HOW TO SHOOT MUSIC VIDEO AT NIGHT
If you’re a solo filmmaker most of the time, like me, then shooting a music video at night could be a challenging thing to do especially when you’re working with small budgets. We have all watched hundreds of movies and TV shows that have made night scenes look stunning but also know that there’s probably at least pretty big crew working to light the scenes. But my focus for this video is filmmakers that want shoot night scenes for music videos but just need some tips and tricks on how to make their shots look better.
Before I jump into this topic, I wanted to gift you guys some free filmmaking assets that I have linked down below, so check that out.
I recently had a music video project land on my plate for an artist named Mokita. The song’s called “Down” and it’s somber, little slower, so I thought it’d be great to shoot it at night. I pitched a treatment and made a shot list, which I made video for so you should for sure check it out if you’re needing to make a shot list for your next video. But with shooting at night come many challenges. Main one being dark and having to find locations that work with your shots. Not having access to power if you’re shooting an outdoor scene. Being tied down to having to set up lights and not having much help. Also shooting in sketchy places like an alleyway in downtown Nashville where you see a guy walk down with an AR15 in one hand and having your life flash before you eyes. Yes, this actually happened. While we were shooting this scene, this guy started walking down holding an automatic rifle. I don’t know what he was thinking or what he was doing, but we QUICKLY packed up everything hopped in the car and got the hell of out of that place. ANYWAY, I’m glad we made out of that safe and nothing happened.
With all that said, here are my 5 tips to help you shoot better night scenes for your next music video:
#1 - Find natural light sources
Yes, this is very obvious tip but it’s overlooked a lot times. There’s a few options when you’re shooting a night scene when you don’t have any lights to work with. You can shoot under street lights where you get the super tungsteny look from the bulbs or find some store where they’ve got some neons lights coming from their open/closed signs. Another option is parking garages where you find more daylight bulbs being used. And another option would be to bring your own power and use it power your lights. For this video, I used a combination of different setups. In the alleyway scene, I used my own LED strip lights to throw some red light on the artist and this huge tungsten light from the entrance of the parking garage. And then we had a ton of daylight lights happening in the background, so I just love how all these lights were able to clash together and make a beautiful frame. With finding the perfect lights source comes location scouting. Scouting is something you should do for every shoot, especially if you’re doing night scenes because you wanna be aware of car traffic, foot traffic, if it’s “legal” or safe to shoot there.
#2 - Set the right exposure
Let’s go back to the basic. Shutter, aperture, and ISO.
Your shutter should be to set to whatever frame rate you’re shooting in. Quick rule of thumb is to set your shutter to double whatever frame rate you’re shooting in. If you’re shooting in 24fps, it should be 1/48, if it’s 60fps, then 1/120 and so on.
Using a wide aperture will naturally let more light in through your lens and help expose the image better. The smaller the number is the brighter your image is going to be. For example shooting at f/8 is going to be drastically different than shooting at f/1.8. If your shutter and aperture are set to bare minimum settings such as 24fps at 1.8, then your last option is to change your ISO. ISO digitally brighten your image but this should be the last thing to tweak when lighting a scene because the higher your ISO becomes the more noise you’re going to see in your image. Shooting in high ISO means that you camera sensor becomes sensitive to any source of light.
#3 - Bring external batteries
This is something that I started doing more recently with shooting in the great outdoors. I have this device that’s called a D-Tap to AC power supply, and it basically takes any battery that a has D-tap like v-mount or gold mount batteries and can power your lights, cameras, laptops, and your other devices. This came handy because I had a few scenes where I needed a power light but had no access to any outlets. Your still limited to the amount of power each of these batteries carry, but one battery give me 10-15 minutes of power which could mean doing 3-4 full takes of a song. This means that you don’t have rent a generator and figure out how to use it. You can just a couple of external batteries for $30/day each and be set!
#4 - Lens filters and haze
These two items aren’t necessarily crucial to having a successful video but they definitely add another layer of stylized images to your final product. Having a lens filter like a star filter or pro-mist filter hep you cope with some of the harsh looking images you’re getting from shooting under street lights that aren’t always appealing. The filters just added a stylized look on top of your footage and it’s an affordable way of making things look cooler when you have limited resources.
#5 - Get help
If you’re shooting in busy locations, it’s best to have an assistant or two that can help you with the set ups and to get the shots done quicker. For this alleyway scene we had cars constantly coming down the alley. So we’d have to pull the car out, let the other cars pass, and back it up, reset, and shoot. When you have help, the shooting can go by much quicker. For this other scene, where we shot at a lake here in Nashville, I needed someone to hold lights and run playback. Another benefit of having an assistant is just a safety issue. People tend to bother you less if there’s more people on crew because it’s more intimidating to approach you and annoy when you’re in the middle of shooting a scene. Depending on what specifically you need help with on the night of the shoot, you can pay someone anywhere between $300-$600 helping you gaff, hold or operate camera, or keep an eye on your equipment.
As a filmmaker, you just have to get creative with what you’re given. There’s never enough time or money or lights, so you may as well get creative with what you’re given. Do you have any tips or tricks you like to use when you’re shooting at night? Comment below. I’d love to hear from you. As always thanks for watching. Make sure to grab these free assets and I’ll see you guys soon. Peace!