Shooting a scene in the rain can be annoying and dangerous. Much better to film under the sun and then add the rain in post-production with Kdenlive. Using a couple of tricks we can get a realistic result.
One of the situations that one can find oneself having to stage is the rain: a dramatic scene can be helped a lot, in one’s performance, by the presence of the rain. It is a situation that induces a sense of sadness or tension in the audience, and can help us tell a story. Of course, filming a scene in the rain can be more complicated than it seems at first glance. In fact, there are a number of technical problems: to begin with, you risk wetting the video camera, damaging it. Even a camera with underwater housing would not be immune to drops of water on the lens, which obviously ruin the image. In addition, a condensation coating may also form. Then there are problems for the whole crew: the director will have difficulty controlling the camera, while the actors will risk pneumonia by being completely drenched in the rain for a long time. Lightning strikes can be a serious risk for everyone. The best thing to do, therefore, is to fake the rain using a couple of visual effects that we can achieve with Kdenlive. This means that we can achieve our recovery on a sunny day, with all the necessary calm. To make the effect well we need some effect “in the room”: in particular, the actor present in our shot must obviously be wet, otherwise the final movie will not make sense (anyone would notice that the rain is not wetting the actor). This will not be a problem, however: if we are filming in the sun, it will certainly be a bit hot, so the actor will be at best happy with a refreshing shower. In general, it is not necessary to wet the rest of the scene as well, the attention of the audience is still directed to the actor. The rain will then be added in overlay with Kdenlive simply by taking it from a repertoire video clip. Where to find the rain clips? On the web there are several. For the cost of 1 dollar you can get to this address https://gum.co/BPxh (the The online viewer does not work, but the package is downloadable) two videos of rain from far and near at low resolution. Low resolution shouldn’t be a problem, since the rain must always be a little blurry anyway, otherwise it seems fake. If you want high resolution videos, they can be found on the website https://www.detfilmshd.com/G_Collections_Rain_01.html . In t in all cases, however, rain is always provided on a black background, which we can easily make disappear with the overlap mode Screen in Kdenlive. Alternatively, you can also film the rain yourself: you need to find a fairly isolated area at night, like a large agricultural field, so as not to have clearly visible objects such as buildings, lampposts, or trees. Then just get a radial watering can and light the water with a backlight, to make it more visible. In this way we should get a completely black background with fake rain that glitters in front of the camera thanks to the light that passes through the water that we pour from the watering can. As always, you can see the example video at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzEp2DVXSTw
How to light up a rainy day
To make the effect well, correct lighting is required. When it rains the clouds cover the sky making the sunlight very diffused. We can simulate this by canceling out the shadows on the actor: first of all, it is good that the actor is lit from behind by the Sun, then we can use a reflective panel (aluminum foil) to bounce the light off his face. The best way to give the idea that the actor is soaked with water is to dip his shirt in a basin and then wring it out, so that it is only wet. Then the actor can wet his face as if to wash it, without obviously drying out, a few moments before starting shooting, so during the recording there will still be drops of water dripping from the actor’s face. Using the reflective panel to make these drops of water sparkle adds considerable realism to the scene.
Prepare the rain clip
DetonationFilms clips have a logo which we must delete
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We overlap the rain
We place the rain clip over the actor, to obtain a simple overlap
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A little bit of clouds
We replace the sky by adding storm clouds
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Treat the overlay
We check the light and the edge of the tracks to have a homogeneous image
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