This week was an intense one for me. Our group finally found time to film our first video experiment for Assignment 4 on Monday, we quickly prepared a presentation for said experiment that was showcased the following day on Tuesday, I had many assignments due at the end of this week, and on top of all that, I set myself the goal of watching more films. It has been HECTIC.

Let’s start with the movie watching, recently I’ve been bingeing a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal films (no surprise by now) that I had not seen before, but had been meaning to watch.

The first of these was End of Watch released in 2012, which is shot documentary / found footage style of these two cops going around on patrol in the gang-ridden areas of Los Angelas. A majority of scenes in the film take place on the dashboard/centre console of the car, and how they managed to control the light from outside the moving vehicle was incredible. I’d love to see how many cutters they used to keep the consistent or perfectly exposed changing light sources under control.

The next of these films I saw was Jarhead, released in 2005, which follows the story of a soldier, or ‘jarhead’, working his way through the ranks, experiencing the horrors of war what the lack of action can do to a mental state. I enjoyed the film, and the lighting worked for the most part, but it was pretty boring. They must have really worked with the exposure and the footage in post to ensure the desert shots were not grandly overexposed or maybe shot everything in a studio, I am not sure!

The most recent Gyllenhaal binge film I have seen at the time of writing this was Demolition in 2015. The film follows a widowed man reinventing his life and friendships to discover who he truly is and what he wants. Whilst I vastly preferred the first half of the film, the second half featured these scenes in which two of the main characters demolished a house, I noticed that a lot of the lighting fill was coming from the white and light grey reflective surfaces of the large rubble pieces, and wondered if they intentionally knew this would be how they would light the scene, or if it was a serendipitous accident. I have honestly been really looking at lighting in films with curiosity and wonder, seeing if I can identify their source and style. Whilst I usually can’t its good to be thinking.

Moving on to our group’s presentation, I was really proud of our efforts and overall presentation. Even though there were some scares with late arrivals due to transport delays, we managed to get through it all with what I thought was charisma and well-spoken explanation, with some feedback that has given us a lot to work with in regards to the next experiment for Assignment 4.

And while brainstorming for that experiment in class on Thursday, Robin incited an epiphany in us. We had been worrying about how we were going to lug so much gear with us, and how no location we could feasibly think of would have the right amount of power outlets to make anything viable. But all it took was Robin to suggest we use no artificial lighting, and our world changed.

We could instead, just use bounce boards and cutters to manipulate a well-lit area, and use inside and outside to show colour temperature. It was like a whole new world has just opened up to us. One that was going to sufficiently challenge and insight useful set information and technique. It was refreshing. We immediately went location scouting, with our brains buzzing. We found this lovely, well and variety lit location in RMIT, very close to the tech office. It’s perfect!

Here’s to epiphanies!

So as stated by both Robin and Assignment 3 (which was most likely subsequently written by Robin, but nevertheless), we are tasked to write a reflection on a specific groups presentation, as well as our own. I have chosen to do my reflection on Eleanor, Noah and Jagger’s presentation and presented exercise.

Their group’s mission statement was to explore how many lighting setups could you produce with only one lamp, one cutter and one bounce board. To do this, they recreated famous shots from films with distinctively different lighting setups, as to create variety and challenge in their first practice of Assignment 4.

The four films they chose to recreate or sweede for any Be Kind Rewind Fans, included:

• Lost In Translation (1997)
• IT (2017)
• Her (2013)
• Arrival (2016)

These film choices ranged from naturalistic to stylistic, with the Arrival scene in particular being incredibly striking in their recreation. Another favourite of the four they did was the sewer scene from IT, which helped a lot in part by how much effort they put into their BTS explanations I will touch on later

They created a basic studio in Noah’s home living room, using black curtains, c-stands, shot bags and the equipment outlined in their brief. They provided lots of behind the scenes images of each film, which I really liked. It showed they put a lot of effort into making sure all their descriptions and outlines of how they recreated each scene, which was very detailed and easy to follow. Overall, the character and tone of both Eleanor and Noah whilst presenting was charismatic, well-spoken and very engaging!

