I ran some quick test for a short we are shooting in Jan

https://vimeo.com/147968703


the story involves 2 women talking on a park bench, it's midnight new years eve.

I'm thinking about establishing either a street lamp and candles that the mother lights while waiting for the fireworks. the other options are a full moon with or without the candles.

I tried for the fireworks by projecting directly on the face but that of course didn't work at all so I'm trying another idea which should work.

Just wondering if anyone has any comments or ideas that may help the overall look.

Just a couple of quick thoughts.

The constant flickering is really annoying.
It's all underexposed.
The whole scene needs more ambient light from big soft sources before you even think of lighting the talent's faces.
No matter what you ultimately end up using as a key, you still need some back light and/or kickers to separate the talent from the foliage.
At 1:14 you are getting closer, but you can't make this look good with just a single source of light.

Your "candle" light flickers much more rapidly and deeply than a real candle. It looks more like the light from a bonfire in your example. It would be more convincing if you would back off a great deal on the effect and maybe warm up the color some more.

- Greg