Dark themed short Video ??????

R

rakesh1985

I plan to make a film for film festivals soon. But before I dwell into something complicated like that, I want to make a short video/promo (2-4min). The concept would be about the life of a gangster from his perspective.

Can you guys give me advice as to how to shoot/make it look dark and gloomy kinda like The Dark Knight.
I was thinking of producing the dark effect using limited lightning. Is there a way/technique to do this?
 
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Always still light your scenes well. If you film in bad lighting it will probably just be underexposed and black.
If it were me, and I'm a total amateur, I would try and shoot it as well lit as possible, and add effects in post. Although if there is a real technique for getting this on real film, I bet there is someone on here that knows how.
Good luck with your short! Oh, and a lot of film festivals have categories for shorts, some even as short as 4 minutes. So try and make your 'promo' something you'd be proud to send to the festival. Maybe you'll get your goal of doing that accomplished a lot more quickly.
I find that there is nothing better for the creative juices than some instant gratification.
 
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Hmmm...... I was unaware of the fact that there were film festivals for films as short as 3-4 minutes. I will look into that. And you are probably right, I will try to shoot the video well lit. Thanks for the advice
But how do you shoot videos in the dark when there is a question of being underexposed?
 
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i'm not sure how to shoot in the dark effectively (to compensate widen the iris and lower the fps - high gain in dark stuations looks shit)

To get a dark feel i personally would use a single strong light ballanced with either: a simple white board or nothing (make the light hard edged to cast maximum shadow on features of the face)

in post prep, something i like to do is take a clip (layer 1) and copy and paste it to overlap (layer 2) - assuming Layer 2 is OVER not under layer 1, Make layer 2 BLACK & WHITE. Finally, mess with thr transparency of layer 2 so as to show a little of Layer 1, it'll leave a verry dull set of colours on the final image - looks great with or without a slight grading of say... Sepia?
 
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rakesh1985 said:
But how do you shoot videos in the dark when there is a question of being underexposed?
Click to expand...

Shooting a dark or "noir" look isn't necessarily about underexposing. It's about having a low key light but exposing other areas properly. Pay attention to noir films and where they put their lights. It's exposed, it's just exposed differently.
 
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rakesh1985 said:
I was thinking of producing the dark effect using limited lightning. Is there a way/technique to do this?
Click to expand...

Stuff to google:

-- everything indietalk mentioned
-- "low key" lighting (which is a catch all term for the style you are describing)
-- John Alton
-- edge light
-- scratch light


Stuff to look at:

High contrast B/W photography
Any "Film Noir" movie
www.mercuryseries.com (posted here before, but a good look on how to use this visual style on a low budget)


It's not about shooting in the dark, it's about effectively lighting only select portions of the frame. About creating the contrast between dark and lit areas and using that for dramatic/stylistic effect. In terms of stop, you are setting the lens to the lighting of what you want to see, and letting the rest fall into darkness as desired.

Edit: Don't be confused by the "low key" term. It doesn't mean that your key light is of low output - it means that the amount of the frame that is lit at or near the level of the key light is a low % of the frame space, so to speak.
 
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If its your first movie, and you seriously want to get it into festivals, you'd better get a DP that knows what he's doing - no offence, but people spend years honing their skills.

If you're looking to experiment - light everything, use an external monitor to see what you've got and what you can change - cameras don't pick up light like the human eye sees it - especially not a consumer grade 2ccd. It’s a common misconception that all you have to do is point the camera and hit record.

Shoot some test footage though; that's probably a safe place to start and the only way you're going to end up knowing what your image looks like on your particular camera

- Don't try and figure it out on the day of the shoot
 
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Thanks fo rthe tips guys. I have been learning more here than in my previous 5 years.

If its your first movie, and you seriously want to get it into festivals, you'd better get a DP that knows what he's doing - no offence, but people spend years honing their skills
Click to expand...

I live in morgantown WV and am looking for people to collaborate. But being a college student in a small town, I might not be able to hire a DP. So I will probably try to shoot a video to test my skills (not that I haven't made videos before but shooting in different ways) analyse it and then concentrate on festivals and contests.
 
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