When I see the studio name first, I was confused. But if I rethink it, something come up into my head. Nowadays people would use the digital camera or advanced technique to make a movie. Try to think that how the senior make movies in that period. Obviously, they just use the reel to make it. However, we are not able to use the reel, more options instead. So this studio is a kind of teaching student approach to making a movie or a documentary. Well, when we went to the first class and the teacher played a documentary – ‘F FOR FAKE’ to us. I know I guess right. For me, I am very excited to learn this course because I have been looking forward to participating in a documentary work. And I am obsessed with the charm of the documentary. The most different thing between the movie and the documentary is the arty. The documentary has a purely arty than movies. I mean the documentary has more montages, more special narratives and structures and it contains a variety of tricks that require the viewer to crack. I have watched some high reputation documentary that is Forbidden lies, Gimme shelter, searching for sugar man and Amy. These successful documentaries are my role models, and I know I am not qualified to complete such a successful work, but I hope I can do a documentary work by myself through this lessons.

So if we do the non-fiction media to capture the real world, the most difficult that is bias. Everyone stands in a different position to observe this world, he would probably make a judgement in the historical background, she would probably stand in the human weakness to judge it right or wrong. As a media producer, how to capture the real world that something is happening in that time and represents the truth to the audience as much as possible. Also, the non-fiction storytelling and narrative are difficult for me, I hope I can get practice through this course.

What are each of these items? How might we define them?
The videos I watched were about the Australian white people, and the indigenous population of Australian.
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First clip is a 2 minutes long, which is talking about the living condition of white people and the impression of whites in the public. The second clip is about 4 minutes long, which focus on the indigenous population of Australia.

What components (or parts) is this item created from? Single Take? Many edits? Music? Narration?
In the video of area of endemic white people, the first shot is an interviewer come into the screen then she introduces the story background. In order to expand the topic, she interviews some strangers randomly on the street to investigate the impression of white people in different races. And then go back to white community to interviewing white people.

In the video of local people in Australian, the camera takes us to the place that local people living environment. At first, there is no character and dialogue, full shot of landscape instead and we could hear an introduction from a female voice. The story background represents by the voice-over with the local people life image transition. Roughly 1 minute after, the interviewer comes into the screen and she is talking with a female local people. The images show more of the local living environment. The Voice-over as a supplement and explanation to describe the incident. And there is a dialogue between the interviewer and local people embed into the production line.

Do either of these items have a commercial interest or endorse a product/organisation?
I didn’t find any commercial interest in the second video. However, there is a name – Australian screen embed in the right corner screen. Australian screen is a part of national film and sound archive of Australia. These two videos are concentrate on Australia white people and local people, it belongs to television special.

What does each piece convey to us about the real world… or about the product/organisation?
The first video tells about the status and public impression of whites in Australia. These may have some feelings from life, but we have not completely discussed this matter in a public occasion. There are many random interviews in the video and the views of public figures on white people, which can be seen as a representative of society. Let the audience understand and think about this topic.

The second video is about Australian Aboriginal people. He showed us what the life of the locals looks like, and their living conditions are very bad compared to the people in the city. And interviewed individual local residents, let us see their inner world and ideas.

Is one of these items a better representation of the real world than the other? If so, why?
In the first video, not only did the interviewer describe the topic and embedded many interviews with passers-by, collecting their opinions and ideas. Finally, I went into the interview of the white family and went deep into this group. In general, this can be seen as a representative of the real world, but not absolute. Because the director can use the clip to express his or her own thoughts, this may be biased. Among the interviewed groups, one of them is the white minister, who himself represents the white group. So these views cannot represent everyone. Interviewers also have the suspicion of deliberately praising the white group.

Reflection for myself

Reflection for project p2

Reflection for Project 4 P1

Reflection to class

1. Regarding blogging, I think I didn’t share more attention in my mind with my blog. This is my mistake, a large part of which is also my writing skills and expression skills. I often think of a lot of ideas in my mind about how to set up cameras and lenses and write a better script. Of course I have tried it and made some progress. However, I did not record specific details. I did not have the habit of recording. This was my shortcoming. Afterwards, I was prepared to record my thoughts and actions and develop a good habit.

