Nightclub Shoot
 

Hello all,

I am going to be shooting a nightclub scene later this week and I was wondering what people's recommendations would be with regard to lighting?

I have the following kit at my disposal
- 5 x 800w Redheads
- 3 x 300w Junior ARRI
- 3 x 300w Dimmable Gulliver
- 2 x 2kw Blondes
- 2 x Litepanel LED Kits

I am assuming that I want to be using low wattage lights or majorly diffusing some more higher powered lights depending on the shot.

I was wanting to use some Chinese lantern balls but haven't been able to find any battery powered ones. Anyone know where I can get some?

All advice would be much appreciated :oD

As long as it isn't a huge club, you should have enough lights - usually the problem is hiding them. Much depends on the brightness of the club's practicals and how these are located with regard to the action. Also, how much colour you want to use.

Usually the dance floors are pretty bright, it's the bars and areas away from the floor that usually need lighting, however, you need to reflect the mood of a nightclub i.e. you don't want to over light it.

Also, you need to be careful with cables & lights when you have a lot of drunk people around.

China Balls throw nice soft light at everything around them.

If you want it to look like a nightclub, you generally don't don't throw light AT the whole scene - particularly from the direction of the camera.

Throw light BEHIND things you want to stand out.

Start at the walls behind the people. Light them FIRST. Create a world of silhouette shapes against the far walls.

Then light key characters with controlled light just enough to have them pop out of the darkness. Barn doors are your friend here!

Finally, once your primary characters are lit, use whatever you have left over to paint in details in the otherwise dark scene for visual balance.

But never forget, it's a NIGHT club. Shadows are your friend.

Good luck.

Black Light
 

Hi,
I am shooting a club scene too...
And i am looking for the "Black light" look (Dark skin, everything that is white glows, fluorecent eyes...).
I am shooting 16mm 200t stock, any recomendations?
Thanks

Herminio,

If you're shooting 200T (Fuji 8653 or Kodak 7217?) you'll need a LOT of those blacklight source lights... It will be hard to expose for such a violet colored light source with tungsten film. It's gonna come out nuclear blue/purple on tungsten. Perhaps daylight will give you a better result. It might help bring out some more detail and less purple glow since it's balanced for the whiter/bluer spectrum. Definitely shoot a few short tests.

Fuji 8683 400T is a great low-contrast stock that, with an 85 filter, might give you some good results. I've never shot film in such a situation, but it's worth getting a hundred feet or some short ends and testing.

You might also consider shooting a crazy stock like Kodaks Ektachrome 7285 100D Reversal and cross-processing it as negative to get some insane, fluorescent colors.