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For my little project i will shoot (for practical reasons but also to shoot the scene almost entirely with natural light) two angles of the same scene in two different locations, that should represent 2 different walls of the same room (i considered every possible alternative, green screen included, but this is the only option that preserve the natural light in both shots). They both face (more or less) north and the direct sun won’t be visibile. I’ll shoot them one after the other so i hope the natural light won’t change a lot in a little time. By matching set decorations and planning the camera movements i should be able to make them look like two angles of the same room. The focal lenght and the aperture will be the same. Am i missing something? Any tips to make this thing easier will be greatly appreciated!
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Yes, it’s a dialogue scene but the main problem is that i can’t combine shot and reverse shot in the same location. And, above all, in the first one i don’t have a window i can use to give a motivation to the light, while in the second one i don’t have the element of the set i need to tell the story. I thought about creating the second part of the scene (the window one) with a 3D background and a green screen, but i’d like to use a real window and a real set, i’m afraid to achieve a fake looking effect with the green screen (apart from the complication of using that).
If I may chime in, it feels like we would need more context to really weigh in on this. A few thoughts though in case it helps anyways. You mention they are both facing north, so if you are trying to use two locations to cut this dialogue scene then that wont have lighting continuity. If they are supposed to be facing each other talking, then one would face north and the other south,etc (but again maybe I need more context).
You could also consider only shooting into one corner of the room that has all the elements you want, with a 2 shot of both characters to establish they are together. Maybe don’t even go into close ups and keep the 2 shot. Or punch in really tight on each close-up, like just the eyes while they speak. That could be stylized.
You could also make it so that they are having a conversation on the phone. Then you can have 2 locations and not fight them to feel like the same room. Also a natural light shoot, indoors with no window sounds like a tough task!
Just throwing some ideas to think about, without having context of your story
Anyway, in the given context, lighting from zero could be better for continuity, as there is no window available in both locations. You could light the characters in a way that implies a window exists in the room, even if it remains unseen. This way, you can establish the angle of the light and match it between shots.
But I’m just suggesting, I don’t know about the story or context!As long as shadow direction and falloff are approximately consistent, audience shouldn’t notice anything. Slight color temp variations are dealt with in post anyways.
One thing to consider is audio if there is a dialogue. The impulse response needs to be the same, or very close.
If audio does not match it will throw off the audience more than slight visual differences. Vice versa, if it sounds like recorded in one room, it will magically glue both shots together.
Are you overthinking this. Plenty of times I have shot on location and made a scene out of two different locations. There is one in Hail Caesar! And I’m not telling you which one. An interior, with no problem with sunlight, should be quite straightforward. Same lens, same camera height, same soft side light and you are set.
Thanks to everybody for your tips!
To clarify, as Roger guessed i’m perhaps overthinking about that, since while the two walls are in two different rooms, they actually are rotated of 90° and they belong to the same building, so it shouldn’t be a great issue to match the two shots and make them look two sides of the same room (summin up, in one room i have a library i’d like to use as a background but i can’t use its window, while in the other room i have a nice window but no library…) . I’m a bit sorry i won’t be free to move the camera from a side to the other but as long as i can use natural light i’m happy. And i think a static camera could be useful to create a bit of tension, given it’s an horror story.
Thanks for the tip about the audio, Stip! i was not thinking about that, but you are right, audio will help in creating the matching!
And now let’s go and find that shot in Hail Caesar, ah ah!
Just curious why you feel you need to shoot entirely in natural light . Isn’t that a kind of artificial restriction to place on yourself especially when trying to match 2 completely different environments.
Partly for a technical problem: i created a little set in my garage but it has no window. And i have a room with a big window. I would like to show the characters against the window but the only other option i have Is using a green screen and faking It in 3D, as i did for other set extension, but it gets more complicated than matching 2 locations shot. And above all, i was looking at the (so called) set with the garage door wide opened and just the natural light. It was beautiful, calm and (of course) natural. No point in trying to fake what nature gave me yet. So i tried to figure what Roger would do in such a situation, and my answer was that i needed to find a window somewhere to use that natural light. Perhaps i’m completely wrong but it’s not easy to try to think like Roger, ah ah! (But it’s the best way to try to learn from him, to me, not just copying what he did but trying to guess what he would do) .
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