long dialogue scene during sunset

[DDirector]

During the sunset or dusk hours, when its dark, but yet still slightly visible, people can pull of a long dialogue scene within that super short amount of time.
There are several camera angles, and lots of dialogue, but in the end, the sun is relatively in the same position. But in reality with the numer of setups and rehersals, it would be Long gone... How do they pull it off?

 

[clang]

Sometimes it's faked - shoot some establishing shots and cutaways with the real sunset in the background, then shoot all the close-ups from the opposite side in a studio (or in the actual location once dark), with lighting to replicate that sunset glow on the actors' faces. This can of course be a colour correction nightmare if not done right...

If money is no object, you can also set up the actors once and shoot them from multiple cameras simultaneously, thus getting plenty of angle coverage for whenever you happen to get a good take - the actors can concentrate on a good performance without worrying about where the camera is.

Or if you have plenty of time and patience, just shoot every evening for weeks and pray for no weather or continuity glitches.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

multiple cameras are best. Sunsets differ greatly from day to day. You never know with weather and etc.

If you are quick enough, you can do really tight singles when the sun isn't just right and use exposure controls to fake it. Kind of how they do for day exteriors. The wide is done when the sun is in a good position, and the singles are done when the sun is not, but they can flag, silk and bounce to fake it.

 

[RyanT]

Yeah just shoot your wide at sunset and work on your coverage beforehand using lighting tools to help recreate it.

I recently watched someone who really thought they could be fast enough and shoot all their coverage while the sun was rising...needless to say they didn't get the shots and we had to go back and reshoot to make it match.