Hi, I'm working on a short film and we have some rain scenes and I was wondering how everybody creates rain for their films? Thanks.

I've heard you have to add milk to the water so it shows on film.

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! http://www.stevenrichards.com/images/smiley_woot.gif

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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)

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.

If your doing an indoor shot, use a water hose and spray it on a window from the outside. Use a sprinkler if needed.

**marcel

Why not make it a bright sunny day?

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.

Sometimes a little rain can be a good thing. ;)

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.

If your going to add milk, try rice or soy milk, it won't stink like old cow juice!

After Effects and various plug ins do that.

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.

Nice one Clive.

Blade_Jones, tell us about making convincing rain in AE ?