“The Future”
This is my last semester for my university degree and as I am looking ahead to heading back to work full time. I will be taking with me a lot of renewed enthusiasm into film production and lighting concepts.
I think it has always been hard for me at my work as most of what I capture would be considered news gathering and its mainly interviews and press conferences and training footage.
So there has never been real emphasis on lighting on my part other then is the subject exposed and has enough light on them and if not grabbing one light and just shiny it at them.
Also, at my work there has never been anyone who has come from a cinema studies background so there isn’t any real lighting equipment besides these cheap eBay lights. So I have been getting creative with natural sun lights for shoots.
I have also tried to revamp the equipment list at my work and purchase some proper lights that I can use in the future. I have started to do a lot more filming for sponsorship videos at work where there is in part a narrative aspect to them. This has given me more freedom to construct a shot list and lighting plans for them which I really enjoy.
The Film Light class and Assignment 4 have really re invigorated my aspirations to work on more narrative short films and features. I like the group atmosphere and working towards the same final goal. I think that I will pursue working on small narrative projects in my time off.
I am really looking forward to being back at work 100% as I have been struggling to balance my last semester of university and full-time work. I am really grateful I was able to complete my uni and was able to finish off with such a great class that has given me knowledge I will always use for my working future.
Assignment 4 – Part 2
Following on from part 1 into part 2 we wanted to re create another scene from the film Blade Runner and incorporate a smoke/hazer machine and shoot coloured light into it. Unfortunately we had to change our idea when we couldn’t get the smoke alarms turned off in our studio by the time of our shoot.
So, what the group decided upon was to have Brews sitting in a chair reading a monologue and make it look like he is sitting in a room with a mixture of street lights and neon lights coming through the Venetian blinds of the window.
We used a black card as our venetian blinds by cutting slits out of the board. Then aiming our Key light through the slits of the black board onto Brews. We then had two Dedo’s as back-lights one with a red gel and the other with a green gel. We then set up a white card as a fill on the opposite side Brews to bounce back the light from the key.
The idea was when Brews started his monologue we would move the black card up to replicate moving lights coming through the blinds and then have the coloured Dedo lights flickering on and off to replicate neon lights.
At first, we were using a 2K Arri light as our key but we found that the hard light coming from it engulfed all of the coloured light was cancelling out all of the colour. So, we changed the Key light to a Dedo light which brought down the intensity and giving the other Dedo lights the effect we wanted. We also had to fine tune the black card as we wanted hard shadows the closer we got to the subject the better the shadows were but this also effected the mid shot we were trying to shoot so it took us a little while to get the right adjustment.
We had gotten through our shot list and had enough time to try something new. Through the course of filming we had noticed that the white card we had been using as fill had Brews and the venetian blinds shadows on it. We thought this looked great and it fit with our story, so we decided to shoot the whole scene just shooting the shadows.
We had a strict amount of time for this shoot, and after working together on project one I feel like project 2 went a lot more smoothly. Everyone knew what they had to do, and we finished all our shots with time to spare. I feel like what we had decided upon in project 2 really fit with the theme we wanted to explore and I’m really happy with the two finished project pieces.
I think if i was to try this again i would want Brews to be standing looking out the window and maybe moving around in the space to make it a bit more challenging. Maybe having different coloured lights flashing past the window such as police car lights.
Assignment 4 – Part 1
For part 1 of assignment 4 my group decided to re create the water refraction lighting effect from the film Blade Runner 2049. We started by searching for possible shooting locations. For our introduction shots we liked building 100 as its architecture was very modern and it fit the narrative we wanted to display. We then decided upon building 16 for the water refraction scene, we liked how the wall had hard edges and protruded which we thought would be able to spread the refraction a lot more.
We tried some brief tests of building 16 by buying a small plastic tub from office works and shining a light into it to see what would happen. The effect was exactly what we were going for. After some thought we decided that we would need one small plastic tub to refract the water onto Matt’s face and then have a large body of water to refract onto the wall.