But back to their descriptions of the shots, the group was very open and honest with how they perceived each scene, stating various things they felt to be flawed, or that they wished they had done differently. This was really impressive to see, as it hard to honestly look at your shortcomings and reflect on that to an audience.

Everyone’s presentations were great though, with lots of effort and thought being put into both the pre-production of the experiment, the production phase, and the post-production analysis. Congrats to the Film Light class!

Everything seemed perfect. Jonah, Tash and I had all successfully booked gear, lots of it! Chloe, while not having her student car in the system, was as ready to go as us all. I had location scouted a garage, storage area in RMIT, just near Building 10, which I had used before and it worked perfectly. Again, everything seemed perfect, but it only got worse from here. This is our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, first shoot for our first experiment of Assignment 4.

The first bad omen was the ramp leading up to the second level of the garage. The grooves in the round designed to make vehicles go slower made such an uncomfortable rattling on our trolly, it was almost unbearable! Once we finally maneuvered the trolly up to our area, and unpacked all the gear, getting the 2k Fresnel lamp up on its stand, the next bad sign emerged, there were no visible power points. Our main tool for experimenting, the lamp, had no power sockets available.

After finally finding a socket, and quickly racing back to the tech guys for a power kit with extension leads to actually use the lamp where we wanted it, things were looking great. We started blocking out the scene, setting up gear, everything was falling into place just how we wanted.

But then, the first major catalyst hit, the lamp wouldn’t turn on. We panicked, thinking it must have been the power socket, as it looked old, and was very out of the way. Jonah and Chloe then proceeded to search for another space that would fit our requirements, while Tash and I packed down and got to thinking.

After 20 minutes of searching, the two came back unsuccessful, and we had to consider other options. Tash graciously offered her house, which was currently a little emptier than usual which sounded perfect. Except, we had to get all that gear there!

We decided the best plan of action was to get an Uber, but that was going to be both expensive and trick, as we were in the city, and the gear was bulky. With our hands and arms filled with equipment, we rushed out of RMIT and down the road, and somehow managed to JUST fit all the equipment in the car, with some physical manipulation of the placards.

Finally making it to Tash’s, we brought all the gear up to her apartment, began to set up the gear and block out the scene. Everything seemed to be finally coming up us, until the second biggest catalyst hit, the light AGAIN wouldn’t turn on. It then hit us, it wasn’t the power sockets at all, it was the lamp.

Sitting on the floor, collectively defeated, we packed down all the gear, got another pricy Uber back to RMIT, ready to vent to the techs about the completely broken lamp. We placed it on the bench to inspect, as we stood there, fed up and grumpy, hours wasted with nothing to show. But then, the biggest catalyst of them all hit, the lamp turned on. I vividly remember the look on Chloe’s face, absolutely enraged and destroyed.

It turns out the cord was busted, not allowing the current to travel to power the globe when it was hanging from the stand, but rather when laying down on a flat surface. Essentially broken, but in our situation, if we had known, would have been manageable.

We decided the next day we could all film was the 30th, which didn’t leave us much time, but we were going to be ready!

Moral of the story, make sure to check all your gear before you leave with it, lamps and all!

The worst happened this week. I got the flu. I’ve been bedridden for the whole week, the only creeping into my eyes was that of my phone screen and the bathroom. It has been a sad time. It meant I couldn’t attend any of my Film Light classes. Legitimately longing for the teachings of Robin and the presence of my fellow classmates, I’ve tried to stay in the loop as much as possible, but alas, nothing compares to being physically in class.

However, I’m taking this absence from class in a somewhat positive direction. For this week’s reflection, I am going to critique and analyse the work done on Tuesday, both Exercise 5 and Exercise 8, with no prior influence on working on them, trying to assess how they did and how they did it.

First, Exercise 5 – The Elusive Sun Shoot

I really like this scene! The light cased on Noah is consistent, and details his face nicely. The wind makes it hard to keep continuity on the hair, but overall I think the shot really works, taking advantage of the natural sun and possibly bouncing some of those rays onto his left side of his face to ensure he isn’t too shadowed.

