What lights will I need to light a park at night?

[Todd Terry]

[ryan elder] “So are their any lights that can be bright enough for f11”

Yeah. HMIs.

Though shooting f/11 at night is madness.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. If shooting at f11 at night is madness, is there anything else I can do since I need to keep more than one actor in focus, like in that scene example?

[Blaise Douros]

Yep, there’s definitely something you can do: don’t shoot the scene at night. Either change the script, or shoot day-for-night.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, but I was told on here before to avoid day for night, as it would take 100 times longer in post I was told back when I posted about having problems with it in post, and I was told to just shoot at night to begin with.

As for changing the script. The villains are committing a crime, that would logically be done at night. They wouldn’t do it in the day time cause there are too logically too many witnesses around, so in order to make plausible sense, it has to be done at night.

But I was told before on here that shooting at night was a lot easier than trying to fake day for night and trying to make it look convincing. So if that’s true, then shouldn’t I just suck it up and shoot at actual night then?

[Ryan Elder]

This is the post when I was told that day for night is a lot more work and to just shoot at night intead:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/1129730

[Blaise Douros]

I didn’t say that was a GOOD option. Just that if you have decided that you must shoot at f11, those are your ONLY options. So something’s gotta give. Change the way you shoot it, change the time you shoot it, or spend more money.

You persist in coming here and arguing with people who know what we’re talking about, since you’ve decided that It Must Be A Certain Way. Reality often doesn’t line up with what you want.

Shoot at night, and open up your aperture. If you need deeper depth of field, use wider lenses. If you must have long lenses, get ready to do a lot of takes so your focus puller can get it right.

Otherwise, accept that it is physically impossible for you to shoot at f11 at nighttime without more lights than you can afford.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. Sorry I am just trying to shoot it the most simplest way possible, and thought that having a deep DOF, with brighter lights, would really help that.

If I shoot at a shallow DOF, do you think it would look acceptable during a chase that involves 3 villains, chasing 2 heroes, if not all the villains are in focus at the same time, while they are running? If all three are in the shot, and only one of them is in focus, will that look weird or incorrect somehow, since during chase scenes, usually all the people are in focus, when close together?

If I have to choose a wider aperture, what is the most acceptable one before it’s too dark to shoot do you think? Would say, f4, be okay?

[Blaise Douros]

It fully depends on the scene. If you’re smart, you’ll choreograph it so important moments happen under streetlights and by buildings that could plausibly create opportunities to light your subjects. That’ll give you a lot more flexibility.

Shoot wider lenses. That’ll help with your DOF. I know you have some Kurosawa thing as the model, but you need to change plans if you have five people in frame.

You can also plan the scene carefully so your focus puller has set marks to hit.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with a couple of robberies staged in the daytime (or at least, fully lit) that make full sense in context of the movie’s script:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqvbv-SB4bg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-oVuQpjG3s

And one at night that leans on splashes of light and a partially lit environment to illuminate the characters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhvqTSzt2LQ

As the script writer, you have FULL control of when and where things happen. A night shoot isn’t going to work for technical reasons? Then find a reason for the robbery to happen during the day! A couple of lines will do it:

“Shouldn’t we be doing this at night?”
“Yeah, we should. But my regular alarm guy is in the middle of a two year sentence for B&E. That’s why we have to break in at noon: the owner locks the shop when he goes to lunch, but doesn’t set the alarm.”

Boom, you’re in business. The film isn’t in charge. You are.

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[Todd Terry]

A brilliant list of examples and suggestions by Blaise.

Which, I suspect at this point, will fall on deaf ears.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks.

Basically my script is a horror thriller, and I was told by friend’s suggestions that if I could have at least some of it take place at night, that it would be scarier. Mainly the villains want to kill two people who know too much, and a threat to them.

One is at one point during the story, the other is during another point. So that would be two sequences at night, where they would want to kill them in dark places, where witnesses can’t just identify what is going on as easily compared to the day.

If I were to use wide prime lenses. Would a 35mm do, to get more DOF or do I need wider than that?

As for shooting around street lights, there are a few lights in the park, but in order to get there, the person running away from her killers has to get to the light. And that is were the darkness comes in, is that she has to run from her house to the park, to the light, and there is darkness in between. I don’t know have to show the whole running, and can skip ahead, but I still have to show her leaving the house and entering the park for it to make sense.