Shooting City skyline in the night

[Daniel]

Hey there,

I have one of the scenes in my short film that requires me to shoot a city skyline in the night. It is suppose to be an extreme long shot showing the whole city in the night. And I worry about getting it to look good on the film. Is there any way that can help to capture that beautiful scenery and those glittering lights? Exposure? Filters? Choice of Film?

Actually I'm planning to shoot it on Super 8 but I would think that 16mm might turn out better?

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Regards,
Daniel

[Cranium]

If you can get your hands on a Bauer c(2?) or a NIZO Pro, 801, 561 or 481, you can do a nice long exposure timelapse. If it's a stationary shot with no visible actors, this would probably work out fairly well for you.
What city?

[Daniel]

Thanks for the advice. I'm living in Los Angeles. The place I talked about where I can have a good city shot will be on top of the Griffith Park Observatory. Very nice and clear view...depending on the weather.

There will be no actors but I was thinking of panning the shot.

Thanks again.

regards,
Daniel

[paul]

why not test one super 8 film in the places you think will be critical??. Besides, sometimes you will be surprised how much a 40 asa film will record.
If you finish on video you could do a (slow) pan at 9 fps or so and slow teh movement down in post.

Paul