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Lighting In A Car

themattcastro

themattcastro

I'm looking to make a new short film where a majority of the short consists of a man inside of his van driving on a dirt road at night.

Now, if I were to shoot at night, on a stranded road, how would I get descent lighting in the vehicle? Would I have to place the lights outside on a generator, or place them inside and drive a short distance-then repeat process?

Or should I just shoot day for night and edit in post? If so, are there any tips on how to do that well?
 
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I can give you different ideas for lighting cars at night but not knowing what your specifically trying to do or you specific situation, that is the best I can do.

Rope lights-I have seen this done lots. String them around the inside. Soft lighting and doesn't look to bad.

"Street lights"-Put up some large tungsten lights that can't be seen and space them apart. You can easily make them look like street lights.

"Head lights"-These might only work if you aren't looking outside at environment. Set up a couple tungsten lights shining back at the car. Don't move the car. But have the lights pan across the driver every once in a while. Looks pretty good but you do need someone to man the lights.

Small battery powered led lights-stick these in the dash and make them look like the dash is acting like a key light.

Lastly try several combinations of all these ideas. Really there are a bunch of different ways to do it and depending on what you want the mood to be. This is the best I can give you not knowing your budget, situation, script, feel, idea, etc. Good luck and I hope this helps.
 
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For the interior, I use small florescent lights. You can find them at hardware stores like Lowe's and Home Depot. You can go with battery powered ones or plug them into a power inverter.

I like the poor man's process. That's where you have the car sitting still and you use light gags, like panning lights past the car etc..., to give the illusion that the car is moving. This way you can have the camera on a tripod on solid ground and not use car mounts. Shows like "24" use this combined with moving backgrounds projected on screens.

Scott
 
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If I can't fake street lights or moving headlights (may be all alone on a dark country road) I lean on the moon for light and ultilize LED lighting in blues as needed.
 
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Tinalera-

That doesn't put you to shame. Anyone can say "Hey look what I did with a giant budget and a bunch of equipment and time." I think it is easy to do that. I think it is harder to try and work around what people have and take the time to research possible options for other people. Using limited resources is most times harder and more of a challenge. I think that is more impressive when a person takes the time to work with the struggling filmmaker.

Besides I am sure themattcastro doesn't have the budget for that kind of setup (though I could be wrong) making that giant post not very useful to anyone. But like I said I could be way off base here.
 
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Brooksy said:
I can give you different ideas for lighting cars at night but not knowing what your specifically trying to do or you specific situation, that is the best I can do.

Rope lights-I have seen this done lots. String them around the inside. Soft lighting and doesn't look to bad.

"Street lights"-Put up some large tungsten lights that can't be seen and space them apart. You can easily make them look like street lights.

"Head lights"-These might only work if you aren't looking outside at environment. Set up a couple tungsten lights shining back at the car. Don't move the car. But have the lights pan across the driver every once in a while. Looks pretty good but you do need someone to man the lights.

Small battery powered led lights-stick these in the dash and make them look like the dash is acting like a key light.

Lastly try several combinations of all these ideas. Really there are a bunch of different ways to do it and depending on what you want the mood to be. This is the best I can give you not knowing your budget, situation, script, feel, idea, etc. Good luck and I hope this helps.
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Thanks for all the help!

I'm definitely going to be using the LED light idea. It sounds like it would be the best possible answer for what I'm shooting.

It's supposed to be on an abandoned road with no street lights and/or other cars.

LED lights seems to be something that can work out.

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE FOR HELPING ME OUT!
 
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