2.To be honest, I didn’t watch a lot of movies this semester. In the last vacation, I plan to watch a movie every day and analyze every shot, lighting, director’s intentions, and study the production process of the movie. At the end of the holiday season, I watched more than 100 movies. I only selected movies with high ratings. I chose to block similar commercial films. I have always believed that the more movies I watch, the more I get. Maybe I didn’t prioritize the use of lights in movies before, which led to me not having too many opinions on this class. In later studies, I will also pay more attention to the application of lighting in each movie.

3.Learning this course gave me new insight into light. There is a big difference between day and night light. Daytime light changes with time and weather. In the morning it is warm, and then it turns blue, and then the sunset changes back to yellow. This is a very important factor that we need to consider when shooting outdoors. Because different color temperatures will produce different visual effects. The night city is different because it is more of artificial light and reflected light from various buildings. I think the light of the night is more charming, it can shape more shapes. In addition, artificial light can produce wonderful effects on the faces of people. I often observe the passersby in the street. Sometimes the light shines perfectly on their face, and some form the side, and soft light and strong light will form a magical effect.

4.This workshop may be my favorite one, because I think lighting is a course that needs practice. After I have done a lot of practice, I can find out what is lacking and realize the effect of different light settings. In every classroom practice, I noticed the effect of light in the monitor. The picture and monitor in our eyes are very different. The monitor can clearly see the strength of light and the effect of reflection on the subject. The most exciting thing for me is cutting light. I think this is the one thing that fascinates me most. The range of light cannot be observed with the naked eye. We need constant trial and adjustment to cut excess light so that the light shines on the subject. Visually see how you set up the lens and create the desired lighting effects. Although these take a lot of time, the whole process is enjoyable and the results are great.

5.
After talking to Robin, I was more able to find my own shortcomings. First of all, in terms of language, I need to strengthen my study of English proficiency and writing. The students of media majors need more ideological communication. If they can’t communicate well, then many good ideas can’t be propagated, and I don’t understand the ideas of others. This will bring about future study. Very big trouble. I have also practiced English and watched news on the English channel every day, imitating their way of speaking and learning more vocabulary. In the studio, I need to watch more videos and learn during the viewing process. This is what I mentioned earlier. I will also watch more movies at the same time during the holidays and do research to increase my understanding of the scene. Understand, analyze the light settings. Of course, I will also summarize every research report and share it in my blog. In the following shooting plan, I believe I can think of more scenes in my mind and complete the entire setup with high efficiency. Regarding blogs, I think this is a task, but I’m wrong. This may be related to the way of education in China and the West. I’ve been doing all the tasks according to the requirements on the assignment, but after this conversation, I understand that the blog is a platform for sharing. When I have new ideas, I can write it on the blog. This also reflects that I concentrate on this subject and think about the next plan. In the next semester, I will do as I said.

Regarding the second part of the project, this time we completed the entire shooting on time. Compared to the first part, we have made great progress in the control of time. This shot was very smooth and it can be said to be an efficient job. On the project side, considering that there is not enough time to plan and shoot, there are some ideas we have not implemented. In the preparatory work, we first cut the black cardboard. This reminds me of the fragments of the movie I saw in class before, using the props to create shapes to create a light and shadow effect. This is indeed very useful, combined with the knowledge in class during the shooting practice. Many items in life can be used to make props for shooting. Wherever there is light, shadows will be produced. How to use light angles to create different shadow shapes may also be a particularly interesting topic. We initially used a 2k light through black cardboard and then set two dedo behind the character. But on the monitor we found that the 2k lights were too bright and the lights of the two dedo were covered, so we decided to replace 2k with a 1k light, but the same problem still exists and we can’t clearly see behind light. In this scenario, we need to express the effect of the dedo light on the character’s face, so after that we replaced the 1k with one dedo. Because all the lights are dedo lights, the light on the human face is more balanced. One more thing, we didn’t pay attention when we were shooting. We need a character face close-up, but we find that there is insufficient light in the eyes, so we use the phone’s flash to make up for dark areas and see more details. I think the overall mission has reached our requirements. And we learned experience from it. In the process of adjusting each light, I clearly noticed how the lighting settings affect the movement of the space and the subject. As I move each light or body movement, I can see subtle changes.