On the Day of the shoot we had two 1k Arri lights aimed at the large tub of water and had Jacky slowly kicking the tub to create a ripple effect. We then had one Dedo light aimed at the small tub of water and I was moving that to give a similar ripple effect onto Matt’s face. We also had a Kino as a key light for Matt.
We wanted to make sure we covered as much of the back-ground surface as possible to get the full effect of the water refraction. After a lot of tweaking we finally got the look we wanted, and the result was amazing.
We always intended to record ADR for Matt’s audio when it came to editing the scene. What we decided upon in the edit was to use the audio as a voiceover for the introduction shots and let it lead into the water refraction scene. I feel like this really elevated the introduction shots and tied in the narrative we were trying to construct.
What I learned from this experience was that it is really hard working with water and trying to get the angle just right in such a small space. If I was to try this effect again I would maybe try it was a larger body of water maybe an in closed pool. Also to always allow enough time to pack down, I think in the end the shoot time got away from us and its really made me more conscious of planning and testing more before arriving at a shoot. The whole process was to experiment and we found different ways to do things on the night of the shoot but ultimately for the future I want to be more vigilant with time.
A Summary of Film Light 2018
The Semester has gone by so quickly (As always) I came into the class open minded as I wanted to immerse myself more in film light practise and theory and I feel I learnt so much.
Robin was a great teacher and was always inclusive on his lighting exercises and got everyone involved and thinking. Some of the main highlights for me where found during practical lighting exercises.
It might seem a simple thing to some but actually doing lighting tests was a big eye opener to me. I have worked on a few short films now and working full time filming sport I have always just discovered things as I was filming (Which is still believe is a valuable thing). Doing a lighting test is really valuable to understanding your camera and how it handles underexposure and over exposure and this is something I will be trying with my future cameras.
I didn’t have any previous experience with black and white cards when coming into this class. I had used a reflector before on shoots but that was always used when filming. I have found out that there is as much effort put into cutting the light and shaping it to create a certain effect as there is just lighting a scene. Before I came into this class I was only thinking about diffusing the light and using the barn doors to cut the light. I now have a great appreciation for Black boards and will be going to buy a few for my up coming shoots.
I also admit I never really used C stands in my previous works I knew about them but always thought they were oversized lighting stands. After this class I really see the value and versatility of C stands and how much they are really needed on set. The amount of times we would be able to set up a C stand in class to hold a white or black card was really valuable because you were able to come back behind the camera and see what was happening to the image. I will also be looking to add a few C stands to my arsenal in the future.
I do regret not being able to attend more of film light classes due to work as I feel I would have been able to learn and take a lot more out of the teachings. But of what I have learned I am thankful and it has really cemented for me that this is what I want to do with my career so in part I would like to thank my teacher Robin for that.
Roger Deakins Cinematographer Analysis
Roger Deakins has always been a cinematographer that has inspired me as a story teller. He has worked on some of my favourite films (Skyfall, Prisoners and Sicario) I think what has attracted me to his work is how engaging it is and how long these films have lasted with me visually. An exert from an interview RD Said “I don’t feel like I have a particular style, I have discovered ways of lighting that have worked for me….. I don’t think I have a naturalistic style, I hope I have a style that suits the project” I feel like Roger Deakins is truly adaptable to whatever film he decides to work on. One of Roger Deakins signature style shots that I really enjoy and would like to emulate is the silhouette shot, I feel like putting a character in a silhouette denies the audience any information on the individual and forcing us to take in all the information in the background and foreground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFacxpBhXFg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0X4kIFS0Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLw_zM4hQWc
After a bit of investigation i found that Roger Deakins was originally a painter and after going to university found a passion for photography i think this equates for some truly beautiful shots and also having a keen eye for symmetry and the having these landscape shots that look like paintings. An observation of some of Roger Deakins lighting set ups are that he likes to use very minimal lighting meaning that he likes to use one source light and follow with a bounce or a light fill light. He likes to use practical lighting, as in using lights from particular environments to give a realism and reference point to the audience as to the reason for where the light is coming from. Be is a flash light, blazing fire, care headlights. You can describe his lighting as being naturalistic in approach, although as stated above the master himself doesn’t believe he has a particular style. I also noticed that most (If not all) his films he likes to use smooth movements pans and dolly shots. I hope one day i can approach my future work in a similar manner.
