Solving the Issue (Lighting): Day-for-Night Shooting

    Since our movie is set at night it was important we shot at night. As previously mentioned this produced a bevy of issues, primarily with lighting. However, in doing additional research on how to make nighttime shots look better I came across day-for-night shooting - a method by which you shoot during the day and edit it in a way that makes it look like it was taken at night. This method was particularly popular in older movies, where cameras could not capture quality footage at night. However, it is still used today.

This scene from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) was clearly shot using day-for-night shooting techniques due to the blue hue.

    This effect is achieved by lowering the exposure on the shot, turning up the contrast, darkening the whites/highlights, and increasing the blue hue. In order to ensure day-for-night shooting works, you must ensure the sun is not visible within the shot, and minimize any surfaces which would reflect its light. By minimizing the amount of sky seen in shots, as well as shooting - ideally - during dawn or dusk, this effect looks more realistic. 

    Though shooting day-for-night is great as it minimizes concerns over lighting, it does raise the issue of time. Since shooting day-for-night relies far more on the editor in post-production, it's important the editor is given adequate time. However, due to Bella's busy schedule, and the short time span between our reshoot and the final cut due date, this is unfortunately not a likely solution. Additionally, no one is available for the reshoot during daytime hours - another reason why day-for-night shooting likely will not work.

Of the four photos above, the two on the left are photos taken during day time. Using the day-for-night editing methods I changed them to make them look as though they were taken at night - results shown on the left.