Tip #56: Surviving night shoots

By Dan Parkes (Director)

Even for those who consider themselves 'night owls', filming at night is never easy and poses numerous challenges. But before we look at surviving night shoots, let's establish two key reasons for doing so, which are:


1. Filming an exterior night scene at night
2. Filming interiors at night due to cast/location availability

The first, also described as 'night-for-night' is likely the most obvious reason. The rain scene in Ambleton Delight was filmed this way. It is good to note that our eyes see night in a very different way from how a camera does as our eyes naturally adjust to the low light levels while most cameras struggle to compensate. The two key mistakes filmmakers can make is to either force the camera to see more light (using a wide open aperture or a gain increase) or by overlighting the scene with too many lights. Both will make the camera see more, but the result will not look authentic, either being overlit or too grainy.

Tips:

• Only illuminate key objects or areas - for example using practicals from logical sources (i.e. real lights within the scene, such as streetlamps)
• Use reflectors and white cards to reflect light
• Use natural elements such as snow if filming during winter, or rain (or by wetting the ground) to create natural reflection and illumination
• Use natural light -shoot during dusk or twilight -although remember this lasts for less than an hour!
• If possible do some test filming beforehand at the hours and location you intend to film

Overall night filming survival tips:

• Preparation/planning -treat it as a normal day with a 'lunch' scheduled
  
• Have a well thought out schedule that wastes no time...dead time at night is demoralising and can cause people to go to sleep
• Make sure actors are scheduled only where necessary (it is good to schedule scenes with the most actors first so that some can go home earlier and only those who are required stay for the whole night)
• Food and drink are important -liquids such as water and coffee can help keep you awake
• Consecutive night shoots can for many be easier than one-off shoots, as you can get your body into a pattern
• Prepare the day before by getting more sleep (like travelling overseas try to adjust to the time zone before you arrive)
• 4am - 5am is the most difficult hour both mentally and physically -schedule easier scenes to be filmed at this time or have this as the 'lunch' break.

Tip #53 Creating a character -an actor's perspective

An interview with Jos Lawton (actor)

In a two part special we interview lead actor Jos Lawton, who won a Best Actor award (International Filmmaker Festival, 2009) for his role as John Miller in Ambleton Delight. In part one we focus on creating characters and using production difficulties to your advantage.

As an actor, how do you go about creating a particular character?
I read the script again and again - the text can give you so much information about your character. Also, I like to create a back story and some history for the character, thinking about the life they have experienced before we see them in the film.


How did you go about creating the character of John Miller in the film?
With Ambleton Delight, I was already provided with some back story for John Miller and I just expanded on that. I also listened carefully to Dan’s direction regarding John in order to make him outwardly calmer and less demonstrative than I had originally done so in the first audition, and to focus more on his internal state.


Did Ambleton Delight present any particular challenges as an actor?
One personal challenge I faced was injuring my leg a week before the start of the shoot. It was very painful and I found it difficult to walk or even stand without the use of a crutch. The team was very understanding, and luckily, the first scenes I shot involved being seated (the council scenes), but there was a shot of me walking outside the council building. Obviously I couldn’t use the walking stick I had been using and tried to walk as normally as possible. If you look carefully, you can see I’ve got a slight limp in that scene...


And how about the weekend night shoots? Those must have been difficult....
Using the ‘down-time’ in the restaurant and kitchen meant we would work from approx 10pm-6am at the weekends. I’d often find it hard to get much sleep after the first night’s filming, so by the second night it could be quite gruelling! In fact, this was in some ways a blessing for me as my character John Miller becomes more unravelled as the story develops. Michael Caine is fond of advocating the idea ‘always use the difficulty’, meaning any situation in life that's negative, there is something positive you can do with it. So having no sleep for a couple of days and being frazzled when trying to deliver my lines for take after take at 4am was actually really useful in portraying an edgy and paranoid John Miller!

Look out for part two with some general acting tips coming soon...