Reflection on Class 10
In Class 10 Robin had us set up for a lighting test , we had Max sit in front of the camera and we used one light. We used this exercise to practise different lighting techniques for future reference. We used negative fill, diffusion and a Cookie Larus (Not sure of the spelling) which was a board that had different varying shapes and sizes cut out of it and then put in front of the key light to see how it filtered the light on Max and the wall. Class 10 gave me an insight into the importance of a lighting test and experimenting to have a better understanding of what you can achieve with a single light. It is also a good indicator of what the camera can achieve in that environment. Also keeping a log sheet is important to understand what settings were used on the day. Robin noted that we would have Max hold a card with the settings on it for a quick reference. I do believe modern cameras hold this kind of information with the recorded file that is called Meta data.
How has your understanding and appreciation of film lighting changed or developed over the last many weeks?
My appreciation for film lighting has changed extensively over the course of this semester as I feel Robin has always been actively engaging us in the class exercises he makes us get involved in what is happening to actively participate by standing on one side of a subject and looking at how the light is and then walking to the opposite side and looking again and engaging in reflection of the variants of the two angles and coming up with a desired choice of which we prefer and why. This has helped me to think more about how lighting effects the overall scene and how moving the camera around to achieve a desired lighting effect is useful. Robin has also made us think about if we were not aloud to move the camera and if we only had the one light that we would use tools such as diffusing and using negative fill to achieve the desired effect. I think overall i have a deeper appreciation for using a single light and how much i can do with it.
A summary of the content of your Presentation?
I wasn’t present on the presentation day and im sure it was quite an open discussion when presented (not written down in anyway) that it would be hard for me to discuss it or anyone else’s due to my absence. What I can comment on is the extensive discussions my group has had after assembling last Wednesday (18th April). We all talked about some of our favourite film scenes and we came back to the interrogation scene from the Dark Knight and from Blade Runner. Visually we were interested in science fiction elements of the scenes, all having varying lighting effects the one that ended up standing out for us was the water refraction effect in Blade Runner 2049. Also the way light was cut and spread using a smoke machine. After our meeting on the 18th we created a Facebook group to share our ideas and then walked around campus looking at different locations to inspire. After chatting with the group and sending through an email to Robyn we have decided to concentrate on the idea of shaping and distorting light, whether through water, smoke and cutting boards. Setting up a constant shot and then incorporating these lighting effects.
SCENE REFLECTION 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1l1gbK7-Os&t=42s
The scene i have chosen to talk about is from one of my favourite movies called “A place beyond the pines” the film follows the two families and how a significant event can echo on through generations. To give a little context to the film, Ryan Gosling plays Luke a motorcycle stunt performer for a travelling circus. He has arrived back at Schenectady, New York where he finds that an old fling has had his child. Luke is faced with the prospect of being a father and instead of running decides to stay. The only thing Luke is good at is riding motorcycles and after a chance meeting with a mechanic called Robin he is talked into robbing banks. The scene i am reviewing is the first time Luke meets Robin, Luke has just watched the baptism of is son, seeing his old fling with her new partner together with his son and realising that they are already a happy family and what could he possibly do to be a good father. He is upset and decides to let out his anger and frustration as he rides in the Forrest. The scene starts so erratic and a little bit disorientating, we out in Luke’s head as the image we are seeing is blurring and almost falling apart just like Lukes world has come crashing down. I feel like for this moment they would have used as much available light as possible so choosing the right time of day would be paramount.
We are then given what i believe to be a point of view shot as Robin is introduced riding his motorcycle. They both see each other and it is like a meeting of two kindred spirits they were always going to collide into each others lives. We get 2 mid shots of the characters as they lock eyes, again i am assuming because of the erratic pace and movements of these shots that the use of natural and available light was used.
