1. Water is reflective. That means that if the sky is black and there is no light, then your water will be black. If the sun has just gone down or is about to come up and the sky reflected by the water has color, then that is the color the water will be. At night a large softbox could give some light to the water, but because of how reflections work, it would have to be out in the water shooting back at the camera. Probably not practical for you. So do not shoot in the dead of night. And do not shoot day for night. That is a trick and should be avoided until you understand lighting. Suffice it to say that your blacks will not look rich and your shadows will feel wrong.

2. What is the feel of your shot? Is it soft and beautiful? Hard and sinister? Are we supposed to feel cold or warm? What are you trying to achieve? You can get a silhouette of the woman, but because she is below you, it will not be a true silhouette. The sand will also give you quite a lot of fill. Will her clothes be billowy or tight? Is she full frame head to toe, cowboy, foreground, middleground, or background? I'd love to help you more, but I need more info. The shot I have in my head is a beautiful woman with a flowing white dress and conveys a sense of beauty and hope. Let me know.

Ok, I just know that you are going to help me plan this right! : ) Here is a little more info about the shot. The scene starts out black with a few sounds... The soft sound of water lapping on the beach and the womans footsteps falling softly in the sand. As the scene fades in the woman is revealed. The camera is looking down at her from about 10ft high and she is about 15-20ft away. (She is about half the height of the screen) I have it storyboarded with pictures, I really wish I could draw it here <G> The woman is beautiful with long hair and a dress, both are billowing in the wind. The woman takes 3 graceful steps and turns to face the ocean. The scene now cuts to a 3D rendered close up of her eye. There is actually quite a bit more to the sequence, the rest of it being 3D rendered using 3D studio max and Maya. Originally I wanted to animate the woman on the beach, but I'm trying to take the stress off my animator : ) My biggest reason for making her a sillouette and having the scene be dark is that I can better get away with the transition between reality and animation. I'm thinking that if I capture the video with little detail I could then add some kind of effect in post to help it flow.
If you want more info about the whole Logo tell me and i'll email the storyboard to you. Thanks for the help! : )

Dyz

Sorry for the long period without a response. I had a job that took me out of town and didn't have access to a computer (I didn't even have access to a Starbucks...ack!)

Because you are creating a silhouette, you have a little more wiggle room when it comes to the "right" lighting for this type of shot. So take what I say and use it as a template. The terrain and your budget may preclude you from doing exactly what I suggest (for instance, if you don't have a bonafide electrician-as opposed to a friend who PA'd on a set once- don't even think of putting a light near the water. I don't want you to make a mistake and kill someone, 'cause that'll put a big damper on your film career.

That said, here's how I would do it:
Since this is a silhouette, you need a light that is going to actually create a silhouette. Imagine a clock. The camera is at 6 o'clock, the subject is on the pivot point of the hands, and the light is at 12 o'clock. This gives you a perfect silhouette and allows you to hide the light from the camera. However many times this tends to look "sourcey". Since you're gonna be up high, and your subject is wearing a flowing gown, I would work the light more toward 3/4 back, so that one side of your subject also has a rim... a hot line of light outlining her body and shining through the fabric of the gown which you have moving in the wind (don't forget to bring some sort of fan to help the natural wind). That means you've got your hard light somewhere between 10:30 and 1:30 on the clock depending on the physical needs of your shoot.

So your standing up there on your ladder looking down at the shot and you've got this silhouette. It's hard, white light. Everything not lit by the light is black. Very contrasty, and not very romantic. Since that hard light is supposed to be moonlight, I'd be tempted to toss in a little CTB gel in front of it, this gives it little bit of a "moonlight" feel. I'd also be tempted to soften it up a bit, and the amount of softening (like the amount of blue) is going to depend on what you and your camera are seeing. I don't think you want a lot of diffusion, but you do want some. The moon actually does produce hard shadows at night (it is just reflected sunlight, colored by the moondust, still acting as a point source) but most people don't notice this, so softening it up a bit will make it more believable.

So you're up there, looking at your shot. I bet you start to notice that your model isn't actually in total silhouette. She's getting fill light bounced from the sand. This I wouldn't worry about. I would, however be concerned from the mounds of sand at her feet. Because you only have one light, every ridge looks like a line of demarcation between black and white. You need to soften those ridges to make them more romantic. To get just a little bit of light in there, I'd put as large a piece of styrofoam as I had up on 2 "C" stands next to the camera and exactly opposite your Moonlight on the clock. If your moonlight is at 1 o'clock, I'd put the bounce at 7. Since the idea is to fill in all those little black shadows, I'd put it up by camera, angled down toward the sand and then shine a light into it. Make sure the bounce light hits all the board. This will give you the softest light you can get. Look through your camera and adjust the bounce-fill until it just takes the curse of all those hard shadows. You don't want to be able to read a book in there... you're still looking for a silhouette... you're just trying to soften everything up a bit. As a final touch, I'd toss a fraction of the CTB gel that you have on your Moonlight onto the bounce light. For instance, if you have full CTB on the moonlight, I might put 1/4 CTB on the bounce. You don't want everything to go blue.

Remember that you're going for a silhouette, so expose for your moonlight. You might even over-expose by one stop. This will ensure that your rim-light looks white, (because it's starting to burn out), but that you get a taste of the blue as the under-exposed areas catch the light. And there should be at least a 3-4 stop difference between the front of your model and the back. Perhaps more if you're using film. Use your eye. If you're using an electronic camera, light to a monitor. If you're using a film, it sometimes helps to put on sunglasses, or squint, or get a viewing glass.

Good luck. Be safe. Remember to have a reflection in the water from some part of the sky, or your water will look black. Not good. Scout the day before to find the optimal place and time to shoot. Have GFCI's (ground fault circuit interrupters) on your lights in case one falls into the water (and remember that wet sand is highly conductive and that salt water makes all this more dangerous).

Finally, if I were directing this, and I was looking for a cut point to help my animator, I might have the model do some movement, like wiping the hair our of her eyes, in the master. Then your animator could build in a full frame wipe of her arm across that eye and the cut wouldn't be as jumpy. While you're there, grab some shots of water washing over her feet, maybe a dolly shot of her feet walking, little pieces to throw in, just in case that jump from wide to ECU it too jarring. You're not only going from wide to extreme tight, you're jumping from one side of the shot to the reverse. You might want something in the middle to ease the transition.

Again, all this is a guideline, since I'm not there to see what you actually have, it's really just an excercise in lighting theory for me. You have to do the shot, so don't be afraid to stray from what I've said, and bring some extra lights and bounces to cover any unforseen circumstances. Let me know how it goes.