Light Film Noir Shots with a Projector and Adobe After Effects
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create the classic film noir light look... in an unconventional way.
Here's what I'll be using to bring this shot to life:
- Atmosphere Aerosol
- Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k
- Projector
- Adobe After Effects
- HDMI Cable
Step 1: Setup a Projector
For the first step, I’ll connect a projector to my computer. A projector puts out strong beams of light, which I can use in a variety of creative ways. Don't worry about using something incredibly expensive or huge. I have a little Apeman M4 pocket projector, which is very simple. It is battery operated, has a focus wheel and an HDMI port.
Step 2: Create Fake Blinds
To fake the blinds, I’ll create an image consisting of black and white horizontal bars. You can put these together however you’d like, but I’m using Adobe After Effects. This allows me to quickly control the width, opacity, brightness, and other aspects of my fake blinds. I'll use the pen tool to create a basic line shape with a white stroke, and then add a Repeater.
Step 3: Haze the Room
Now it’s time to shoot. I’ll set up my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, which is especially good at capturing images in low light with it's dual native ISO. I'll grab a can of haze (Atmospheric Aerosol) and spray the room. This will help bring out the strong light beams of the projector, making the shot much more visually interesting. Make sure you have good ventilation and follow all of the safety precautions when using any type of haze.
Step 4: Fine-Tune the Look
Again, since I created my fake blinds in Adobe After Effects, I have a number of different ways to adjust the look. I can add a blur to soften the lines up, make them thin via the stroke width, and even control the spacing and brightness. In addition to tweaking things in Adobe AE, I can also simply move the projector around and soften up the look via the focus wheel.
Step 5: Add a Person Moving Through the Shot
To up my production value, I’ll add the effect of people moving in front of the light. For this, I’ll grab the pen tool in Adobe After Effects and create a new black shape element. Then I'll animate it to move across the screen, and simply set playback to loop. To add some variation, I can duplicate and retime a number of similar shapes.
And there you have it, a cool film noir style shot with a simple setup. If you'd like to download my After Effects project file, go here. Have any other ways to create the style? Let us know in the comments below.
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