Then we see a mid shot of Robin which would of had been lit. He comes to a stop as he watches Luke ride off ahead of him i feel that he is in awe of Luke. I think that they have used a light that we can see lighting his jacket and put some negative fill maybe something to replicate branches across his face. I feel like this could be just to keep continuity of location rather then anything meaningful we could go on to say that he is in shadow as we don’t know if he is a sinister character or not. To keep a bit of mystery.
The next two wide shots are beautifully constructed we have a high angle looking down and then the reverse. Luke’s red jacket really stands our in the endless green of the trees.
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Luke is set above Robin showing his dominance, this is Luke’s film he is the main character and we are reminded of this by Robin’s audio being very faint we are hearing it from Luke’s perspective. Luke has a close up while Robin only has a wide shot. The lighting used in the closeup is very flattering towards Luke its a soft lit, the key to fill ratio is very low. This type of lighting and framing really highlights the beauty of the character but his dominance over this film.
Exercises 3-7 REFLECTION
I feel that the purpose of exercises 3-7 was to put into practise everything we had talked about over the past 4 weeks about lighting. Taking an existing scene from a script and interpreting it as a group and coming up with a desired lighting plan. We were only allowed to use one 1k light, unlimited gels/diffusion, bounce boards, negative fill and a reflector. With only having one light it really made the group think about using the natural light more. The two scenes my group had were an indoor scene and an outdoor scene.
The indoor scene we used the available light from the windows as fill and the 1k light as our key light we had to put a blue gel over the light to match the colour temperature of the outside light. I feel like the lighting in the shots looks very natural. I remember we talked about in an ideal world maybe putting ND on the windows so they weren’t so blown out. But i think that they work well as they are if they were properly exposed they would in my opinion be distracting as you would always be looking out the window yourself especially in the front on 2 shot.
For the second scene we set up outside in a little park area at university. We didn’t have any access to power so there was no need to use the 1k light we just ended up taking the reflector and the bounce boards. In the wide shot you can see that we were positioned underneath a tree matt being in full shadow and myself being half shadow half light. The light coming through the leaves cast an interesting pattern on me. For Matts shot we also used a reflector to get more light on his face. The scene was edited together well but i feel that for Matts shot we needed some more light on him or at least exposed more for his skin tones rather then the background.
Exercise 2 DEPTH OF FIELD
For exercise 2 we were tasked with shooting two mid shots of a subject, one with a shallow depth of field and one with a large depth of field. I felt I was successful in understanding the technical principles behind depth of field and how achieve it. Using focal length, focal distance and Fstop/Aperture and the ND filter to help get my desired effect.
For the shallow depth of field mid shot i had Matt stand on the footpath. Matt’s focal distance was around 10-12 meters from camera as i wanted to have a long focal length of 60mm i did this in order to compress the background of the shot. I also had my Fstop at 2.8 as i wanted the lens to be wide open this creates the blurred background i was aiming for. In order for the image to not be blown out i added 2 stops of ND.
For the second shot I positioned Matt with his back to Swanston street so we can see the buildings in the background. I set my focal length to 20mm on this shot and by doing so I actually had to physically move my camera forward to attain the same mid shot as the previous shot. I also changed my fstop to 16 and had no ND filter, I knew that if I had my fstop at 16 it would give me a greater amount of depth of field. From reviewing the footage everything seemed to be in focus but trying to get a screen grab of it was hard as a lot of moving parts in the background.
I felt that what also helped me with this exercise was the location and decisions on how to frame Matt, shot 1 on the footpath and shot 2 looking across the street.
SCENE REFLECTION 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3lcGnMhvsA
Interstellar “Docking scene”
One of my favourite films is Interstellar, I love the cinematography and the music. The scene I have chosen is the docking scene every time I watch this scene it always hooks me I feel the tension and the urgency in the moment even though I’ve seen it so many times.
There is a lot of action happening in this scene to really take notice of lighting choices but upon reflection I didn’t realise that the same shot was lit three different ways and how they all differ. From an explosion to hard sunlight to no light you can all get a different mood. Being set in space and having eratic movement in the scene they have been able to manipulate the light as continuity for the viewer is already shot because of all the action going on.
