Low light Campfire scene

Brett

Brett

Well-known member
Ive got a scene to shoot tonight from our new film and I'm not exactly sure how to
do it.. Ive really never shot in low light before without having horrible results.
I figured we would have generators tonight, but turns out the ones we
have access to are terribly loud, so I'm thinking of only using light from the campfire as my only light source.. I guess I dont have any other option without buying hundreds of feet of extension cords to run out of the woods. any suggestions?
 
Flashlights, car headlights, battery-powered lights, anything and everything. Find some way to make it work; unless you're using a 1D Mark IV, I don't think you're going to be too happy with the results you get from a scene lit only by firelight.
 
Well, what's going to be more expensive -- the extension cords, or lousy footage?

You need enough light to get a good exposure, so however you need to do it, you should do it. Otherwise, you're going to end up with a grainy, muddy mess which will never look as good as it should.
 
ha just finished. Light situation was a small lantern and a guy feeding cardboard pieces drenched in gasoline into a metal can of fire.
worked pretty great I think. Not the safest thing in the world of course..
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I've done a similar shoot but, had access to two hundred feet of extension cords and an outlet. I think your images turned out well.

The only thing you might have added to your lighting scheme would be some flashlights positioned at the bottom of tree trunks pointing up. This gives you some depth and clues the viewer in that the characters are in the woods. (If they were supposed to be anyway)
 
thats a good idea as well.. and originally we had it planned for the woods.. but at the very last minute it started pouring so we all jumped into a barn.. made a fire in a metal trash can
the rain worked well in our favor because I think the barn was the best case scenario
and the rain of course sounds amazing and adds so much more to this dramatic conversational scene.
 
Brett said:
thats a good idea as well.. and originally we had it planned for the woods.. but at the very last minute it started pouring so we all jumped into a barn.. made a fire in a metal trash can
the rain worked well in our favor because I think the barn was the best case scenario
and the rain of course sounds amazing and adds so much more to this dramatic conversational scene.
Click to expand...

That's good. Sounds like life handed you lemons and you added vodka!

I notice you have a Rode NTG2. I've had mine for a couple of months but haven't put it to much use. How'd it do for you? Do you have any dailies up on youtube or anything?
 
oh yes! :) it turned into a nice shoot overall.
I LOVE my NTG2 its a good mic, Ive had it since I purchased my dvx several
months ago. Yeah ive got a few things on youtube, alot of it is garbage and just
things we played around with.

www.youtube.com/brettsk8
 
Brett said:
oh yes! :) it turned into a nice shoot overall.
I LOVE my NTG2 its a good mic, Ive had it since I purchased my dvx several
months ago. Yeah ive got a few things on youtube, alot of it is garbage and just
things we played around with.

www.youtube.com/brettsk8
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's how my youtube account is also. I put the decent stuff on vimeo. All the trash goes to youtube. The dialogue sounds good in those shorts though.
 
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