Lighting an old house?

[Azmyth]

My new film's main location is that of an old abandoned house built in the 1900's that hasn't had inhabitants in many years...

a team of paranormal investigators come to town to camp out there and do research on the hunch of a local girl who thinks its haunted.

Now, from a realistic point of view.. a house that noone lives in isn't going to have power turned on, but in order to see whats going on there has to some some sort of light.

I know in horror movies, night scenes are exaggerated because you'd never be able to "see" that well at night with no/little lighting. I was trying to figure out a "realistic" way for the place to miraculously have power.. to save me the trouble of trying to light a house that supposed to have no lights.. which would mean using the motivation for lights as candles/lanterns... which to me seems like a tough undertaking. I thought about having them check the breakers, and oddly be surprised that the power has never been turned off. Maybe the supernatural force there is causing the power to still remain active?

I had to take into account that the investigators equipment will have to run off some sort of power source, and initially had them running power to their gear from their suped up cargo van that has a generator.

Any ideas on how to do this and make it believable?

 

[maranfilms]

What about the old screw in glass fuses, maybe have an old dusty box in the basement, where ones left in the box. Or maybe make an establishing shot of the house showing a full moon in the shot, this way you can use that as your lighting motivation. But if their coming to investigate, chances are they would be somewhat prepared, and have some sort of lighting. You could even show they bring lights, but for some reason they dont work in the house, because of the spirit. Idk, im just brain storming for ideas.

 

[Postmaster]

Take a bunch of shop lights on stands for the "commando room" of the investigators, that´s what they would probably use.
And yeah, all sorts of flash lights, camping lights andwhatnot, if they search the house - or at a sudden power surge.

Look at the lighting of "Seven" when they investigate the firs killing.
Nice solution - mix of shop lights, light spill from the outside and flash lights,.
If you have a DVD with the cometary of the DP, that´s worth listening to - a lot of information there.
Like they used white boards as bounce for the flashlights.

Frank

 

[Egg Born Son]

Someone forgetting to disconnect the power all that time ago while unrealistic is not entirely inconceivable. Horror audiences suspend disbelief more readily than anyone and a fudge like that is almost par for the course. It may even be a shortcut to genre expectations! A little joke with the audience before the screams start (very 80s). You could further back it with some 'research' exposition, "according to the power company the electricity account was closed years ago, guess this place is so far off the road noone ever checked the meter...".

For a more believable tack, perhaps attention was drawn to the place when a new owner attempted to fix it up for sale. Power was connected but the tradesmen abandon the project almost immediately, failing to complete any significant work (for reasons specified or not). They leave behind their tools (simple set dressing) and refuse to return for them. This recent event puts the place in the mind of the girl with a hunch. Working lights in the building could be either in place fixtures or worklights (the lighting wiring still needs fixing) left by the workmen. Or maybe some lights work and some don't, globes/fuses keep blowing at opportune moments (faulty wiring or supernatural influence?).

Alternately have them set up the worklights themselves. They would work well as practical lights, you don't have to hide them and can still set them up for dramatic lighting. Having generally low stands you automatically tend to typical lit-from-below horror look. A simple fuel powered portable generator set up outside during the presumable 'setting up camp' montage wouldn't even need to call attention to itself to solve your problem. And of course the lights can go out any time (or the engine cut but the lights stay on - oooohhh spoooky!)

 

[Paul Hudson]

If they are investigators why not have them bring a small generator like a Honda EU2000. It really is about the size of a suitcase.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Someone forgetting to disconnect the power all that time ago while unrealistic is not entirely inconceivable.

In San Diego, there's a restaurant that closed, perhaps 25 years ago, and the Budweiser beer sign was still 'on' at night...

While one could argue that a couple of tungstens could be repleced every so often by a 'yearly check' maintenance crew... that doesn't explain the beer sign... I think the owners are waiting for the price of the property to get 'really big'... and perhaps may have to do some minimal maintenance to conform to safety standards such as in the event of a fire, some sort of access...

But in any case, I'd 'write generators and work lights' in to the script and that would solve the motivation of the light problem...

As a note... here's an article on the place...

http://www.hillquest.com/community/tainted_love.htm

 

[Wave of Light]

For a cheep thrill, you could send some of the people into the Dark basement, get all scarry w/ sound effects or what ever and have a large breaker box slap into the on position turning on the lights reviling one of the tech guys at the breaker box.