The coverage of the conversation is also lit well, way less shadowed than what can be seen from the wide but softly lit so as their faces are well covered. Both angles work well, but I prefer the detail of the face with the dirty over the shoulder shot of Elenor’s character.

The editing a little choppy in the latter half of the project, just feels a bit jumpy, but I really like how naturalistic the lighting feels throughout the piece, there are no jarring flaws to my unexperienced eyes.

Now, Exercise 8 – The one I know less about

I love the camera work in this shoot. I think that the dialogue exchange flows really well, and the scene where Joseph and Chloe are talking is captured nicely with subtle but effective camera movement.

My main criticism with it is how the outside sunlight is quite over-exposed.  Both actors are nicely and softly lit, but the outside is so glaring and blinding, especially in the thumbnail shot above and the final scene when they walk out.

This is something I struggle with as well, as I often focus on getting the subject perfect, rather than the backdrop. This could have been fixed by lowering the aperture of the lens, and maybe using a 1k Fresnel lamp inside on the actors to make sure they are still well lit, or even bouning some outside light or overhead light onto their faces.

It has been way more beneficial to reflect on work that I was not present for than I thought it would. It made me really think about light sources, and how a scene was lit, and whilst I don’t feel 100% confident about my calls on specific things, I’m glad I challenged myself to give it a go!

Here’s hoping to me being well enough for next week! Fingers crossed!

The first week back from the mid-semester break was a bit of an adjustment. Whilst I kept my eyes out and open both during films and the world for engaging or interesting lighting occurrences,  my mind was on anything but university work, really taking the time to detox and relax with family and friends. This helped clear my mind, but might have been too effective, as getting back into the uni grind took some convincing for my mind, body and soul.

the first class back threw us straight into it, with myself directing a short scene in the upper classroom, involving a stressed-out student and a disinterested student.

The biggest issue we had with the scene was getting each character well lit and having a detailed face. We were lucky enough to have a lot of control over the manual blinds in the room, which gave us a base level of soft lighting that while wasn’t enough, was way better than just the ceiling lights.

We grabbed a 1k Fresnel light (after some funny in retrospect Benny Hill style confusion) to try and bounce some light from the white walls and roof of the space onto the faces of our actors.

The whole directing process was extremely stressful. Having to call the shots on a project you really know and have experience with is hard, now imagine doing that for a project you do not have those things for! Anxiety galore!

Let’s see how it turned out.

After discussing this both with the crew who attended on Thursday when we watched through this, as well as the whole class, the lighting is the biggest issue with the piece. Jonah is way underlit, and my handheld shot is way too shakey to work for more than a second. However, I really like the thumbnail shot, even though there is a shadow being cast behind his head. I just really like the composition and the way his shirt tones match the overcast weather outside.

This task taught me a lot about set preparation and responsibility, something that whilst isn’t fun, is something I need to keep exposing myself to in class environments, cause I know it’s gonna benefit me on real sets!

Week 6 of FIlm Light was quite busy,  but it contained one of my favourite exercises to date! Unfortunately (again), I wasn’t able to make it into class on Tuesday, due to a sustained ankle injury that left me bedridden. But I rested it right up and ready for Thursday, where I was ready to make up for it and then some. Unfortunately (seemingly becoming my catchphrase), I had to leave early, but Thursday was all about exercise 6!

From an initial glance, exercise 6 is just like every other we have been assigned in Film Light, vague scripts, basic named characters and a set time limit. But to me, this was different.  Exercise 6  had two groups capture both visuals and audio of a scene over 3 shots. However, there was a twist! Whilst the main wide and one close up mid-shot could be filmed in the same location, the other characters mid-shot had to be shot somewhere else, and we as a crew had to use lighting and camera tricks to make the scene itself as believable as possible.

This excited me for a few reasons. For one, I hadn’t been in class for a while, so it was nice to see and work with my fellow classmates, but the main intrigue of the task was how the twist was going to make us all have to recall all the skills we had previously attained throughout the course to make this location switch work, which was both terrifying and thrilling.

Tash had a great potential location, so we all went down and scouted outside the Streat cafe, with the brick walls on the buildings opposite being an easy thing to replicate.

