Hmm thats really tough if you can't buy anyting and its pitch black.

Are there going to be any light sources at all? Like Lampposts or umm anything in the surrounding. Like say, a house or building you could direct light out of?

I'd find some way to get a light source, and then reflect it.

Is the shot going to be continuous, and wide?

Maybe if you could give a detailed description someone here can think of something.

Along the course of this... 40 yard stretch are about three street lamps. Not very good. The houses are back in their yards, usually dark. Some will have porch lights, not many.

The shot itself is the guy walks down the street with binoculars. He smokes. Every couple drags he looks up at the moon and sky through the binoculars. Eventually after turning down the end of the street there is a big baseball diamond where he will stop and just look up.

The baseball diamond has no lights. But the Food Lion near it, and the Boys & Girls Club lining may have some. Basically the light will be white lamp light, very, very, very faint. I'd like to enhance that particular lighting for the baseball diamond scene, also adding a hint of moonlight. Just to give the air of the surrounding. I like the... ambiance when I walk there at night.

For the street shot I want the light to look like its coming from the moon and the houses.

From the houses it should be yellow/orange light.

But the moon????

I have no experience with lighting so I have no idea how to acheive this effect.

Overall I want the light to be a soft glow, but it has to be strong enough for my camera to pick up the character and some of the background at night.

sounds like you are trying to achieve a look that you wont be able to achieve with your budget, or lack there of. I would suggest just getting extension cables (you must be able to find some around, or even ask to borrow peoples) and get whatever portable lights u have behind the camera. Also filming on a wet night helps because you will get the light reflection (even better if its a full moon). Good luck.

I see the scene like this.

Guy walks beneath a streetlight. Guy basically steps from the dark into the light. No stars are visible as the streetlight screws it up.

He continues away from the streetlight so that he is backlight.

All dark, then he lights his cigarette. His lighter illuminates his face in closeup for a sec, then we get just the red cigarette (perhaps emphasized with a flashlight off camera bounced off of a red board).

As he continues into the baseball stadium he is sillouted against the stars and perhaps the moon. So is the stadium. As he looks up at the stars and the moon we gradually see him clearer (lit by a strong flashlight offscreen reflected off of a bounceboard).

You'd have to test it, a lot of it might be tricky as its low light stuff (to ensure the stars show) but it might work.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I like that. Instead of fighting nature, use it...

But whats a bounce board?

It's a white board. Instead of aiming your light at your actors you aim it at the board and the light reflects at the actors. This softens and diffuses the light. I believe if the board is blue the light will also become slightly blue (because of the old day for night shooting people are used to a slighly blue light for night scenes). If not you can use filters if you want the blue, or red. This is a good way to do subtle light.

Bounceboards are often used during the day to create backlight or fill-light instead of using actual lights. Just that extra bit of light that sets off a character from the background or softens the shadows, making things a bit more cinematic.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

If I were to make my own, what kind of .. cover/surface/paint/paper would it be to be shiny? Shiny poster board? Um.. what color blue? Is there a website that details what may work... I assume using acrylic paint would dull the shiny though.. perhaps water color blue... Man! You may have just.... opened a whole new world for me.

YOu can use almost anything. Straight foam core has some rigidity and is very reflective. Same with a cardboard box which will be less reflective (as its brownish which might be nice). Too reflective and you might as well just shine the light directly on the characters.

I think the key is a bit of experimentation. Take a cardboard box, flatten it. Pain each side a different color. Then shoot the light bouncing off it onto an actor and see what it looks like. You may be surprised or it may give you ideas that might work better.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Where do you live? Anywhere near a hardware or building supply store? Pick up some plain-old styrofoam for your bounce board. In the film industry we use silly jargon like "bead board," because of all the tiny "beads" that make up styrofoam. Or go crazy: get a 1'x1' mirror tile from a bldg supply store, or cover your cardboard box with tin-foil. These types of bounces are more suitable for daylight f/x, but just to give you an idea that anything will work.

I like rj's suggestion of the carboard box as a bounce-- that brown might give a nice quality of light, though it would definitely reduce the amount of light bouncing back on the subject.

And the suggestion of blocking your actor to do his actions according to where the practical light sources are on the street is another great tip, especially if you have no budget / gear to augment the existing light.

If you have a rent-all kind of store where you live you ought to be able to rent extension cords for next to nothing. Someplace where you'd rent large power tools and extension ladders and stuff like that. You would also be able to rent worklights from a place like that.

You can also get yourself a high-powered flashlight. Take the flashlight, bounce it into a 2'x2' bounce board of some kind and you're off to the races. Now you can let the actor walk toward you down the street, and someone can be operating the flashlight bounce just outside the frame.

For your larger lighting issues, like moonlight and the sports arena and what-not, without some hefty firepower you're SOL on getting additional lighting to create those effects.

Best of luck

Interestingly enough- and thank you everyone for your help, now I know what to do for the future and I can't wait to try your suggestions- but when we went and filmed, my friend who works for the Parks Department flicked on the little league baseball diamond's lights and, combined with the dense fog (heavy, heavy humidty) it was so bright I had to turn down the camera's built in AE settings to drown it out. The film shoot was a bust anyway...

something you can do is use the available light there is like lamp posts, store fronts, and signs. also (if it's possible) wet the street or the side walk with a hose or something. this way the light around you will be reflected off the water creating a brighter atmosphere.

good luck.