Night shoots & day-for-night

This is one of the, to me, is one of the more... It's an amazing sequence in terms of the light, because we shot this sequence in daylight. And Enrique Chediak used this technique, day-for-night, to... Especially because we needed to see the city absolutely switched off, which is completely impossible when you're dealing with a big city like London. So the only way that we can shoot this... - We also had a problem. A major problem was... you can't work with kids at night-time. That's true. So... But at the end, Enrique made an amazing job with the sequence using this technique, and... And we can do it, we can do this, especially, you know, because we needed, as I told before, to see this city absolutely with the lights off.

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And the atmosphere that this day-for-night has given to the movie is quite... scary. That was the main reason we hired Quique Chediak, one of the reasons. We also wanted, Juan Carlos and I, to do a film with day-for-night style. I don't know why, but DPs hate these things about day-for-night. Because in that case, it brings something very ghostly to the city, no? It's very weird, very strange, it's never the same thing as a real night, but in this film you're going to assist to something, that the city, the iconic city, is going to... to come alive, in a way, in a sense. It's like you have a big, big moon over you. There's some kind of fantasy about... A kind of twilight feeling, which is the perfect time to... And Quique said, "Yes, I can do it." He is really daring. He's a very daring person. And until the very, very last moment, we thought that we were wrong, Juan Carlos and I.

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Jane Petrie was the designer... and that was really difficult for her to work in day-for-night. You have to think about the colours, about the luminosity, the brightness of these... of these shots, no? When you shoot in day-for-night, you need to pay attention to costumes, because the technique implies that you need to reduce the light later on, so that's why you can't use, you know, specific colours, and you need to... you need to control these things. And makeup is very important. - Makeup is very important. Here, for example, we don't see Robert Carlyle's eyes, which is really nice. This first appearance of Carlyle, I think is really cool. It... This movie, in this sense, is a kind of chase. These kids are chased by their father now. And, you know, the run away, in terms of the structure, is clear now, because apart from the fact that the soldiers, the militaries, are trying to kill everybody, the infection and the infected are chasing them. Clearly, with the figure of this father infected, now the moment's more difficult in terms of emotion as well.

1:03:43 · jump to transcript →

So Jeffrey Kimball, he using a big club, a block of everything, and then use a special lighting, make it feel like it's daylight. So actually the shot was shot at night. We wasn't quite sure in the future we will keep the scene or not. We just shot it. But I got a feeling, I got a feeling we should have this scene. No matter what, no matter how much over, you know, we got to have this moment. It's very important for both of them. So I was insist to get this shot done.

1:54:18 · jump to transcript →

Jonathan Lynn

You know, I got this same car. Really? No. There you see the two houses together and see how perfect they are. And this night shoot was done at a horrifying speed.

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That's a set, right? - Yeah, it is. That's a location. - It's actually our house. It's the guest bedroom. It was cool. I thought that was really great there. That was a cool set... - That was the basketball place, right? The basketball court, yeah. - I had so much fun on that set. It had good karma, that set. - Didn't it? Wasn't it great? It was really fun. I was just pissed we couldn't actually play basketball, though. You did. - You played basketball everywhere... They had that stupid Huffy. That's not a basketball court. I wanted a basketball court. I went outside of town. Outside of town. Outside, like an hour and a half. Yeah, the bellhop in my hotel... I Kept walking out with a basketball. lt wasn't the basketball. Know why the bellhop liked you? lt was the short shorts. Those were not short. Those were basketball length. They were like... - They were not! He comes out in these, like, Richard Simmons shorts. Those were real basketball shorts. They look the cover of a Wheaties box. Maybe I wash them too much. Those are my favourite pair. They were good, stretched-out. Those were MJ basketball shorts, Michael Jordan's. He doesn't wear short shorts. - Well, you do. Well, okay. I'll have to get a new par. He took me outside of town to go play in this league. He kept driving me out into the country. Did he say there'd be puppies... I got scared. It was an hour and a half away. It was pretty amazing, though, that I got to play. I had a similar experience looking for a bikini wax. An hour out of town, there's a woman with this rusted bucket... ...and no teeth, wax in it. Who's that? - Who is that? That's Kevin. - Oh, greased. And he was just terrified. - Of what? Of having his shirt off. - Really? Yeah, he was-- He was.... You'd get cranky when people had their shirts off. One day, I had my top off. That was the day you were mean to me. Me? - Yeah. Wasn't that in the bathroom? - I was excited. What are you talking about? - You were cranky and punishing. That was for something else. That had nothing to do with your shirt off. Had to do with you taking a break when I was... ...three shots behind. - Please. lt was because you'd had me around for 17 hours. And my child was feeling like an orphan. Did we go over a lot? Like, did we... I can't remember. Did we have 15-hour days and stuff or not? We had-- It felt like it. I mean, we had a few of them. But it's not as bad when it's a night shoot. I don't know why. It doesn't feel... You're not waiting to get home to do anything. You know that when you're off... . It's dead. It's not like you're trying to go to the store. Speedy in the hood. - Yeah. I like it. You did like that hood. You wanted to keep it on. He's like me. If he could possibly be in a movie underneath a bag.... Yeah, I'd rather it. Desperate to get my hair in my face so no one can see me. The fact that you're showing both eyes is a miracle. A miracle, I know. I was glad I didn't have to wear this dress that was on the hanger. He's attractive, for a human. How can you tell I'm attractive? - It's that strong jaw. It is, I guess. It's the hood. You can tell.

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Andrew Niccol

drug-induced nightmare in Khayelitsha, which is the biggest and poorest township in South Africa. A lot of the white South African crew had never been there. We shot it using an old-fashioned day-for-night technique for cost, but also for creative reasons.

1:22:54 · jump to transcript →

James Mangold

of Russell and Christian and the train ticket master all below the level of the windows so that we can get a lot of the work done without having to see the world outside. Obviously, this is done in the day. This is the stuff I'm talking about that's shot at night with lights pouring in the windows. It ain't stubborn.

1:48:33 · jump to transcript →

There's nobody else that could deliver a line like that. Right. You think about it, you don't see him often with blood around the mouth. It's so great to have those moments. There's one moment where Bill is sipping blood on a cup. And that was really kind of like almost a request. "Wouldn't it be great if we see actually us--?" You know, sometimes you just out this aside... ...and work on the rest of the story, but it's so important. This was all day for night. Day for night, yeah. All the night stuff in the forest. One of those things that you're really nervous is not gonna work. But it did. Actually, I do like that look here. It's actually more natural. We all grew up watching these heavily lit night outdoor scenes. So you think that's what's normal. But this is actually what your eye would actually see in the dark. This is more close to the way it actually Is.

54:43 · jump to transcript →