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Rain machine ?

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(@joe999)
Posts: 55
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What indie options would I have for making rain for scenes? I have seen youtube videos and websites showing how to make cheap arse rain gizmos out of garden house and some wood, but from what I can tell they only are good for a close up scene for covering perhaps a 6x6 foot area. What about if a larger area needs rain, like 20x20 feet? I am writing a feature screenplay and will have a scene where a thunderstorm has come upon a farmhouse, and the protagonist and antagonist have a fight to the death between the house and the barn in the rain. I will need artificial rain, and of course lightning (strobes I am assuming?). Any ideas?

 
Posted : 01/12/2007 11:32 pm
(@markg)
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Believable rain is hard to do. One option could be to use a cheap and crappy rain system to drop some water on the ground and actors (and use a hose to wet the ground down before shooting), then add more rain falling from the sky with CG effects.

 
Posted : 02/12/2007 12:39 am
(@joe999)
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Are there digital editing software plugins for CG rain? Anybody have a link to something that could do that?

quote:


Originally posted by MarkG

Believable rain is hard to do. One option could be to use a cheap and crappy rain system to drop some water on the ground and actors (and use a hose to wet the ground down before shooting), then add more rain falling from the sky with CG effects.


 
Posted : 02/12/2007 3:34 pm
(@markg)
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Not sure, but I was watching a Fusion demo video a few days ago which was adding digital rain that looked pretty real; in one of the 'Final Destination' movies, I think.

Basically it's just a particle effect, and most effects programs should support those.

 
Posted : 02/12/2007 5:31 pm
(@joe999)
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I can not seem to find anything about rain effects at the fusion website (eyeonline.com), but I did google and found this thread discussions which has some nice info to help on this info quest:
http://dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-71540.html
It seems it should be doable to create cg rain in post production; wet down the actors and ground and buildings or whatever with a hose, maybe shoot a mist over them during filming (?or not?), then add in the rain during post as CG effect. Sound reasonable? I guess I should try it on a test footage and see how it goes.

quote:


Originally posted by MarkG

Not sure, but I was watching a Fusion demo video a few days ago which was adding digital rain that looked pretty real; in one of the 'Final Destination' movies, I think.

Basically it's just a particle effect, and most effects programs should support those.


 
Posted : 02/12/2007 7:40 pm
(@joe999)
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I am thinking more and more about using real water, not CGI. I see there are rain machines and related equipment for hire off, e.g.
http://www.creative-effects.com/Special_Effects_Rentals/Steam_Fog_and_Smoke_effects/Water_and_Air_Effects/water_and_air_effects.html
but I am thinking there must be ways to build one's own similar equipment, even it if were to cost several thousand dollars. Any ideas? I live to far from the Hollywood area to rent big equipment, but I could access/rent locally a water tank truck, then it seems all I would need is some of large gallons-per-minute pump (or perhaps the truck already does that), then rig some sort of dispersal unit on a crane or something?

 
Posted : 03/12/2007 8:09 pm
(@rjschwarz)
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One thing about rain is it doesn't really show well on camera. If you wish to fake it you want to show (as many of these as possible, if possible) a puddle with rain splashing into it. Glass with rain running down it. Everything wet, and of course the audio to sell it. If you've got that you don't really water spraying on the actors.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

RJSchwarz

 
Posted : 03/12/2007 9:40 pm
(@joe999)
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I was watching the making of featurette the other today for "The Skeleton Key" and they used real water sprayed out over the scene from some water tank truck or something, that is what I would like to do, make it as real as possible. The puddle and glass all sounds good too, bells and whistles to help give the viewer the cues to make their brain think 'rain'. I have found a couple of companies that rent rain machines and such, excellent gpm flow rates, but the rub is that I have to see if it could be shipped to where I live in the USA, which is not hollywood.

quote:


Originally posted by rjschwarz

One thing about rain is it doesn't really show well on camera. If you wish to fake it you want to show (as many of these as possible, if possible) a puddle with rain splashing into it. Glass with rain running down it. Everything wet, and of course the audio to sell it. If you've got that you don't really water spraying on the actors.


 
Posted : 03/12/2007 9:52 pm
(@markg)
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Aren't you supposed to backlight rain to make it show up on camera? I seem to remember that from some DVD commentaries I've listened to.

 
Posted : 03/12/2007 10:36 pm
(@rjschwarz)
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I've not worked with rain to be honest so I can't say but backlighting it might work. I think another issue might be the film speed. 24p might simply be too slow to capture rain well and perhaps some of the video speeds don't have the problem.

One other thing is if you've got a barn the rain coming off the edges of the roof should be thicker and easier to shoot and set up and your fighting characters can splash through the streams over and over as they take the battle from here to there and back again making sure they are well moistened.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

RJSchwarz

 
Posted : 03/12/2007 11:01 pm
(@markg)
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I was just watching a TV show where part of the episode was shot in the rain, and it was quite clear that they were backlighting it; so that's one data point :).

 
Posted : 04/12/2007 12:57 am
(@joe999)
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So is the backlighting straight from the back to the camera, or from the back at an angle so the backlight does not strike the camera dead on? I would think the purpose of the backlight or back angled light is to cause reflections and refractions on the droplights so they show up better on film?

quote:


Originally posted by MarkG

I was just watching a TV show where part of the episode was shot in the rain, and it was quite clear that they were backlighting it; so that's one data point :).


 
Posted : 04/12/2007 1:24 am
(@markg)
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In that case, the rain was outside the window at night and the light was on the left of the screen, hidden by the window frame. As you say, the idea is probably to get reflection from the light on the rain drops so they show up against the background.

 
Posted : 04/12/2007 2:08 am
(@markg)
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BTW, Google found a thread about backlighting rain on cinematography.net where a lot of professional cinematographers hang out:

http://www.cinematography.net/Photographing_Rain.htm

 
Posted : 04/12/2007 2:11 am
(@robmanu7)
Posts: 217
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I think it would be definately better to use real water rather than CGi or anything. I would reccomend investing in some sort of sprayer from the internet however these are relatively cheap. As they did in Singing in the rain put a small amount of milk in the water as it will show up better on camera. Hope that helps. ?:)?

Rob - UK

 
Posted : 26/12/2007 7:05 pm
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