Film Noir Cinematography on a Budget

Using one light and some household objects for a classic film look - noir style.
Host and Creator - Simon Cade
Graded with FilmConvert - 10% off: bit.ly/2HGEzB0
(I earn a commission from purchases ^^)
Gear I film with: kit.co/DSLRgui...
WEBSITE: dslrguide.tv
TWITTER: / dslrguidance
INSTAGRAM: / cadevisuals
ALL EQUIPMENT: dslrguide.tv/my...
CONTACT: [e-mail]

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

Detective baby face Mc Grew on the case.

[@DSLRguide]

+Dragon Skunk haha

[@bebopfilms6607]

Never seen lighting for film noir explained in such clear and concise detail :) Well done, really hope we get to see more of your films in the future :)

[@lewisjones1952]

You just go through apples like they have no feelings man

[@LhizJordn]

The doctor must be in Australia right now....

[@buzzedlunne6668]

hahaha

[@aidanmorrison1541]

All I can say is that you're going places.

[@theblukatlife]

Yes he needs to go to Mexico idk why but he needs to go to Mexico and he knows it. Tell him that

[@ArcticxBeaver]

has anyone else been waiting all day for this? :p

[@joshuaruddiforth2921]

Me!

[@benholmes1323]

Me!!!!!!

[@crowdermedia3901]

This is great! One detail to consider in film noir is always intense hair lights highlighting the brim of those fedora. That's the only thing I would add!

[@jaydee_draws3504]

Hey simon, can you do a tutorial on how you film and edit dialogue scenes?

[@louisowald815]

There is a video about it :) already

[@jaydee_draws3504]

What's the title? :D

[@DSLRguide]

+TheCrazySpeedpainter kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYWXqpyeYtudiMU

[@jaydee_draws3504]

I mean, filming dialogue, like your preferred lens, angles, etc.

[@foreverfilmsskits5438]

I love how you ever a lot of practical filmmaking tips, but still have a little effects and the less common stuff! :)

[@BenjaminQuinlan]

Awesome problem solving! Looks great!

[@TD0816]

Damn all these negative and over critical comments, I just want to say all your videos are super helpful and easy to understand for beginners because you speak clearly and calmly and always have good examples for the thing you're talking about. I'm so glad I found your channel. Keep up the good work!

[@DSLRguide]

+Thomas Abel thanks Thomas - this is really encouraging to hear :)

[@JerryRevolution]

Dude I have been watching your videos non stop for almost the past two days. I'm half way through your videos. Great job.

[@DSLRguide]

+Jerry and Malia haha that's crazy! thanks for watching :)

[@emmanuelotiotio5042]

Wish you did the entire video in the film noir style!

[@alinahernandez4580]

EO Jr you know which noir short was on a budget, "Not Quite" - kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJzKkqylg6arZtU

[@raregamer7162]

Awesome, I been wanting to try and do some film noir test shooting.

[@evandraperdigital]

Loving these lighting videos. I'm trying to focus on lighting a lot more, and these are really helpful!

[@strqfedoesthings683]

Im binge watching you dude your tutorials are so great and your voice is absolutely amazing and calming keep it up

[@DSLRguide]

haha thank you!

[@strqfedoesthings683]

DSLRguide no thank you.. You really have inspired me a lot I hope you know you have the same effect on other people

[@victorh.c.g.3808]

Thanks for accepting my suggestion Simon!

[@sjokolademonsteret]

Thank you! :D I have learned at least as much of film making from you as i have from school! (medi (highschool))

[@WynsumProductions]

Great video. Shows how simple it is to create any effect you want, given thought and time. I've never really bothered examining the frame this way- now I will.

[@TomAndersondop]

I like how you added grain to the images to make them come alive more.

[@ThorForShort]

Thank you so much for all of your videos!!! I just finished a one year apprenticeship in videography but your channel has taught me more about film making in 1 hour!

[@DSLRguide]

+TheMightyTheodore haha i'm glad it's been helpful :)

[@ThorForShort]

10000000%!!! All your videos teach really cool, useful and most importantly fun techniques in such a quick and clear way. They reminded me why I wanted to start making films in the first place. Please keep up the phenomenal work my good sir! :D

[@mjfilmmaker]

I only missed the 20's smoke. That would have rock it!

[@WilliamStoneman]

It was great seeing the trial&error approach you used - nice job!

[@AlejandraEngelhardt]

Painting With Light by John Alton. It´s a great book and it´s available online. He was the DP in many film noir movies from Hollywood´s golden age and he talks about tricks to achieve certain effects with a low budget (eg. a mirror, cardboard cut outs, etc). Some parts are out dated, but they are still very interesting.