For the first part of the project, I feel very satisfied. But also got punished in order to complete this shot. When I was involved in the shooting process, there were many problems that I did not think of. Especially in time, although we were prepared to shoot each shot, it took a lot of time. We started shooting from around 5 in the afternoon until midnight. I think this is due to the lack of skill in controlling the lens and lighting. If we have enough experience to control the light, then we will save a lot of time. The biggest reason is that each of us has a huge ambition to make a particularly perfect shot. So we constantly try to adjust the angle of each light, so that the water ripples can be completely reflected on the background and the character’s face.In addition to time, I feel more need for a strong body. Because shooting a movie is a high-intensity job, not having a good body cannot accomplish this task. At the end of the filming, each of us felt tired and entered an inefficient work situation. This will also reduce the quality of the work. Although the final work is very satisfactory, these lessons need to be remembered. Of course, I also began to pay attention to adjusting my lifestyle and strengthening my physical exercise to prepare for my next task. In general, each one is fully focused on the entire project, and for each shot we will discuss and make adjustments in an attempt to make the best.

This Wednesday is a practical lesson where teachers and students work together to create a scene. I think that practical lessons are very necessary because when I got the script, I didn’t know what to do. Even if I know how to set the position of the light and the camera, but how to merge individual things into a whole, I have no idea. This lesson taught me how to prepare as a director and how to use lighting to create facial features. Robin led us to choose the background and set the lights. I can learn from his actions and constantly adjusting the lighting to the factors that need attention. For example, when Robin chooses the background of the scene, he needs to consider that the reflection of light cannot appear in the background. In order to create a dark environment, we set a black cardboard behind the characters to shield the reflected light.
We have a table lamp that is not bright enough, so there is not much of a character’s face. Then we set a dito light to increase the brightness of the light on the left side of the character and placed a white book card to reflect the light back, this light source combined with the light source of the desk lamp. Throughout the shooting process I think cutting is the most important thing. In general, light reflects off the ceiling and walls. So we used more black cardboard to limit the spread of light. This reduces a lot of unnecessary light, highlights the subject, places more focus on the subject, and creates a unique shot.
I think setting up lights is a very interesting thing because there is no standard. We are constantly observing and learning during the shooting process, and more is learning how robin sets the light step by step. Of course, this does not mean that only this method, but for me, I am more aware of how each step is produced. Of particular interest is how we approach the results we want, removing the extra light step by step.

I really interested in Aria’s group presentation because their intentions are also what I always want to do. The idea of their presentation is to explore the different lighting in different genre films and to analyse the approaches to construct a particular genre through the movement of lighting. Their inspiration is from the Hitchcock’s movie – Phycho. In the phycho, the lighting set was the best point to directly create the intense feeling. When the actress goes downstairs to the basement, the hard light on her right to make the contrast between her background and the path of the basement. On the basement, there is just soft light on her side to illuminate the environment. In the utility room, there is a lamp on the roof, also it is a hard light that lights up the whole environment but also shapes the character’s shadow on the wall and the shadow of furniture. The strong visual contrast creates psychological discomfort. The lamp waves also shaped the features of the characters, to expresses the inner fear of the character.In the semester 1, we watched some movies and documentaries that viewed as examples for us to learn basic film knowledge. His movies are basically based on suspense. I think the purpose of Aria’s group is to explore how to create a kind of intense atmosphere using the lighting or framing. Although they don’t have a specific plan on how to simulating by a scene, it is still a good point to start with.