PAINTING REFLECTION
“The card sharps Caravaggio”
After looking through the vast number of painting Robin provided I came across the card game. I like the use of light I assume that the light coming in from the left side of the painting is the sun and it has varying effects on all three subjects. It is a hard light hitting the subject in the brown giving him a full exposure, while the other two subjects are cast in shadow this adds to there sinister notion. I just like how the frame has many varying exposures its interesting to the eye but they also make sense so you are almost following the light as it hits the table and then see the cards on the mans back following up his back to see the man in grey telling the man in browns cards.
LIGHTING EXERCISE 1 REFLECTION
I have only been able to make it to one class the first two weeks both being on a Wednesday and to my luck on the first two Mondays the class worked on a lighting exercise. So I can’t really reflect on the process of lighting the scene but from my previous analysis I thought it would be a good idea to talk about what shots I liked and why.
LIKED SHOTS FROM PART ONE:
I kept my focus on the black and white versions of the interviews so I can focus on the light. I found myself liking the following shots because they had a nice key to fill ratio. (Even though I found out later it was just using available room light so not much of a key) I don’t know if its just me but I feel like the shots I have chosen seems more cinematic. They all have one side of the face fully illuminated and the other half having a gradual shadow but also having contrasty shadows. I really like the framing on the middle shot its a weird point of view but it works. In regards to any notes on what I would do on these shots I could only really remark on the first and last screen shot as I would try and manipulate the subject so they have more light and shadows hitting the fill side of there face. Modelling the face more like the middle shot. In regards to framing my favourite is the middle shot
SHOTS FROM PART TWO:
I was also not here for part two of this exercise but Robin told me that the class did some further interview shots but this time using a bounce board and negative fill board.
After watching this interview I was able to determine that the first screen shot was using a bounce board and the second screen shot using negative fill. I was amazed at how using some simple adjustments can change the feeling of the shot. The first shot is side lit from screen right but it also seems like there is a light source coming from behind possibly the window that gives off a highlighted section on the subjects screen left cheek bone. The second shot the subject has re positioned himself just slightly and negative fill is used to black out that screen right light from the previous shot just enough to giving the subject even light on both sides of his face. The second shot for me really gives off this sinister tone if this was in the movie and having the subject look down the lens at you it is really confronting.
In regards to what I would change in the first shot not much really but maybe in the second grab it feels like the subject is a little under exposed in the shadows so just bring it up a little bit but not a lot that he is totally visable. I really like the framing of these two shots so there isn’t much I would change maybe in the second shot having the natural line of the wall is seperate the character more half way.
REFLECTION & ASPIRATIONS FILM LIGHT
Lighting and cinematography have always fascinated me. How you can frame and light a shot are areas I really like to study so choosing the studio Film Light was a no brainer. I think the main goal for me this semester is to expand my knowledge on these areas and round off my degree. I would really like to get a better understanding for exposing the human subject and when and why to use light and to not use light.
I have been lucky enough to land a job as a camera operator for the AFL team the Geelong Cats. Capturing sporting events has been a big part of my freelancing career so being able to work for a company like the Geelong Cats has been amazing. I have been working fulltime since December, so it has been hard to make it every class these past couple of weeks but the classes that I have been too I have really enjoyed. I like Robin as a teacher he has large amount of knowledge on cinematography and lighting and I’m really looking forward to learning something new off him this semester.
My first class with robin he was talking about describing light and its qualities, using words like soft and hard light, Key: Fill ratio. We broke down a scene from the film “Sweet smell of Success (1957)” and I was really intrigued by the lighting used in the scene as it used hard lighting and the main character had harsh shadows from his glasses this gave him a more mysterious/scary feeling compared to his counterpart Tony Curtis and people opposite who was fully lit and looked less confrontational. Robin went on to talk about referencing light by direction words like side, front, cross, back, hair light were all explained.
I have never really been interested in black and white films but after analysing this scene it has really opened my eyes to lighting and not just pretty colours most films have these days. You can see what direction the main light source is coming from if its from the side or from above all of this is a lot more distinguishable.