Day for night in black and white

[Glen Maw]

Hello there,

I've read a lot of the threads about shooting day for night, which I've found useful, but they all seem to be in reference to colour. I'm trying to copy a scene from an old black and white Mexican film from the '40s - it's a typical moonlight serenade.

If it helps...I'm shooting on HDV (hvr-v1) set to monochrome.

The threads seem to say: use a blue filter, but I'm wondering if this is true for black and white. I read an article (Shooting Day for Night) which begins by saying:

"In the halcyon days of black and white movies, day-for-night was easy because a red filter on the lens pumped up the contrast and recorded blue skies as jet black. Under-expose half a stop and you were in business."

For the record, I don't plan to shoot the sky, but moonlight in my Romeo's face would be nice. I'm not looking for the most realistic way to do it... only the most accurate way to replicate the old movies.

This is what I had in mind: YouTube - Cucurucucu Paloma

any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Glen

[Bruce Foreman]

What you want to do is best done with lighting. If possible I would shoot at night, with strong (but not harsh) directional lighting on the subjects and allowing the feathered edges of the lighting beams to partially illuminate background elements.

One key to making that work is to have as much separation as possible between the actors and those background elements and possibly a half a stop of underexposure would help. The LCD screen should give you an idea of how close you are coming.

The sample you linked to shows very directional lighting that cast fairly well defined shadows on the patio/pavement.

[Glen Maw]

Thanks Bruce,

I'll try do some tests. The only problem I wondered about when shooting at night was the creepy crawlies in the blacks, but I suppose if I'm stopping it down, using no gain, I should be ok.

Glen