Shooting a Sunset Scene - Questions

[Silas Barker]

I am shooting a music video at sunset, and was wondering if anyone has any tips to help make the scene look consistent as the sun sets (starting shooting about an 1 hour before).

I am planning on the solo artist to have his back to the sun (to get nice backlight, also he will be IN the sun) as he plays guitar, and use a reflector for fill. Figured shooting the close ups of his guitar, then face, then the wide shot as the sun is at its lower point.

Also - I can't shoot right at sunset because the park we are shooting in is in complete shadow about 40 minutes before sunset, so we are actually shooting about 1 1/2 hours before sunset till when everything is in shade. So the lighting won't be quite golden, but should look decent??

Any suggestions? I am using a canon 5diii and monitor along with a 120 degree section of a circle dolly tracks. I am shooting a close up of vocals, a wide shot, and guitar close ups. Also, I'll probably have a few extra angles as well included.

Suggestions welcome!!!

[Phil Murray]

I'd be willing to bet you won't get nice light shooting that far ahead of sunset. I'd also be concerned about the backlighting being too strong unless that's the effect you want.

Are you close enough to the park to go before and check out exactly what it'll be like with some test shots? That's what I'd do.

[Silas Barker]

Granted the lighting won't be quite as good as if I could shoot it during actual sunset but will it work as far as matching the close ups with the wide shot taken later when the sun is lower??

I checked out the park yesterday, and the shoot is tomorrow. The best I can hope for is that the close ups match the wide shot. I need about 90 minutes to shoot everything so that probably would not work for an actual sunset I guess anyways. Also the whole park is in shade about 30 minutes before the sun actually sets.

[Phil Murray]

How did the shoot come out? If you have a sample that you can upload, I'd like to see it. (I'm always learning!)

[Silas Barker]

We actually postponed the shoot a bit, but we did shoot a separate scene for it (at night) that turned out really good! The sunset scene will probably be shot in the next week or so and I 'll post the full song on here once its done (probably about a month away).

Thanks!

[Phil Murray]

Great! Can't wait to see it. Glad everything turned out okay.

[Alister Chapman]

The delay will help as the lower sun during winter takes longer to set than in summer. There's a great iphone app called Golden Hour for calculating optimum shooting times and where the sun will be.