I am going to be shooting a my first feature that I wrote next month. About 50% will be shot outdoors and about 35% will be shot outdoors at night. I am looking for any pointers anyone can give me who have shot under these circumstances.
I have a DP who is doing a lot of homework to prepare himself for the shoot, but I would like to get some other thoughts from the people here as I usually quite impressed with the replies I see from the people on this site.
Some info on the film:
1. It is a horror/comedy. More horror than comedy, but the comedy will be there.
2. My main concern is weather, obviously as that is completely out of my hands, but I can hope for the best and if problems arise, I will have to just do all the indoor stuff and pick up the outside stuff when possible. Any pointers where this is concerened? Do you suggest rewriting script according to weather problems or is this ill advised.
3. I will have a couple sources of "natural" light(street lights, house lights) when outdoors at night. From watching a lot of horror films recently, it definitely seems as though they use special lights, even if they are just the light for a front door of a house, as they seem much more powerful than any regular house light. How do you make the most out of the light you have when filming when getting a generator is rather difficult?
4. Wind. Give me some tips about it. I am planning on getting a Sennheiser ME67( http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=003285). How much do windscreens and muffs help? Are they worth it?
5. The camera I am thinking of using is the Canon XH-A1. What filters(especially to shoot day for night) or even lenses would you suggest?
I will stop there as if anyone can even help me with a few of those I will be happy. I really appreciate any ideas people can give me and if I get some answers I'm sure I will putting up a lot more questions.
Thanks.
(2) What state are you in? When do you expect to start filming? Plan to shoot all exteriors first and have a fall-back interior ready in case weather screws with you. Rewriting is up to you.
(3) Use bounce-boards out of frame to use the existing light as subtle fill light. I don't know if they use special lights or not.
(4) A windsock is a must if you have a lot of outdoors with dialogue. If it's just someone running then don't worry about it.
(5) I don't know the camera but I would suggest you avoid filters and do day-for-night filtering in post so you can play around and change things. If you do it with gels you're stuck with the end result. Lenses depend upon what kind of shots you want. If people are gonna be running than a wide-angle is best as you don't have to fight with keeping them in focus all the time.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
2) The standard way to work with weather is to schedule all the outside stuff first, and if you get rained out, have a back up indoor scene to shoot. If you think you can rewrite more indoor without losing anything, do it. But if you have a relatively flexible schedule then you should be fine.
3) Extension cords, extension cords. Natural light is great during the day, but it's not going to be enough at night, especially if it gets cloudy. You're going to need to light (pack your blue gels).
4) I'm not an audio guy, but I've found anything short of a blimp to be totally useless against the wind. I hatehatehatehate the wind. Of course, I've shot much of my work in a very windy place. On a normal day, a fur should work fine. On a windy day, start thinking about looping.
5)I agree that you should not use day for night filters. But I would also suggest you forgo it in post and just shoot at night. As far as the camera... I'm a little wary of using Canons in low light. You might look at the Sony XD Cam EX1. It's a little cheaper and tapeless, so it has that going for it as well. But check it for yourself, I just have an old Canon XL1 (pre-lowlight fix), so it's made me think twice about Canon's lowlight power. The XH-A1 might be fine.
One thing that helps is shooting in lighter conditions if possible. Because if it becomes to low light there will be some grain in the video. It would probably be better to have it lighter while filming, then darkening it in post, than to film in dark conditions and have grain.
