ok this is what you can do if the car has a sun roof open it and soft light it from there any shadows twords the lower part of the subjects will look like it belongs . do to what a car looks like with a dome light on put a peach gel on your light and if needed a disfuser use a stage light or peddle light with atleast 250 watt

william cheney of cheney productions film co www.cheney2004.50megs.com

And if it doesn't have a sun roof?

Cut a hole in the roof :).

I did listen to a DVD commentary recently where they talked about how they lit the car they were shooting in... unfortunately I can't remember which one it was. If I remember I'll let you know.

Otherwise, though, if you want it to look natural it's going to be quite hard, because in that situation about the only light sources you'd have would be the moon and the instrument lights on the car, with maybe some reflections from the headlights outside. Maybe a blue light from outside and a light shining up from the instrument panel would do the job?

if no sun roof then if you have the head clerance usr a small flat light like a stick work light if that is not possible use a bownce board

william cheney of cheney productions film co www.cheney2004.50megs.com

This was a few years ago but when I shot a car interior at night we parked the car facing a street light. The car was far enough away so the light hit the actors and it looked pretty nice. Since you don't want any streetlights just use smart angles... or maby put a reflector infront of the headlights to bounce light back at the car... just an idea tho.

What? $1000!! That's crazy talk!!

Is there anyway way to adjust the f-stop on your camera? I don't know how it works with all camcorders but there should be a manual mode. In which case, you can compensate for low lighting to an extent (video is certainly more forgiving than film) but it might look a little out of place from the rest of your movie.

"It is not important that a director knows how to write but it is important that he knows how to read."
-Billy Wilder

Regardless of day shot or night shot, you have to have some bright and dark elements on the screen. If you want to give your video a ''night look'', you can shoot it in the dark. You will still need light to create those ''bright elements''. So use the backlight. Place the light in a such way that you won't get it in the shot. In this case you will get nicely lit silouettes of a steering wheel, leather sits, whatever. Good luck,

Andrei, http://faqvideo.com

The problem with the grainy image is that your camcorder's gain circuit is kicking in because the light level is too low (you may already know this).

One shoot I was on, they solved a similar lighting problem by dropping black cloth/duvetine behind the actors outside the window and then shooting during the day (day for night). That should give you enough ambient light to prevent the camera gain from activating.

In post-production, they skewed the color palette to blue/indigo and it looked believable. Check out the end of Hunt for Red October. The scene between Connery and Baldwin uses a similar day-for-night technique.

Dan Rahmel
Author: "Nuts and Bolts Filmmaking"
http://www.cvisual.com

Use a china ball. You can pick one up at Wal-Mart for about 6 bucks. Get a daylight balanced photo-flo bulb to put in it. This will give you that bluish-white moonlight feel. These bulbs will run you about 4 bucks and last you 3-4 hours of constant use. You can usually find these at most photo stores, but you may have to hunt a little. Get a power inverter (Wal-mart, 20 bucks). This will allow you to plug the light into your cigarette outlet. Put the china ball in the laps of the people in the car, or in between them. The beautiful thing about the china ball is that it gives off a nice even spread of soft light. You may need some kind of bounce to fill in shadows that may be cast on their faces, but this can easily be achieved with tin foil, or for a softer light, a piece of poster board. Try to stay away from thinking that you can fix it post, it is far better to get it right in production. If this doesn't work try a mini Kino-Flo, and put a minus green (magenta) gel on it to whiten the light. But with whatever you go with put it on a hand dimmer so you can control the light better. I hope this helps, If you have anymore questions feel free to e-mail me. Good luck brother.

Look There is a very much easier way to do this and it requires almost no work. Film in daylight then use a night filter or something in the editing stage.

White Tiger Films

Sometimes, we will place a piece of white foamcore on the interior roof of the car and bounce light from a small spot onto it either up from the backseat, or from seat level between the actors in the front. The bounce light is pretty diffused that way.

-Trev

I think I think, therefore, I think I am.