Recording at night

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tecmeister
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Recording at night

Post by tecmeister »

I have just watch nightmare on elm street 3, and i was wondering how so they record at night and get their quality so nice and clear?

I have night mode and my camcorder and it doesn't look any good compare to theirs. Do i change the contrast, color etc with the software. Or is t that they just have a awesome camcorder that it can do that?

Just thinking about it do they have a light that it connected to the camcorder and that is what it making it good quality?
But if it did have a light on the camcorder wouldn't it you be able to notice that it was a light.
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RE: Recording at night

Post by foxwood »

its a real movie for one. A. its shot on film not a camcorder. B. they have it lite so that it might look like its night, but the set has a s*** ton of light all over it. So it just looks like its night. So ya thats what it is. all lights so that you can see things, and of corse not using a camcorder.
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RE: Recording at night

Post by Clarence »

Yeah, DV quality suffers a lot at night. Even if you have a really good 'night mode,' you will lose picture information.

If you want to do a night scecne, I would do a day for night. Just film in the day, without showing the sky, and adjust the contrast and color balance later in post. That way you have much more control over the final image.
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Post by Kentertainment »

It was all done through the power of lighting my friend. This question has been brought up numerous of times on this forum and the answer has always and always will be lights. A lot of people on this forum are very much not aware of all the other aspects of filmmaking and my only suggestion is to do some research. Go out and get a book on this stuff or just look it up online.

Lighting has a whole lot of power to make something so ordinary look different. Take for instance this screenshot of the film I'm working on. We took my bedroom and turned it into a rundown apartment bedroom with a neon light glowing outside.

Image

As you can see, even with at least some decent lighting there is still some grain and that is more common if you're shooting on DV...also the picture is a work in progress.

So once again...the only way you're going to get your desired look is through lighting and I forgot to mention you need gels to manipulate the color you want...so a lighter blue gel.
tecmeister
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Post by tecmeister »

Thanks alot for all of your help. I will go out and see what i can do.
You are also saying that a dv camera are not that good at night. What would you say is a good video camera to use that will do pretty good at night?
I am willing to spend on a video camera from £1000 - £2000 ($1980.40 - £3960.80.). Will that be the right amount for a good video camera or are you talking in the £20,000 ($39,608).

Once again thank you for all of your help and information that you have given me.
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Post by foxwood »

video in general isn't going to work as well for night. end of story But ya it is all about light, just pick up a book or even just read something about lighting on wikipedia.

Or embrace the grainy look of video it does give things a more gritty (clearly) nasty realish look take 28 days later for example. And light it well but let that grit be part of your style and not something that you want to get rid of and feel bad about having in your shot.
tecmeister
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Post by tecmeister »

Ok. I have looked on the net and i have found a web site http://www.exposure.co.uk/eejit/light/index.html.

I have also found a few books that i will be purchasing.
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Post by Knightly »

All photography is captureing light...if there's no light to capture, there's no photography. Over lit to your eye will be about right, then use the exposure control to "stop" the lens down. At night, interior lights are dominant...and orange slightly to suggest that tehy are dim. and moon light is reflected sunlight, so it's blue. The picture above illustrates this (although the light outside the window could have been pushed a little more blue for my tastes). if you light it correctly, you will "suggest" night time rather than having it...watch a night time scene really closely paying careful attention to the lighting and the amount of light in the scene. You'll note that it's actually pretty bright.
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Post by KultFilmsEntertainment »

Altering the color of the light present can help. Recently I shot a scene that was supposed to take place in a bedroom with no lights on. So I turned off the bedroom lights and turned on the lights in all the surrounding rooms, as well as put a lamp in the corner. This would have normally looked very orange-ish, but I white-balanced using a piece of orange paper and it gave everything a pale blue look, so that the light present looked like moonlight flooding in rather than artificial.
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Post by tecmeister »

Cool, thanks for your help. Keep it all coming.
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Post by Knightly »

with that setup, you can gel that lamp in the corner with orange gel (CTO) to make it look more interior dim light against the blue walls...make sure you add the gel after white balancing though.
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Post by tecmeister »

Knightly i have know idea what you are talking it about. Will you be to tell me what this all means or hyperlink to a webste.

But thanks tho for helping me.

O can anyone recommend any books to me that could start me off.
tecmeister
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Post by tecmeister »

Knightly i have know idea what you are talking it about. Will you be to tell me what this all means or hyperlink to a webste.

But thanks tho for helping me.

O can anyone recommend any books to me that could start me off?
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Post by Ornsack »

Kentertainment wrote:Lighting has a whole lot of power to make something so ordinary look different. Take for instance this screenshot of the film I'm working on. We took my bedroom and turned it into a rundown apartment bedroom with a neon light glowing outside.

Image
Strangely we used a red light like that in a similar setting in Naughty Soldiers!

I was watching some show the other night and it involved some people in a forest. I suddenly noticed how much artistic license goes in to a scene like this, as the whole forest seemed to be brightly lit with blue lights. Your brain for some reason just doesn't process it as lights

Any night scene in any film uses a lot of artificial light. I've noticed a lot of night scenes are filmed on HD these days because it picks up light better than film, but you still need the light
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Post by Epsilon »

Professional films tend to use lots of lights at night. And even more during the day! :)
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Post by kg9491 »

What if youfilm during the day, outside, and the sky needs to be in the shot? This is a problem that I'm trying to overcome
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Post by Epsilon »

Well, the solution is simple. By night the sky is dark. By day the sky is bright. Therefore, when filming a shot during the day, but intending to be night, exclude the sky from the shot.

I don't see much other choice you have, otherwise it will look like day!
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Post by Ornsack »

Yeah day for night doesn't really work because it still looks false. The viewer is kinda tricked in to thinking it's night but it doesn't look like night (for example, if you look around at night you'll see that everything doesn't have a blue tint like it does when you shoot 'day for night')

If you REALLY have to film in the day and get the sky in shot, composite a fake night sky on top of the footage

If you don't know how to do that, don't bother. Film at night. Or at least at dusk.
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Post by Zacatac927 »

Epsilon wrote:By night the sky is dark. By day the sky is bright. Therefore, when filming a shot during the day, but intending to be night, exclude the sky from the shot.

ooooh aye dee dye dee dye dee dye.....

lol
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Post by santi »

Ornsack wrote:Yeah day for night doesn't really work because it still looks false. The viewer is kinda tricked in to thinking it's night but it doesn't look like night (for example, if you look around at night you'll see that everything doesn't have a blue tint like it does when you shoot 'day for night')
It does. It's the matter of human brain perception - you subconsciously know that white is white so you don't bother the blue tint. When the level of light is low only rods are working and cones see mostly blue.

Anyway: day for night is some kind of "agreement" - it doesn't matter if it looks fake. You are giving the audience a signal: "It is night, folks" and the buy it. If it's good enough for Coppola or Spielberg - it's good enough for me.

Night for night has some disadvantages: it fit mostly for urban area or any other where sources of artificial light are "motivated". In wilderness it's harder. The only source of light is moon and fake it with lamps is not easy for amateurs. You need an experience with light. Fortunatly, video cameras don't need so much light as film but still you have to know where to put it.
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