The crew brought a little bit of everything, and whilst we never got the chance/needed to use the c-stands or shot bags, we felt safer with them. I assumed the role of first assistant director, and basically ensured that everyone understood what Tash wanted to be done, as well as cracked down on packing-up time.

The shoot itself went really well, we had enough people that everyone had a role to play in some capacity, and no one was left completely without a job. We played around with depth of field and eyelines to cheat the location, and whilst I haven’t fully analysed the footage as of yet, my initial scrub through looks as if it works. However, we kind of forgot to be conscious of the lighting, which in a lighting studio, is pretty funny.

I am going to have an edit up on my Mediafactory blog once it’s done within the next few days, but I am excited to see how it turns out! Never the less, I had so much fun working on this exercise, and hope for more like this in the future!

This week of class was quite a practical experience. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to Tuesday’s class, which was a bummer, but it did allow me to come in with a fresh pair of eyes to the work that was done without me present.

The class did a lighting comparison between different sources, attempting to replicate sunlight coming through a window. Speaking to Tash, the wonderful model of the shoot, the original plan was to have direct proper sunlight for the first comparison, but it wasn’t strong enough. ‘Available Daylight’ was still used, but I was under the impression it wasn’t ideal. Never the less, watching through this comparison with little to no prior knowledge of it really let me judge the artificial light sources and how naturalistic it looked on camera.

On the initial viewing, the light looked semi-realistic, but if I was told the artificially assisted versions were all direct sunlight only, I would have been sceptical. To me, this is because the fill of the 2K Fresnel w/ Full Blue Gell bounced off core board w/ Fill was just a bit too dim to be sunlight, maybe very cloudy sunlight, but not direct sunlight. There are a few too many shadows on the camera right side of Tash’s face, maybe needing some more bounce and fill to even out.

Thinking like this is helpful in thinking about lighting a set I am actually on, such as Thursday’s exercise. Even though I was only an actor,  once I had my lines down, I was fully invested in thinking about how everything on set worked, specifically the lighting rigging. I was always trying to think of a new way we could light the scene and be sneaky about it, and while I only offered minimal help from my position, I was constantly taking stuff in, lets hope it sticks!

In the reading Robin posted this week by Sven Nykvist documenting his life and views on filmmaking, one specific part stuck out and felt relatable to my whole outlook on lighting. He wrote, ‘Light is a treasure chest; once properly understood, it can bring another dimension to the medium’. This is the exact sort of epiphany I had the first time I really tried to light a scene, seeing how much potential there was in the art, and how much it can drastically change the potential of a scene.

Whilst we didn’t exactly achieve that sense of enlightenment in Exercise 4, the group definitely felt how difficult and mind straining it can be, even when a simple solution is right in front of you!

On Tuesday, Noah, Jagger, Elenor, Amelia and I were tasked with filming two shots for Exercise 4, with one of the shots requiring a lighting change, with the sun coming through the window. Luckily, we didn’t have to show the window, so this could all be done behind the scenes.

The team got really creative brainstorming different ways in which we could make this exposure change look as natural and directed as possible, like how the sun would bounce into a room. We decided we wanted to use one of the 1k Fresnel lights in some sort of way, just because we had our hands on them. Below is the video in which our test shoots are shown, starting at 3:00.

I think the main problem was that we may have thought too hard about how to make the sunbeams enter, with an easy solution there all along.

I really like how the scene is lit all together. The light itself feels really natural, and our faces are well lit. However, in the first take of the second shot, there is a glaring hot patch of over-exposed wall next to Amelia’s head. Luckily, that is not the case in the second take!

How we made the ‘sun’ come in was by moving a black bounce board away from in front of the Fresnel light. While the brightness of the light I feel looks fine, it cuts too hard a shaped shadow on the wall, being a very direct edge.

What was later pointed out to us, was that we should have just raised the blinds in the room, which would have probably worked better, and been easier! Never the less, experiences like these teach you so much about lighting, so I wouldn’t trade this version for the best version in the world! (maybe for a portfolio piece though!).