Shooting in fog. Have you done it?

[Matt Pacini]

Hi.
I'm going to be shooting a scene in the fog. (Hopefully, anyway, if I can predict the weather).
Not like pea soup, can't tell what the hell is going on 10 feet away fog, but you know, actual real fog, outdoors, very overcast day (if you can even see the sky).

Have any of you actually done this?
Also, I'm shooting on Kodachrome, and since light levels will be so low, I won't be using the 85 filter.
I'm thinking of taking a car battery along, and using my 1 million candlepower DC light bounced off foamcore for a little fill light on the actors.

Any hints?
I'm hoping it will look cool, but I'm also worried as hell, since it will be pretty much 1.0 - 1.8 f-stop going on.
The Nizo 6080 has a 220 shutter, so that should get me an extra 1/2 stop or so, but still, this is WAY down there at the bottom of the cameras & film's capability.

Should be interesting, to say the least.
I'll be transferring the footage using the WorkprinterIII, so when it's done, I'll give everyone links to the images.

Matt Pacini

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[tim.callaghan]

Matt,

Not the same but I went out shooting stills on a foggy day a couple of weeks ago. I think fog is really cool and I love the feel that gives to any picture.

OK I was shooting with 100speed film at about 1/30, f3.5 - f 5.6. Anyway, what I found with my results was that the fog was nicely illuminated but any subjects were very under exposed. This is what I was trying to achieve so fine, but your mention of a fill light for your actors will pick em right out and make it look real cool. Be careful about your location though as small background/non-descript objects will be confusing, try to use large distinguishable objects, like a house, car, tower.

The shots I did were done from at the base underneath a 50ft bridge (perfect for fog as near water too) slightly to the side shooting down the side and under belly. Fog was about 40/50ft visibility. Because the bridge was such a large object it disappeared into the fog gradually tapering out. It was just silohetted with tiny amounts of detail, but looked shit hot.

I plan to use as a location for scene in my production in the future, but I may have trouble guessing the weather being in good old England.

Anyway, have fun

Tim

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[MovieStuff]

Hi, Matt!

Your biggest problem is going to be moisture since the fog will make the himidity level at a zillion percent. I would seriously take a pastic bag and put around the camera with a hole cut in it and a rubber band around the lens to seal it up. I've shot in fog quite a bit and it's basically like dunking your gear underwater. Everything gets soaked. Be careful of film sticking in the camera.

Roger

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff
http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[Nigel]

I have shot in fog but not when it has been overcast. It was a winter shoot next to a river. So the water was the source of fog. It was sunny and we shot as we would normally in outdoor conditions. It looked great.

Good Luck

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[Matt Pacini]

Thanks for all the great advice.
I'll be shooting in the woods, pretty close by the river, and all that will be seen is my actors, and the wooded area.
Actually, I'm hoping to NOT be able to see much, but in reality, I doubt it's going to be THAT foggy.
I'll take what I get.
My fear is that it will burn off as I'm in the middle of my shoot!


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[Ronson]

Matt: "My fear is that it will burn off as I'm in the middle of my shoot!"

Well, there's always dry ice...

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[Matt Pacini]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ronson:
[B]Matt: "My fear is that it will burn off as I'm in the middle of my shoot!"

Well, there's always dry ice...

(Matt Pacini responds):
Yeah, well I don't have like 14 tons of the stuff!
Like I said, I'm shooting outdoors in the forest, not in a kitchen, so the whole area needs to be fogged.
It would take truckloads of dry ice to accomplish that!
I have a fog machine, but again, it's not the size of a building, and it would have to be for this area!

Matt Pacini


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[Levi]

Maybe you could use smoke bombs. They're cheap and put out alot of smoke.

-LevI

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[Matt Pacini]

Yeah, if you're shooting day is about 2 minutes, that would be great.
But I'm shooting all day, so even if I could afford five hundred pounds of smoke bombs, and set them off all day long, this is in the mountains, but only a couple miles from a town.
The rangers and cops and fire engines would be there in no time and ruin everything!

Hey, wait a minute!
Maybe I can write that into the story somehow, and get free cops, firemen and rangers in my film!
yeah!
(just kidding, but if it made sense in the story, I'd do it in a second!)

Matt Pacini

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