Lighting a street scene at night....budget consciously.

N

NBside

Active member
Hello all...

Im preparing to shoot a few scenes for a film that I have been working on in my downtime.
Im shooting in a small town where my business is located, and luckily have full access from the city to do whatever I need.
That being said, obviously budget is an issue, as well as the fact that Im over 60 miles from the nearest rental facility.
I need to find a way to decently light half of a small city block.
Ive looked into large panel lights, however, they are pretty much on the high end of my budget.
Ive also considered stringing a bunch of large china balls between telephone poles, or possibly finding a way to DIY build a large silk to fly above. If that were the case, I would next need to find a light source adequate enough.

I'm trying to achieve the, for lack of a better word, standard Hollywood look. I want a well balanced light on both my primary actors, and the background action.
Let me add that lighting is obviously not my strong suit. For professional projects, this is something I would hire for, though for a personal, 'hobby' project, its all DIY.

Im looking forward to hearing some tips from the creative minds here!
 
NBSide,

I'm probably not the best qualified to discuss city block lighting, but I would suggest you give a bit more info:
So, when you say you need to light half a city block, do you mean the street, sidewalk, and first 2 stories of the buildings on each side, for a length of about half a block?
Do the buildings come right up to the sidewalk? (If not, how far back from the sidewalk?) How tall are the buildings? Do you have access to rooftops (with electrical power)? Are there large objects on the ground (fountains, planters, statues) that could hide lights? Does it matter if the scene looks artificially lit, as opposed to looking like moonlight?

Ken
 
Ken,

Thanks for the response!

In answer to your questions..

Yes. The artificial look is acceptable. I want the main street of town to feel bigger than it is, as Im using my small town to trick for a suburban town outside of D.C. for this scene. I'll try and grab some stills from other films that employ the similar look in regards to lighting that Im hoping to achieve.

Yes. I have access to pretty much anything and everything. Being in a location such as mine, Im the only production house in the area, and have established a great relationship with the city and county, and even have done work for them in the past. They always go above and beyond to accommodate my productions, as to a lot of the local business owners. So rooftops, utility poles, street lights, and pretty much anything else in town is accessible.

Pretty much every building in town comes directly to the sidewalk. In addition, I actually own one of the the tallest buildings in town at 4 stories.
In regards to large object, unfortunately there isnt much aside from a couple of planters and some lantern styled street lights. That is what led me to believe that flying a majority of my lights my be necessary. The good thing about living in a small town is the fact that everyone knows everyone. I have access to things like scissor lifts, small cherry pickers and other utility type cranes, as well as multiple generators. Considering that a lot of my production work is in advertising, I can and have traded with a lot of local business owners in exchange for items or usage of tools that I need for other productions, which is a huge advantage.

Only for my wide shots will I need to light the first story or two of the buildings in town. But yes, the street and sidewalk are vital. Once Ive shot my wide shots, I can concentrate on lighting smaller sections of the street and sidewalk (just enough to keep it balanced with my wides).
Ive considered drawing out a layout of the downtown area, and sectioning it off into "grids" so I can formulate a better plan for light placement.
Once I do so, I can upload the image here as well.

Like I said, Im by no means a strong DP. This being a side project of mine, Id like to try and do as much of this myself, so I can build a better skill set for future projects.

Thanks again!

Nick
 
Here are just a few quick samples that I could find for the general look that Im trying to achieve in regards to lighting.

Date Night.jpg
FWB.jpg
inbetweeners.jpg

**Haven't found a sample for my wide shots yet.
 
Are you shooting a film or a video? There is a big difference in lighting requirements depending upon the medium used.
 
Here's a cool article from shane hurlbut about lighting a few city blocks:

http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/11/lighting-basics-going-with-what-is-available/

Essentially, there seems to be two approaches: Light it as you would an interior, that is, get some light on your actors and then some working lights to illuminate the background. This would probably involve fewer, but much larger lights, big diffusion (and probably more money)

or

Use what's around you, small splashes of light for background just so you don't get big black empty space, and do your best with the practicals (maybe some hidden additional lights) for your actors (creative things like having them stop to talk under a streetlight, etc.) This would involve smaller but more lights, and more creative lighting situations (such as Steve's suggestions to ND SOME of the streetlamps and replace bulbs in other fixtures.

Essentially, I'd recommend the first method if you'll be doing mostly close-ups where you won't really need to *see* the city blocks... and the latter method if you'll be doing lots of wides and incorporating most of the city block into the scene. (but of course there are many other factors to consider)
 
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