Shooting Sunset for Sunrise?

[Ira Edelman]

Hi All!

Long time reader, first time poster.

A little background: I'll be shooting my Master's thesis film in about three weeks and one of the days is a big exterior steadicam day. Basically the scenes that will be shot are of a girl waking up in the middle of the night and wandering through a forest, and her again waking up at sunrise in same spot.

Now, my original plan was to shoot from around midnight until the sun came up, then wrap. BUT, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if I should fake the sunrise and shoot at sunset, so that we're not chasing nighttime. I was already planning on doing day-for-night, but my producer eventually talked me out of it. What are some of your ideas on filtration, white balance, or grading ideas for post for something like this? Am I over-thinking it?

Would love to hear what some other members here have to say about this. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Ira

 

[David Mullen ASC]

That's what I did for the opening "sunrise" sequence in "Astronaut Farmer", we shot backwards, the last set-up at dusk was the first one in the sequence:

Of course, it may not work if geographically you can tell west from east, like shooting on the coast.

 

[Mark Andersen]

I'm sure this is a common practice, I've done it several times. It's only tricky if you actually are looking at the sun with a long lens and such And the shot is long enough to see the movement of the sun. Then you not only may need to reverse the motion but might possibly need to flip the picture because in The northern hemisphere the sun moves camera right as it sets and left as it rises. Maybe this is too much info. Of course if you are just looking for early light then sunset for sunrise is pretty easy. David is right that you need to make sure it works geographically. Rivers, coasts, known mountain ranges etc. can give away your trick.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Considering how many movies aren't even shot anywhere near where they claim they're set or even on different continents from the subject matter I doubt anyone in the audience would notice. I wouldn't worry about it. Even when I'm in a different hemisphere I have to stop and consciously remind myself that the sun is in the north not the south. I'm sure if you're successful enough to make it onto IMDB someone will notice and put up a comment but that would probably be the "worst" thing that could happen.

 

[Ira Edelman]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

I've taken your advice and will be faking it. Thanks!

 

[Scott Crawley]

Did you cool this down in camera... post... both?

That's what I did for the opening "sunrise" sequence in "Astronaut Farmer", we shot backwards, the last set-up at dusk was the first one in the sequence:

Of course, it may not work if geographically you can tell west from east, like shooting on the coast.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

The color is close to the way it looked on the day -- we were in White Sands, NM and the white sands reflect the color of the sky quite a bit so can look blue-ish in twilight.

 

[Scott Crawley]

The color is close to the way it looked on the day -- we were in White Sands, NM and the white sands reflect the color of the sky quite a bit so can look blue-ish in twilight.

Nice... Magical

Thanks.