Shooting in the rain

[wrongallover]

Hi there,

I've got a 16mm black and white film in pre-production. It will be filmed on an Ariflex BL. The story takes place in the rain. Because I do not control the weather, this makes production a challenge. Are there ways to convincingly and cheaply add rain in post production? Any tips on shooting in the rain otherwise?

Thanks!

 

[mrbobby101]

Plenty of After Effects Tutorials and if you have Avid, their generator is pretty nice.

Try some

www.creativecow.net
www.lost.eu/4194C

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Fake rain added in post only works for extreme wide shots where you can tell that the rain isn't hitting objects in the scene, especially if the shot doesn't have the ground in the frame -- for example, a low-angle shot looking up at a skyscraper framed against (ideally) an overcast sky would be fairly easy to add rain to in post.

But otherwise, you need real rain if you need it to hit the actors or fall behind the actors (unless you want to do a lot of rotoscope work to matte fake rain behind actors.)

The low-budget trick is a couple of garden hoses spraying into the air (at least two) but make sure your actors have some insulation under their clothes and a place to warm up and dry or change between shots, because standing under the spray of unheated water from a hose is a good way to get sick unless the weather is hot that day.

To really see rain well, it has to be backlit. Sometimes a bright overcast sky in the background at the top of the frame is enough as long as the rain is framed against a darker background. But otherwise, hitting it with some light from behind always helps.