Seems as though most movies I’ve seen show nighttime scenes outside with wet city streets. I’m hard pressed to find a movie where this is not the case. (Low budget excluded) I’m assuming they hose down the streets before the shoot but why? Do wet streets add more of a nighttime feeling? The thing that strikes me is that it could be sunny and clear in the day (movie time) and then it’s always wet at night. I’d like to live in that climate where the rain is on a strict schedule. At least then I could put my newly washed car in the garage before it rains.
#1 - Wet streets reflect lights, and give a better “feel.” The reflected light also allows you to see movements by the actors that would otherwise be hidden by darkness.
#2 - Street sweepers/washers often operate at night, leaving the streets wet for a period of time.
#1 above. Cinematographers think lights reflected in wet surfaces is pretty and interesting to look at. Certainly more visually stimulating than streetlights and no reflections. So if they have the money, they bust out the hoses.
(This is also the reason cinematographers go crazy with fog and atmospheric particulates, because it makes their beams of light visible. An older name for cinematographers — still used sometimes in the UK — is “lighting cameraman,” which may give you an idea of their preoccupations.)
Movies do lots of stuff because it’s visually interesting albeit implausible. Ever thought about how many movie grocery sacks have a long French loaf sticking out of the top, as a shorthand descriptor of what’s inside? How many times have you actually seen that in real life?
I remember a Mad Magazine spoof on detective shows. In one scene there was a workman in the background spraying the streets with water. The logo on the back of his shirt said that he worked for the “Making The Streets Look Like It Just Rained Company.”
Wet streets at night was a staple in 1950’s detective shows and dramas. I believe I vaguely remember them in some film noir movies from the forties as well.
Sorry, none whatsoever. I tried Googling it and came up empty, but I did find this site which is devoted to the magazine. It has a message board where you might be able to find the answer if you want to go to the trouble.
I never learned the coding thing, so I’ll just give you the long version :
I’ve lived in a movie studio city and have seen the streets being wetted down for several movies to provide enough light, by reflection, to film the action-a tried and true cinematic tool. The Third Man is an excellent example.
As for the French bread, I’ve seen plenty of them being carried, but it was in France, and most were attached to the rear rack of the bicycles or velomoteurs with bungee cords.
I recently saw a documentary about the making of The Third Man, on AMC I think, and they had the Vienna firemen come out to wet down the streets. At that time, they needed the light flaring off the water in order to successfully film the nighttime shots.
A few years ago, a really bad movie was made in Savannah. When I worked at the paper/chemical distributor, some the production people came in and bought several gallons of floor wax.
They were going to use it to make cars look wet because water would just run off and evaporate before they could shoot the scene.
Let me just add that in “The Mummy Returns” they slicked down the cobbles in a scene in which Rick O’Connell rescues his wife from the hands of a dreaded cult of ancient-egypt worshipers. The director didn’t let the fact that the scene was taking place in the basement of the British Museum stop him from plying the hoses.
(Trivia note: the DVD commentary mentioned that it’s the same set used at the climax of “Roger Rabbit.” The unique pattern on the cobblestones gives it away.)
pesch, thanks for the info. I had misremembered it as having come from one of the detective shows and probably Peter Gunn, but I had a feeling Gunn was off the air by the time period I remembered it from.
In the commentary on “Ronin”, the director (I think) mentions that he had the streets hosed down because he was afraid it would rain for real during their nights shooting the night exteriors, and then he’d be stuck for a day until they dried. That might also have made some paperwork hassles for getting extended permits (just a guess).
