Making rain for a scene?

Backlight. Backlight. BACKLIGHT!!! I can't stress that enough. We did a rain scene in my latest film and it's so important to backlight the rain otherwise it's not going to show up on film at all. I've never heard of adding milk, but I suppose it would help it to show up. Just going to make things sticky and smell if you don't watch it. :P
 
Another thing that makes rain visible is puddles on the ground catching a reflection. That way, you see the rain hitting the puddles.
 
I have a genuine Medicine Man along for the shoot!
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(I got nothin') :no:

(There was actually a really good thread about this, a long while back. Probably in archives somewhere)
 
rain scene

I just did a indie here in vegas that needed a rain scene,I went out and rented a water truck but didn't use it because of the motor noise.we wound up just using a garden hose.you have to watch that the rain is coming straight down or it looks like someone off camera squirting water.the scene turned out really good.
 
I would say that the scene he is doing requires rain in order for the flim to work the way in which he intended, otherwise he wouldn't go to all the trouble to make rain.
 
We used a garden hose and tight angles in one of our shorts. Backlight is very important. If you want lightning, just hook up a few halogens to a power bar and flick on and off.
Give the halogens cool blue gels and there u go.

Ultimately, as long as the actor in the rain gets wet, the audience will believe.
 
I did constant rain on my first short. We used a couple of different techniques.

For the big exterior daytime scenes where the shot was pretty wide we used a fire truck. (There's an organisation in the UK called Young Firefigthers and they're always happy to help out, for a few hours)

For the night sequences we used a watering can. So after wetting down the parts of the set that could be seen, we dropped the water from the can across the front of the lens (about a foot ahead of it) and then we cross lit the water. Basicaly we put a small pag light to one side of the camera at 90 degrees the lens and about four foot back.

For the very tight night exteriors, which were also hand held, walking backwads with the character with had a runner with one of those plant sprays to the right of the camera op, putting a fine mist of water onto the character as they walked.

All these techniques worked really well and we won a Royal Television Society Commendation for the film.

Like many things it's actually more about giving the audience the right audio and visual clues and their imagination fills in the rest.
 
Bump for wondering if anyone has any other suggestions for practical rain on set. I spoke to a solid AE editor and he doesn't recommend fully constructing rain in animated form. Please share your thoughts if you happen to have any experience :)
 
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