For this project, I would research the cinematographer- Emmanuel Lubezki. I especially like the movie Birdman. In 2014, Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed the comedy ” Birdman ” starring Michael Keaton and Emma Stone, and won the 87th Academy Awards for Best Director Award. The film won the 87th Oscar Awards Best Film Award. Maybe I haven’t fully grasped the intention of the director to convey, but I think this movie is very helpful for learning film light or understanding. This movie is about a washed-up actor, who once played an iconic superhero, attempts to revive his career by writing and starring in his very own Broadway play. Birdman’s lighting struck me as impressive because I had no idea how they did it. The camera moves through the scenes giving the illusion that the film is comprised of a single shot. This means that the lighting needs to adjust and adapt to the movement between each scene and I believe Birdman does this seamlessly. Birdman is known for its long shots, seems unedited shot of several minutes or more in length. In fact, Lubezki and writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu worked very hard to make Birdman seem like it was shot entirely in a single, continuous take. Although this movie used movie tricks and illusion to make it seems like a two-hour single shot, it still has several long shots that are difficult to shot in the real scene. Upon further research I learnt that a large portion of the lighting was manipulated digitally in post production, this included highlighting certain areas of interest, tracking objects, altering saturation.

Riggan and Jake are conversing by the door, the focus is drawn to Riggan by the overhead soft lighting. The door is merely a background piece and is quite dull and dimly lit.

Then when Lesley enters the door to join the conversation, the lighting is adjusted to draw the focus onto her, this was achieved entirely digitally.

Much of the lighting in Birdman is expressive in the sense that it reveals information or creates environments to separate settings distinctly. For example when actors are waiting to go on stage in the off-stage section, the lighting is a deep blue. I believe this is a good decision as it breaks up the monotony of the grey brick walls throughout the theater. As well as allowing for the scene to be lit enough for clarity but still remain dark enough to be of a strong contrast to the activity on the stage.
In addition, Lubezki mentioned that the lighting is very difficult because he had to hide the lighting out of the frame. He had to hide physical lighting equipment and cables out the frame, and maintain the angle of lighting source within the camera move. In this movie, more shots show with 360 degree angle of set, to maintain the lighting continually work. When they do filmmaking, his team will constantly move the lighting. They would move heavy, spotlight lamps and the gels and diffusions bouncing their light and shadows in order to maintain the illusion of a natural source within the shot.

Reference:
Jack, P. (2015). The Best Cinematography: A Look At Birdman. [online] Student Resources. Available at: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/best-cinematography-look-birdman/ [Accessed 22 Apr. 2018].

For the week 6 class exercise, I would say this is interesting and inspires me a lot. The purpose of this exercise is about how to manipulate the different quality of lights to shape different faces which could demonstrate show better facial features in each scene. We spent a lot of time for the pre-production because we need determined where the camera set and where the artificial light set, also we will consider the surrounding light. The sunlight would influence the quality of light, so we turn off the curtain to block the sunlight from the window. First, Max was the volunteer for the shoot, we could see the artificial light reflect on his face that generates differently shape of faces. I can see more shadows on Max right face when the light is hard but without the filled lighting, his right face is too dark to show more detail of facial features. Then, we try to adjust other angles on the light in order to make more contrast and more details on his face. Then we found that Max’s nose was the cut off line on his face, the artificial light on his left, so his left face was clearly showing on the screen. We put the black bounce board on his right back to absorb the light from his left and also reflect his right face to be filled light. Dan was the second volunteer, we could see some differences between them. Dan’s facial features are close to Asian people, so his face is flatter comparing with Max’ face. The best solution is to adjust the light position or angles.
The most interesting thing is the big clip, I never thought this would have this magic effect. This inspires me to reconsider the use of light. I remember a film excerpt that we watched on class, a woman hides in the closet and looks at the man in the room. When I watched this clip, I was curious how the cinematographer set the camera in the closet. Now I understand, it is the same effect that we put the clips on the artificial light to create a false appearance, it seems like there is something in front of him. This is a good point for us to think what we could use in our daily life to create a shadow, and what the shadow could be used to.