In Monday’s class we got a script and we were given roles to create the scene. My role was camera assistant so myself and the camera operator in addition to what robin wanted decided on where to position the camera, what angle to have it on, set up the correct exposure, focus and depth of field. In addition to this we also had to operate the camera when the scene began.

Our task for this scene shoot was to use natural lighting. We were in a room where two of the walls were lit by windows. When we set up to shoot we discovered that the light was very harsh and contrasting and decided that they’re was too much natural light that changed when we moved the camera to a different position. To rectify this situation we closed the blinds on the far wall so our scene was then side lit for both of the characters. This gave a softer and more even lighting tone to both subjects.

Something important to note is how different skin tones react to light, whilst the male subject and he female subject were th same distance away from the light, the male subject absorbed far more light. Hence why the shot where the female subject is in shot her skin glows more and has an all rounded nicer lighting, this makes for the following shot to feel slightly disconnected. As the lighting feels like it transitions a bit from light to a bit more shadowed and dull. Perhaps a way to fix this could be adding in a reflector to boost the light reflecting of his face or we could go one step further and add in a soft box with a gel that reflects the day light.

Out white balance was also set to 5600 which as I learnt on Monday was because we were inside and the lighting was natural and we wanted that soft natural look.

I think overall the shoot came out really nicely, I think the shot where we tilted from the bag to the subjects face would’ve looked better as a whip tilt but as previously tested this is very difficult to achieve. So I thi k what we got was good, I also don’t think the bag being out of subject is that bad. I think that when the subject walks in and is focused it flows quite nicely. However we could have trialled with a focus pull to test the differences in shots.

I edited this footage together quickly and it edited quite nicely together I think it flows together really well. There was no colour correction done to this edit as well so I think we did a good job in terms of exposure, lighting and focus. We also kept pulling the camera back from the subjects to get a more noticeable depth of field which actually looks quite nice and soft.

anouther lighting element we had to consider which come into set design is the light rays coming from under the window we tri d to elevate this by putting chairs up to block the light whilst fitting in the set. We then put chairs in the background of the other shot just to keep with continuity and flow. A subtle addition that makes a lot of difference.

I actually really enjoyed assisting with camera, I love getting involved with the hand on element of this trial shoot excercise and it’s nice to learn in a hands on manner what certain lighting decisions can change within the camera.