Night Shot /Crazed Character...

mdslammer

mdslammer

Well-known member
I'm filming an outside/backyard shot tonight.

Here's the setup. Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it.

I'm shooting my brother in law dressed as a "Gas Masked Crazed Killer". It's for
his haunted house next month. I'll cut it to be a :45 loop with static in between
the 3 minute loop. Run it on a DVD/TV set in the corner of his haunted house
on a "dutch angle"... Basically, I want him to appear from complete darkness and walk into the light.

Senario 1:
I'm going to setup a duvateen backdrop. Then, two 1K Open faced Arri Hard
Lights which will be setup crisscrossing each other. About 10' up and 6'-8' from
the duvateen scrim.

My idea is to have him positioned as close to the black duvateen as possible.
Then walk into the lights. Do his 'crazed act' and then walk toward the camera
and out of frame.

Senario 2:
Same as above except use only one 1K to create a greater lighting ratio with very
hard shadows.

If necessary, I'll drop in an ND filter (or 2 ) and or mess with my Iris to illiminate
any exterior ambient light from elsewhere. Probably have a fog machine to add
to the overall 'haunt' vibe.

Anything I'm missing or anything I can add/change to improve this scenario?

Thank guys.

Mark
 
Have you shot the scene yet?

My guess is you'll find it hard to get the subject "truly black" enough to have that fade-in effect you're after; unless you can really kill every possible reflection and really have a tight beam from your light. You may need duvateen on the ground, even on one side.

Fog/smoke will diffuse and reflect light as well; distance from the light (IE, he's farther away and moves more quickly into the light) may help. Also, the stronger your light source (more watts!) the more you can stop down to remove any ambient sources and weak reflections.

If you can't completely blank him out on-set, do your best and then fade-in in post.
 
Hi Michael,

Shot the scene two nights back. Actually, it came out better than expected. I
really had no problem getting it black enough. Used a couple of open faced
1K's positioned in an X. Had to adjust the flood/barn doors but they worked
great. Gave me a really nice hard light.

Then I positioned a couple of 150 peppers about 6' down from the 1K's. This
gave me a couple of things. Two different illumination strengths and creating a very short shadowed look when he walks forward towards the camera.

Working on it now. I'll post something up shortly.

Thanks for chimming in.

Mark
 
Glad it worked -

Used to be a place here in Dallas that rented a full kit of LTM 150 Peppers with (the cutest little) barn doors & snoots - those are the handiest lights, used to use them for jewelry shoots.

Whenever I see a tiny fresnel on eBay for a good price I grab it up (avoid those Photogenics though, kind of crap...)
 
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