Shooting night scenes

DC

DC

Cinematographiliac
I have the DVX100A. I'm planning on shooting some night scenes. There will be some shots at night that should probably have the blueish tones. And there will be some shots that are meant to be in the dark where you can only see minimal movement of the subject. Think "horror film."

I know in video, DVX included, low light causes unwanted picture noise. Does anybody know how I can go about getting these dark shots and have them look decent? I'm assuming color-correction will play a big role. I have Avid Xpress Pro v4.6.

Thanks,

-DC-
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

Here is a good link that gets passed around.  You have to register but it's one of the good sites to be registered at.

http://dv.com/news/news_item.jhtml;...ml/feature/2002/jackman1002&_requestid=172905

The trick is going to be using light to create the illusion of dark.  Lighting for night.

Start paying attention to your favorite films night sequences and you will see how much light is actually used.

An important sound bite from the article rings true:

Somewhere in the scene, you must have enough light to properly expose your camera's CCDs. In other words, you must light the darkness.

You do this and you wil have ni issues with unwanted gain (noise).
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

Ahhhh, very informative. Thanks, John! Might you also recommend some specific settings for the DVX100A?

-DC-
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

What I would try is: light the room/area (you can use a light meter) and get the varying degrees of contrast that you are looking for, Then ND it down to get the darkness that you want.
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

Another trick we use is not to just light the talent but always a foreground background relationship. So if they are in an alley we light them and maybe a wall in the distance. It helps the eye to see it as more realistic.
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

The light falloff is the most important part IMO.

Having a section of the frame (be it a rim light on the subject, on the backdrop, anything) with a lot of negative fill always adds to the impression of darkness. You can't see a lot, but everything neccesary is accented with a lot of light - which is turn makes the dark spots look darker.
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

There's a big budget movie being shot in San Francisco at the moment. They shot a scene down in Washington Square Park last night. You should have seen the amount of light they had for this "night" scene. Huge stadium style lights way up on cranes. Lights here and there to light the trees, the buildings outside the park, you name it. Dang, I wish I had taken a few photos.
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

Schnider has a Day for Night filter that is very dark and very blue. I have one and I'm getting ready to use it for the first time in about a week. I will shoot at about 5pm to get the glancing light and light only the hair and face. We shall see what comes out.
 
Re: Shooting night scenes

Shooting scenes that are supposed to be dark boils down to this basic problem: how to have dark tones but still have contrast.

Some common ways of dealing include:

Exposing skin a little darker and using kickers (see Lord of the Rings). Draining some of the saturation in post is common too.

Using hard light as key and exposing down. This use of hard light doesn't produce as harsh a look as it would if the skin tones were exposed normal, contrast being a relative thing (see American Graffiti).

You should always turn to nature - just by looking around. Go outside with a friend and see what you see. There is a heirarchy of edges - from soft to hard - in reality, and lots of times these characteristics tell us about location and time of day, regardless of exposure levels.

Color is another level of contrast. In a dark room, we simply see things more grey. A blue cast is a choice but not necessary to get the look of the dark.

Anyway, good luck on your shoot.
 
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