So on the 22nd of October at 4 pm (intended starting time), Film Light hosted their studio screening of either both or the second piece of work created for our Assignment 4 submission. The prompt of said assignment was to choose any aspect of lighting, and explore it, as long as the idea was approved by our tutor, Robin.

This meant that each group of roughly 3 to 4 people produced vastly different works, with no two groups final outcomes being anything alike.

But to start from the beginning, for me, the day was not going well. After some truly awful and mismanaged PTV errors on my behalf, I was running extremely late, ending up arriving at 4:30 pm. I was under the impression that I was going to have missed at least half of the groups screenings, but, to my luck and my luck only, there with a broken door that led to the viewing running late. Furthermore, it also led to two other classmates and I being chosen by Robin to go grab two c-stands, two shot bags and a special bag of his to come and sort out the lighting emergency this door was creating.

It felt almost too perfect, a course about lighting to have a lighting problem, resulting in the class needing to use all their knowledge collected over the past twelve weeks to solve. A  very serendipitous Film Light experience!

Onto the screening itself, I think it all went really well. I think our groups content conveyed what we were trying to achieve, even the second one, without the direct exploration included in the project itself. We chose to screen both our first and second tests of Assignment 4.  However, we only realised how long our first test, exploring abstract white balances on different colour temperatures, was way too long, and a little tedious, especially for people who had seen it already, and it ultimately left us bursting out into laughter at the end, which was a nice group connection moment. We were most proud and excited to show our second experiment, which was about using only natural and available light to convey two different colour temperatures within the same scene. We weren’t exactly sure if people were going to get what we tried to achieve, but after speaking and reflecting with other classmates outside of our group in the post-screening celebration, it seems that it was conveyed well!

If we had to further the second experiment screened to a different and less bias / knowledgeable audience, such as that of a festival one, I think we would want to reshoot it. as to flesh the story out more, allowing for the different colour temperatures to be more distinct. From there, we would hire actors, a more refined script, and all the other gubbins that would make it a more polished work, but the main aspect we would want to address is to flesh it out, and allow for maybe even a third colour temperature change, such as when Tash (the girl in the raincoat) goes to enter the building, and before she enters the main indoor space.

Everyone else’s screened works were amazing and completely different and unique in their own way. A personal standout for me was Eleanor, Noah and Jagger’s second piece, in which they explored lighting and shooting in a car. I loved how natural and seamless their work looked, it flowed so well, and the lighting was that level of good that I barely took time to notice it. I would be interested to see how they lit it, whether they mainly bounced natural light, or diffused artificial light.  Another standout to me was Tully, Joseph and Terrance’s second experiment, in which they further explored using silhouettes, this time, with a dramatic tone and colours. Their work always blows me away with how clean all the shadows were and how little spill there was onto each section. It was so meticulously crafted, nothing felt like it slipped up. There’s was also really funny and enjoyable to watch on the big screen, with Joseph constantly dying never getting old!

Speaking of that, it felt really nice to watch all the works on the big screen. It gave a really nice sense of community, and when works were funny or had a comedic element to it, the whole cinema laughing together was a really nice experience, and made me look fondly back on the studio as a whole. That feeling only extended in the post-screening celebration, which I thought was great! Being able to chat with the handful of lovely people, and Robin, who attended.

Overall, I really enjoyed the whole screening experience, and the studio as a whole. I’ve learnt a lot of invaluable information, and can’t wait to use it in the future!

The first studio I ever did for this degree was called Seeing the Unseen v2 with Hannah Brasier. It was about unique and abstract filmmaking techniques and projects, focusing more on noticing what was around you or within a space, and using that to build a freeform narrative. It may sound a little wanky, but I found it really enjoyable and influential. It really taught me to think and focus on little things, always looking out for the small to make the big. It makes me put a lot of thought into each piece of work I make or watch that lingers, and I’m seeing a pattern between noticing in Seeing the Unseen v2 and noticing in Film Light.

In Film Light, we are always attentive to what’s on-screen. We are always paying attention to where the light source is intended to be coming from within the scene. where the actual light source is coming from, the qualities of that light, whether it be hard or soft, is it diffused, gelled, etc. There are so many variables we as lighting students look out for in both preparing for our own works, and watching others. We linger and notice, much like I have done previously.

An example of me noticing and lingering on lighting was two nights ago, when I was watching Muriel’s Wedding by P.J. Hogan for the first time, for a cinema studies class. The film itself is great! It’s funny, heartwarming, and a bonified Aussie classic. But during my viewing, I began to focus and notice aspects of the technical side, some of which felt was lacking in some aspects. In particular, there was this one scene in her apartment which featured one blue gelled lamp, and one green gelled lamp, which subtly cut into the fill. However, this created a dual shadow that wasn’t fixed or even attempted to be fixed, blatantly revealing the locations of both light sources. This may have just been a rushed scene shoot, and it in no way really brought down the quality of the film drastically, but it was just something I noticed, because I had the techniques and the knowledge to do so.

Pretty cool, huh? I thought so! Can be a bit distracting though, I never just enjoy a film again!

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!