The Lighthouse

I’ve been to Port Melbourne often over the last couple of years and this lighthouse has always stood out to me, but I had never gotten around to filming it before, until this project. It has such a strange quality to it, with the lights illuminating from it, to its placement in a town which gives the impression that it crash landed from space. This project was a great opportunity to explore the Sony EX3, which is the highest quality camera I’d ever used. I was satisfied with the exposure of what I filmed, although I was hoping for a clearer sky, but I do admit the overcast weather did add to a moodier and more interesting colour palette.

The first 50 second sequence I shot I thought looked nice, especially the central framing of the lighthouse, but I wasn’t satisfied with the focus of the cars in the mid-ground, as I was too focused on getting the focus of the lighthouse right which was a real challenge due to how far away it was. I liked the different levels of movement happening within the same plane, albeit not being a very diverse collections of motion.

For the second attempt, I wanted to change a few elements from the first shot, trying to tighten up and change its focus. I lightened the exposure slightly to try and gain a more vibrant image, I especially wanted to present the lighthouse as the bright, white beacon that it is. I tightened the framing of the shot also, trying to place the two streetlights on each side of the frame, in an attempt to balance the frame, although I did end up cutting off the streetlights’ pole on the righthand side, something I need to be more mindful of when looking into the viewfinder in the future. Then, most importantly I waited for objects to populate the frame, and I really lucked out with the amount of diverse movement I was able to capture in the 50 seconds. The combination of people walking vertically, as well as a car pulling into the carpark towards me and driving all the way through the frame, created a story for the viewer to follow, something that was clearly lacking in the first shot. The focus was also a big element of improvement in the second shot, as I was able to refocus the camera to the changing elements surrounding the lighthouse, more-so than focusing purely on the lighthouse itself. Overall, I was satisfied with the end product of the second shot, and it was good to be able to reflect in real time the issues with the first shot, to then alter and improve on those faults for the second.