[@huko827]

I have Been watching so much dslrguide, when i am doing problem solving your voice pops up and start talking about the problem and solutions 😂

[@thedailymilk2240]

This episode was fun to watch. I love this style of story telling.

[@worldchangeryee]

Your videos are great! Thanks for the help.

[@jrgen5416]

I am a kid from Norway . Simon you are my idol. I want to be a filmmaker just like you:)

[@filmnewsreport3231]

Those jazzy tunes in the background tho

[@mateuszkubala1800]

i love this movie, more like this please

[@BarefootMediaTV]

looks good. You should have also showed how a cookie or blinds can give the fake window look either behind you or on your face (as if a street lamp is going through the fake window in front of you)

[@DSLRguide]

+PeglegMedia we talked about that in this episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIPEd36AnZ6apdk

[@ManuelHefti]

Hey Simon, I really love your tutorialsabout film making! They help me a lot to understand the materia and contains tons of tipps and tricks one really can come further with. Great work, thank you very much and keep on doing. Only one thing in the Film Noire setup which was a bit confusing me, the energy saving bulb might not have been existing in the early times of film making ;) However, it's a tutorial to show how to do and a slight turn of the lamp might have been solved the problem by just moving what not should be shown into invisibility.

[@KaanGonel]

Great video. Very inspirational. I am a street shooter but I got great ideas from you and will definitely try them out ASAP. Thanks

[@jeenaparadies]

So the light is supposed to come from the desk lamp but the shadow by the nose says it's comming from quite high above. I think I'd either put that light way down at the level of the lamp, or to the other side, mimicing a lamp at the cealing.

[@robinaelias]

I just love this cinematic style, top notch video !

[@spider1g5]

That's it? So simple, very good video

[@benaaronmusic]

Cigarettes. You need lots of smoke and cigarettes. :) HA. Great video, Simon. Thank you for sharing this.

[@AMDay-xj7rb]

Great job! I truly enjoy your tips and tutorials.

[@FilmVlogs]

Hey Simon, my friend did a recent film noir short who became the detective as a protagonist finding the antagonist, the mob boss. I did it as a video reference for my 3D animation.

[@Apratim88]

Simon, Great video, again ! A few questions with this one: 1. In the final set-up isn't the huge shadow toward the right too distracting ? Can there not be any way to set the light up without creating that shadow yet at the same time maintaining the rest ? 2. There is quite some noise in your scene. Was it naturally from the camera or did you put it in ? If the former, then how would you go about removing it ? 3. The second lamp has a CFL whose design is more 1980-1990s while noir is more 50-60s isn't it ? That lamp looks out of place unless you get a much more 60s looking bulb or CFL. Your thoughts ?

[@DSLRguide]

+Apratim Majumder Thanks! 1. Film Noir often uses big shadows on the background, it's not necessarily a bad thing... Also, the final setup is at 4:13 - i'm not seeing a huge shadow there 2. I added film grain in post, out of the camera it was clean, ISO 100. 3. Fair enough - I was trying to do this with things I could find in the house, so I'm sure there are many things that are historically inaccurate :)

[@Apratim88]

+DSLRguide Thanks for the responses. You are most helpful. I tend to get a lot of noise when trying to shoot at low light (similar to the light set-up you have here). Mine is a Nikon D5300. Yours is a t3i - right ? So I'm guessing the LED 100D is a pretty good light source since it is allowing you to film noise-free at ISO 100. I use 60W CFLs as cheaper options but I have to bump up my ISO close to 1000 or suffer from noise. Other that the light fixtures I wonder if I'm doing anything wrong. Any suggestions would be very helpful.

[@stevet4133]

Sweet music in this one

[@wallo8786]

I thought this is about film scoring. but I found a lot of cool stuff. great work.

[@fundifferent1]

now whenever I want to know the cheap way all the video results on youtube are the expensive normal ways. When I want to look up the normal way I get all the videos showing the shoestring budget method. I just want to know how it's actually done

[@CensorMental]

I've watched this video one hundred times

[@shivekgupta6102]

Just wanted to know how you could use both the shotgun and lapel mic together for one project.And if you're using both which one to connect to the zoom recorder?

[@jusky9402]

Great video, thanks! As sample you can see also short film - The Bloody Olive by Vincent Bal. Good noir video with good lightening in old cinema style! And with good humour of course!)))

[@antonarenko3242]

Really good stuff Simon! Wish I'd had this last year when I made my film noir for college :)

[@HNN16]

I really like that light.. where can one get it? I can't seem to find it online here in the US. Anything suggestions on a similar product?

