Ok, here's what I was wondering. Bear in mind I have no experience or knowledge when it comes to lightnig in films.

Say a scene involved two people talking at night. Well my camera is pretty bad. It would not be able to see a thing. So youd use lights to light up the scene. But then wouldn't that through away the illusion of night time? How would I film this?

Simple....

I did this for my friend in our recent school project..

Take 3 or 4 Leviton fluorescent lights from wal-mart (about $5 or $6 each) and tape them to a pole or a boom stand if you have one. make sure your white balance is recongnizing a blueish hue and not orange. If you watch most movies that have night shots, they're not nearly as dark as night is.

hope this helps.

- C. Davis
YELLOW HAMMER PRODUCTIONS

Yeah, that would totally work. In addition (or alternately), play with a strong, hard backlight--posibly using separate, crossing backlights for your two actors. In general, you want a backlight that's (at least) a full stop brighter than your key in low key situations. But especially if your camera is bad in low light, I'd definatly also do what Chad said.