Some solutions would be: shoot "day for night" making sure to avoid sky on the background, maybe choose a building, warehouse or whatever because it will be easier to handle.
Also make sure there are some potential "light sources" on the shot and hopefully not occluded by the actors so you don't have to rotoscope. If there is sunlight think that it will become your "electric source light" on your actor's skin, like the light coming from the light posts or the headlights of a car. So avoid frontal light in favor of back light so you have more contrast.
In the settings of the camera do the white balance against a yellow/orange piece of paper (instead of white) or simply choose the tungsten setting (around 3200k) so you already have a bluish tint.
Then use your ND filter (neutral density) to darken the image, forcing you to open your IRIS, therefore achieving a shallow depth of focus, typical of night shoots (background will be fairly soft or out of focus)
You will add electric light glows to windows, distant lights, light posts etc. that might be in the shot in postproduction, so try to keep your framing steady and if at all possible avoid intersecting those "light" sources with your actors, otherwise you will have to track frame by frame to clean up. Possible but time consuming.
The other solution if you were to break down your sequence very carefully would be to shoot on the stage against green screen and composite your shots with a real night background, lights and all.
This last one requires very careful planning for every shot but it will look just the way you want. If for example you shoot a "establishing shot" with not much movement on the parking lot, so you can add all the light sources etc, and then all the following shots are MS or CU shots it would become a lot easier to handle in the studio
I just found this amateur example which achieves a good "first look" that could be very much enhanced by, for example, adding window lights in post. A lot of tracking needed because they are all hand-held shots but still very possible. Notice the use of backlight which would make it easy to believe the light is coming from the windows (or in your case car lights or parking lot lights.)
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Some solutions would be: shoot "day for night" making sure to avoid sky on the background, maybe choose a building, warehouse or whatever because it will be easier to handle.
Also make sure there are some potential "light sources" on the shot and hopefully not occluded by the actors so you don't have to rotoscope. If there is sunlight think that it will become your "electric source light" on your actor's skin, like the light coming from the light posts or the headlights of a car. So avoid frontal light in favor of back light so you have more contrast.
In the settings of the camera do the white balance against a yellow/orange piece of paper (instead of white) or simply choose the tungsten setting (around 3200k) so you already have a bluish tint.
Then use your ND filter (neutral density) to darken the image, forcing you to open your IRIS, therefore achieving a shallow depth of focus, typical of night shoots (background will be fairly soft or out of focus)
You will add electric light glows to windows, distant lights, light posts etc. that might be in the shot in postproduction, so try to keep your framing steady and if at all possible avoid intersecting those "light" sources with your actors, otherwise you will have to track frame by frame to clean up. Possible but time consuming.
The other solution if you were to break down your sequence very carefully would be to shoot on the stage against green screen and composite your shots with a real night background, lights and all.
This last one requires very careful planning for every shot but it will look just the way you want. If for example you shoot a "establishing shot" with not much movement on the parking lot, so you can add all the light sources etc, and then all the following shots are MS or CU shots it would become a lot easier to handle in the studio
Your choice.:-)
I just found this amateur example which achieves a good "first look" that could be very much enhanced by, for example, adding window lights in post. A lot of tracking needed because they are all hand-held shots but still very possible. Notice the use of backlight which would make it easy to believe the light is coming from the windows (or in your case car lights or parking lot lights.)
HERE is a better one using tracking in AE, adding "lights" and "lens-flare" effects. Hope this help you guys decide. It is a good challenge, take it!
thanks, we'll keep that in mind
thanks, we'll keep that in mind
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