[@DSLRguide]

+HNN16 hmm I think they only sell them in the UK... similar lights would be the Alzo 3000, and I believe Aputure are coming out with something very soon

[@32lilbruce]

dude, love your videos! awesome tips as always!

[@spencerfraye1780]

Simon, can you do a video on film permits/ finding locations?

[@DSLRguide]

+Spencer Fraye hmm not sure I could do a whole video on that.. I did mention it in this ep if you haven't seen it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6atfoyEprOsbdU

[@loewesandberg5033]

Beautiful work!

[@sebarnold3621]

your videos are so helpful

[@Kradukman]

Really good episode and the music is great :)

[@SocietateaAscendenta]

GREAT. GREAT. GREAT!

[@StephenIsTrying]

Another good video but I can't wait until you finish your short film BTS series!

[@sammymarrco2]

Great video keep em up!! 👍🏼

[@omegaphysiolagist]

your content is fantastic

[@memesouls8653]

To me it’s much easier to shoot in black and white simply because there is no need to worry about color in frame. Not having the right set design can lead to a lot of the shots within a film to look bland or unstylistic. Having everything is black and white allows the director/DP to get the audiences’ focus to shift towards the composition of a shot rather than just the color. Greater emphasis is put behind every object in focus and the black contrasting against the white/gray really gives more depth to everything.

[@robert3333]

Very interesting video, fascinating how you can change the vibe by simply exchanging some stuff on the desk! I have a big problem, I want to make movies but I don't know what I should make a movie about. I already wrote several scripts but I just didn't like them at all, do you have any tips on how to start? :)

[@DSLRguide]

+Mr0strich thanks! I think the best way to start is to just go for it. Don't worry if you don't like the script, just give yourself a deadline (a few months at most) and just make something. You probably won't think it's very good, but that's gives you plenty to improve on next time!

[@YousifFreestyle]

Hey Simon, I really enjoy your videos, I would like to know if you could make a video about how you use magic lantern. It would be very helpful to me because most of the settings in magic lantern are quite overwhelming.

[@DSLRguide]

+Yousif Freestyle I made this video a few years ago - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaKmiYB3h7aai5o hope that helps. also try their website, they have lots of information about how to use their stuff

[@YousifFreestyle]

+DSLRguide Thanks Simon, your videos have changed so much since then, it's crazy!! Keep up the good work! :)

[@joshuaruddiforth2921]

Love this Simon.

[@benji4935]

motivated to make a noir style film now haha

[@jacksonhayat2151]

Could you do an episode on how you graded this?

[@prosincr]

That Apple already had a bite in it.

[@TalesOfWar]

+Dilip Tien Maybe he had to do another take, or he ran out lol.

[@buzzedlunne6668]

Apples are expensive these days, trust me

[@buzzedlunne6668]

Hey Si, this is gon be totally random I know, but please can you share how u animated or came about that rugged paper sketch at 1:33 ..i'm counting on you :)

[@danielirambona]

Nice Video Man!

[@jyotiradityaadhikari3857]

The last method won't work as there is a slice of shadow on the left..so when you turn your face it would cut to half by the sharp shadow of the foil!

[@staytunedguitars]

Bravo my friend. I'm curious about what the benefits may be when shooting in color while filming your noir style, and setting it to monochrome in post. Keep up the good work!

[@DSLRguide]

+staytunedguitars first of all it means you can change your mind if you no longer want it to be in B&W. But also, you can mess around with tinting the image to different colors, which can accentuate different parts of the image after you've reduced the saturation.. try it out - tint the colours and then desaturate :)

[@foxb5974]

Black and white is great for beginners

[@danielchappe6600]

Ah you did it! Thanks so much! This will help me A LOT!, Appreciate it!

[@DroidTweaker]

The apple comes in at the end, after the intro :)

[@8o8inSquares]

Sick, I like those types of videos. Could you do the same with explaining the lighting a night scene inside of the house (where people would think that there are no lights at all because it's night, and the main character wanted to walk around the house in the dark)

[@DSLRguide]

+8o8inSquares I've tried this a few times, and I honestly think it's one of the most difficult types of lighting to do! It's a great challenge, will definitely try it one day :)

[@8o8inSquares]

DSLRguide Ok great, will wait for that one! From my own experience, I bring down the shutter speed to very low, and lower the saturation (the less light there is, the less colors there are) and light the scene with blue lights to create the effect like it's coming from the moon from the window. Low shutter speed should decrease the gamma of the scene yet still it should be pretty detailed. But that's just my experiments

