooting under daylight conditions can be some of the most trying conditions to try and make good looking CONSISTENT images under. That being said, there are somethings that you can do to make it work for you. The most consistent light during the day is the light from the north sky. A location with northern exposure may be something you may want to seek when location scouting. Also remember that you can cheat the shots, so that you reverse angles can be set up to both be lit from the northern sky light. Just make sure that you eye lines are maintained. I came up doing real low budget guerilla shoots, so cheating a shot is almost second nature to me. The trick to never lock your self into what the opposing back grounds look like with your master shot or establishing shot. Another thing I suggest that you do is shot the majority of the interaction of the scene as close ups, at longer focal lengths. You did not say what kind of camera you are shooting with, but it doesn't matter. Get back from the actors and zoom in (or use a longer focal length prime lens) and I would suggest getting the shot tighter than you initially feel comfortable with. If you want a scene to be romantic, then that means intimacy, and nothing is more intimate then being able to see the glint in someone's eyes and the gloss on their lips. Using close ups, with longer focal length lenses will also cause the depth of field of the shot to be decreased and, depending on your camera and lens, increase the feeling of intimacy by separating the actor from an out of focus back ground. Longer focal length lenses also are more flattering for portraiture, in that they tend to "Flatten" the image. There is a concern you may have to deal with shooting close ups with longer lenses. Relatively inexperienced actors can, sometimes, find it very hard to deal with this. When in a tight close up, an actor has just inches to move around and act, Many inexperienced actors are not used to that, and find it hard to do. You may want to have rehearsals, shot in close up, but in a very non-threatening environment, to get them used to it. While you said that you have no lighting system, I still suggest that you have on hand some lighting gear. I suggest that you have some reflectors, even if just several pieces of foam core. I would get the kind that is white on one side and flat black on the other just in case you need to have some negative fill, or need to use one of them as a flag to block light. A large white sheet or piece of muslin would be handy if you needed to filter down some direct sunlight on the set and some dollar store mirrors can be handy to reflect some bright light around the set. There is also kind of a cliche way to add a little romance to scene and that is to add a little bit of diffusion to the lens of the camera. This effect, of adding a little glow around highlights, has been done quite a bit, and while it is a cliche, in a short film, it could be used, with restraint, to rapidly communicate to an audience the romantic nature of the scene. While a look like that can be done during production with diffusion filters, this effect is also available in some NLEs and as plug ins that could be added in post. My warning with this is that a little bit goes a long way. These are just some suggestions off the top of my head. Good luck. Show us some footage when you are done.

 

[cyclone]

Backlight.