OK, so I guess the title is kind of stupid, and I'm posting kind of late because I can't seem to get to sleep. I don't get to shoot much film, given that it's expensive, I'm broke, and I don't get a lot of spare time anyway. My first 4 films were just test reels, and my last 2 came out really well.
OK, so to the point. As we all know, Halloween is just around the corner. While I'm not a big fan of Halloween, I want to make my first attempt at an interesting movie (rather than shooting cars in the parking lots). I'm good enough at filming during the day now, but I've never attempted to shoot film at night. I'll be traveling around campus at Northern Arizona University and downtown Flagstaff Arizona trying to film the freak shows and neat costumes.
I'll be filming regular 8mm silent film, using my trusty Keystone K-27 or my Yashica E-III. Lighting around campus and much of downtown Flag is in the form of the yellow streetlamps. I'm mostly looking for general advice, but I'd also like to know the following specifically:
1) Are there any recommended techniques for filming under street lamps? Any filters to consider?
2) What filmstocks do you think you would recommend? I was considering shooting black and white, but then again, there may be some merit to shooting color...
I'm going to try and place a film order really soon, so your thoughts are appreciated. Think of a typical Halloween on a college campus...
General question - filming Halloween?
Moderator: Andreas Wideroe
Hello cdg!
I would go for the fastest film stock possible if trying to film under street lights alone.
I assume you will be shooting reversal stock? I would go for black and white stock, rather than colour, for the extra latitude when shooting at night (and you won't have use filters to correct to colour of the street lights with B&W, which would mean a loss of film speed).
I think B&W looks more spooky at night too!
Try Tri-x if they still do it in R8.
This site has a list of stocks and where to buy them, I don't know if you have checked it out before.
http://www.standard8.org/film_stock.php
Happy shooting!
Chris.
I would go for the fastest film stock possible if trying to film under street lights alone.
I assume you will be shooting reversal stock? I would go for black and white stock, rather than colour, for the extra latitude when shooting at night (and you won't have use filters to correct to colour of the street lights with B&W, which would mean a loss of film speed).
I think B&W looks more spooky at night too!
Try Tri-x if they still do it in R8.
This site has a list of stocks and where to buy them, I don't know if you have checked it out before.
http://www.standard8.org/film_stock.php
Happy shooting!
Chris.
OK, so thanks for the responses so far. Being in mostly artificial light, I'm sure even the 200 ASA films will require fairly large apertures in the f1.8-f4 range. It strikes my mind that the norm for an 8mm movie camera at 16 fps is about 1/30 shutter speed.
I'm a little concerned about my light meter being inaccurate under artificial lighting conditions, as I've found that many meters won't meter correctly unless very close to the artificial light source.
I'm a little concerned about my light meter being inaccurate under artificial lighting conditions, as I've found that many meters won't meter correctly unless very close to the artificial light source.
You really just need to meter where every the subject is. If your not getting a reading it maybe that is is too dark to film where you want to.
You could get the lab to push process your film but it will almost certainly increase the grain. Each stop it's pushed by will double the film speed, the max for most labs is normally 2 stops.
So Plus-x 100asa pushed by 1 stop you will need to expose the film as 200asa, pushed by 2 stops you would expose the film as though it's 400asa.
So if you got something like Kahl UP-24 200asa film pushed by two stops at the lab that would give you a film speed of 800asa!
I know nanolab.com.au will push process and Richard who runs it posts on this board so maybe he can help with the push processing option and let you know how far you can go with it.
Good luck,
Chris.
You could get the lab to push process your film but it will almost certainly increase the grain. Each stop it's pushed by will double the film speed, the max for most labs is normally 2 stops.
So Plus-x 100asa pushed by 1 stop you will need to expose the film as 200asa, pushed by 2 stops you would expose the film as though it's 400asa.
So if you got something like Kahl UP-24 200asa film pushed by two stops at the lab that would give you a film speed of 800asa!
I know nanolab.com.au will push process and Richard who runs it posts on this board so maybe he can help with the push processing option and let you know how far you can go with it.
Good luck,
Chris.