[@WisdomPowerCourage]

Simon, do you know of any DIY alternatives for making your own lights if you dont live in U.S.A? I've seen a lot of tutorials from U.S.A where they use a type of well suited clamp lights, which I cant get a hold of (I live in Norway). I've gotten the impression that you cannot get a hold of this in England either, so I was wondering if you might know about any alternatives for us Europeans? :)

[@DSLRguide]

+JoTube that's true - I can't find clamp lights. Try searching for 'fluorescent soft box filmmaking' on a shopping website. They are usually some very very cheap options that are a great place to start. Not DIY but still cheap

[@TonyBabarino]

WHAT?? where's the "crunch" of the apple Simon??? PS: Did you all catch the VERY end of the clip where he comes back to place the apple on the desk? (Last few seconds of the video, post-credits). :) Good one @DSLRguide !

[@fb1119]

Loved that Apple at the end:)

[@messyheads929]

Brilliant

[@maxkaplan5465]

Simon, I must admit I haven't been up to date with your videos. But this one struck my eye since noir is my favorite genre (well, it's not really a defined genre but whatever). I must say you've done an amazing job explaining how the whole lighting process worked for this scene! I feel like I've really learned a lot. I would like to know how you would light a neo-noir scene though. Basically a color noir scene. Like Rian Johnson's "Brick", or The Coen's "Blood Simple".

[@yatta842]

Can you please do a tutorial on how to eat an apple?

[@casir.7407]

strangely in time for the preproduction of a noir-style short film im developing. thank you so much!!!!

[@AlessandroTodisco]

You're trying to set the light like the source is the lamp.. but if you look carefully the subject it has shadows under the hat on the forehead

[@danielec420]

You are a genius

[@j0dgers]

I don't know what it is, but I really enjoy the feel of Film Noirs and Noir-ish games

[@canadude6401]

Anton might suggest to move the shot to show less table and more character

[@wildcard749]

Simon cade, hard boiled bad ass lol

[@fong07]

Interesting!

[@nickimarrocco]

What genre of film would you want to direct/make?

[@DSLRguide]

+KrnxMan86 tough question. 'genre' is more of a marketing term, but I suppose what I want to make would be classed as 'Social-Realism'. maybe. I don't really know.

[@JoeArant]

A honeycomb grid will fix all of your lighting problems described in this video for film noir, and there are good DIY tutorials online to make one on the cheap.

[@scottipippen]

this was so cute .... u the man

[@sirzavier]

Cool

[@Awrange]

Hey I was thinking about getting one of the PixPro lights. Do you like them and how noisy are they? Keep up the good work

[@SirSpeirsy]

No crunch of the apple. Let down =P

[@l4mb021]

Hey Simon, I'm tackling my first "big" short film. Any tips?

[@DSLRguide]

+S'morez think story, think characters, collaborate with people, and treat them well. try to have fun with it, and make sure you finish it, no matter what! whatever happens, you will learn a lot

[@l4mb021]

+DSLRguide Thanks! :)

[@johnedwinspencer4438]

Where's that apple crunch!?

[@ksacam]

انت رائع you r Great

[@dannuttle9005]

When I saw the reflection, my first thought was, duh, put something up to stop the reflection. Obviously, I am a master cinematographer. Do...do you send me the certificate, or do I go somewhere...?

[@cameron8772]

Hey Simon, do you ever know what happened to the band Glue that did a live session for?

[@cameron8772]

+Cameron Ogilvie btw you should do a top movies list that inspire you.

[@DSLRguide]

+Cameron Ogilvie they've kind of been put on hold as most of them are studying in different cities now... also - thinking of doing an episode about things that inspire me soon, great suggestion!

[@greg5411]

3:24 You better watch out, that man will mess you up.

[@leroybrown7870]

What camera did you use for the black and white?

[@1mollymom]

Hi, Simon! New to you (and subbed). How do you light yourself in these tutorial videos? Really nice, just the right amount of contrast without being too hard.

[@DSLRguide]

+1mollymom two LED panels going through a two large diffusion panels (4' by 4') spaced out by about a foot :)

[@1mollymom]

Thanks so much!

[@AJwiththeAK]

Film noir is meant to be a kind of low budget shooting style so its perfect

[@xPastaBake]

Hey man, what uni are you going to this September?? Would be nuts if we ended up in the same place, providing that you're studying film production

[@DSLRguide]

+Matt Eastwood TV not going to uni, going to try doing my own thing :)

[@xPastaBake]

ah fair enough bro, love your content!