Ultimate Suggestions to Creating Night Scenes in a Feature Film

Making movies is something that a lot of people grow up really wanting to do.  The problems are that many people are not quite so willing to share tips and suggestions on how to get started.  This can leave the film industry almost impossible to break into successfully.  If you find yourself in this position, you may be trying to determine the best way to shoot a film at night.  This can be extremely complicated because of the extensive lighting that is required to actually achieve the proper balance of light.

What you may not realize is many film makers choose to record night scenes during the day.  This then allows them to use techniques such as blue washes, and even tricks in the editing of the scenes to achieve the nighttime look.  This is something that is not very well known and many new filmmakers have found themselves attempting to film a scene at night, which can create huge headaches in terms of ensuring you have enough light to actually see the actors in the scene, without making the lighting look fake.

If you are choosing to record scenes in the daylight hours you are not only reducing the amount of work you are going to need to do, but you are also increasing the chances that someone will be able to avoid an injury.  Many accidents can occur if you are shooting at night because the lights make it difficult to see all of the equipment at shoots frequently.  Taking the time to really look at recording all of your night scenes during the day can also save a bundle of time because you can clearly see what is going on in the background, as well as what each and every one of your actors are doing.

One major expense that you are able to avoid by shooting scenes during the day is the need to have a generator.  Because many locations used for night shoots do not feature ample electricity it is a requirement to have a generator frequently.  This can create a huge expense, as well as a lot of noise that has to be fixed later in the editing process.  Avoiding the need to have a generator entirely can not only reduce your budget, but provide a more natural light and save you the time that would be required to fix the generator noises in the background.

As you can see, there are plenty of reasons why shooting a night scene during the day is a fabulous idea.  Taking the time to create a gentle blue wash for your scenes is critical though or the lighting will not appear natural when you are finished editing.  While the advanced video editing software that is available can make huge adjustments to a picture, it is only capable of doing so much.  Starting with the best light situations possible can go a very long way towards ensuring that the scenes look as natural as possible once you are finished with the entire editing process.

Creating a perfect feature film is a process that will take a lot of practice.  Learning how to properly fill in your day lighting to change to the perfect night lighting is a technique that will require a bit of practice.  It is typically a good idea to work at practicing this technique in just a plain scene, or with only a few actors before you attempt to use this technique for an actual film so that you can gain some useful experience.  If you attempt to start using this technique in a film itself, you may find that you are having to redo several scenes until you do achieve the perfect lighting, which could start to eat into your budget.  As with all other aspects of creating a feature film, practice will make perfection and it will be no time until you are creating perfect nighttime scenes like the professionals.