The Last Exit – Lighting a Greenscreen Car Scene

I was the Gaffer on a short film called The Last Exit, which had a pretty ambitious production. The entire film was shot on a greenscreen, and most of the scenes involved simulating cars driving at night inside of a studio. It was definitely a challenge from a lighting standpoint, but also one of the more exciting projects I’ve worked on. We lit some really impressive setups on this shoot. You can see some behind-the-scenes photos at the bottom of this post.

The main characters in the film drive a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, and that car was a key visual element throughout the story. Since the whole film takes place at night, the main light source we used was a large 12x12 frame that acted as moonlight. We lit it using six Aputure 300Ds aimed into the frame. On one of the shoot days, we even had it rigged up above the cars.

Lighting vehicles can be tricky because of the way light reflects off the metal and glass surfaces. Getting the right angles and intensity is critical to make sure the lighting feels realistic but still looks cinematic.

Making it seem like the car was moving was another big part of the job. We had a couple of grips behind the car, gently pushing it up and down to simulate movement. Then I coordinated the rest of the team to move lights across the set, recreating streetlights, passing headlights, and the glow of storefronts. Everything was controlled through an iPad, where I adjusted the color and brightness of each light in real time. That allowed us to create dynamic lighting effects that sold the illusion of motion.

The shoot lasted five days and required a lot of teamwork. I had a full team of grip and electric working with me, and we put in a lot of effort to pull off some really creative lighting setups. I’m really looking forward to seeing the final film.

12x12 lit up by 6 Aputure 300Ds

Director and DP watching monitor playback during greenscreen shoot