When Lumen Auto briefed us on Afterglow, the one rule was that the car should never look lit. So we didn’t light it. Every shot in the film uses the city as the key: storefront neon, sodium streetlights and the coupe’s own light bar.
Scouting for light, not locations
We scouted at night only. Jonas walked the streets with a light meter and a phone, logging which corners had the best spill and when the shops switched their signs off.
Rain on demand
Two rain towers and a water truck kept the asphalt reflective all night. Wet streets doubled every light source we had, which meant we could shoot at T2 instead of wide open.
