This class was very interesting as it marked the beginning of more practical classes, not that our other classes weren’t practical, but this one was far more cohesive in it’s practicality, as it brought the whole class together to work on one singular effort. So, rather than having us go out in groups to do our exercises, Robin assigned most of us roles in order to prep our set.

Michael, Jeremy and I were told to block out the light coming from the North facing windows, so we used C-stands, clamps and black material to erect a wall of sorts and then hoisted the C-Stands as high as we could. We were extremely pleased with how sturdy our work turned out to be, considering it would have been quite disastrous if it fell on top of everyone.

Max was chosen as the actor for the shoot, although it was more of a screen test than anything that required actual acting, allowing Robin to demonstrate various lighting changes. It was interesting seeing how much the mood of a shot can be affected by subtly adjusting the light. It really illustrated how much power lighting has over a scene. At one point the 1K was moved higher and to the left of Max and the shot became almost like an interrogation scene, with the way one side of Max’s face was illuminated in hard light and the side furtherest from the light was wrapped in shadows creating a Chiaroscuro lighting effect across his face.

Robin then showed us different ways by which you can cut light, such as using core-board on a C-stand to interfere with the flood of light, or creating cucoloris patterns (basically creating patterns on core-board, that when placed in front of a light allow for interesting patterns and shadows to be cast). He also showed us the technique of using clothes pegs as a way to create a dappled sfumato light effect.

I really liked learning about how you have to adjust basically everything when you change actors, because everything from skin tone to face structure is radically different and you have to be able to accommodate for those changes. This class definitely had me thinking more creatively about lighting.