doing the monster mash! horror film style

[wburke]

hi to all ! (i'm more of a forum reader than a talker..)

i'm in pre production with directing/lighting a Horror/Film Noir film on DV, for no money! but finally found a great location, an old creepy higgedy piggedy house thats been used for many aggresive parties down the ages, what with lots of holes in the walls.

well as it is a very dark house my plan is to light by eye for each shot with a few very strong lights, to punch in highlights where i can. This will be organised on our preproduction camera test days. I will try to stay on the dark side using silhouettes, and with close ups bounce in just enough fill on the face while picking up the eyes with a specially rigged torch light, and as its on DV there will be lots of contrast ramping in Post.

but keeping the look of the film uniform will be difficult. and i still have to discover if shooting at night would not be better...
i kow its hard to comment as each location is different to light but please throw in your two cent worth, especially any thoughts / experiances on lighting Film Noir..

I will post the development of the style and look as it progresses.. NB - theres no money available but lots of learning

sincerely
will burke

 

[MarkG]

I haven't tried that look myself, but the main issue is going to be that DV has a very low contrast range compared to film: particularly if you shoot at night, everything you don't light is probably going to be completely black, with little to no detail in the shadows. That may be what you're aiming for, but it can be beneficial when you want to hide the fact that your exotic location is actually just a deserted warehouse, by sticking some props around the place and letting the rest of the scene go black .

 

[wburke]

still developing the look, and one thing i will try is actually part of the Post production process.. a selective Focus spot on the image, we have been thinking on blurring all within the frame to give the impression of foggieness and also Dread! - ness, but pick out just the face of the actor and sharpen it up..

So a question on Sharpness.. increasing Sharpness in post - this adds brightness to the highlights (??) if so should the Rim light be so strong on the day of the shoot.??

well only one way to find out..