Matt Duong Thoughts and other things.

Omnia mea mecum porto or “All that is mine I carry with me” has been representative of not only the last for months but the last two and a half years as I journey through my final year of the course. It has been a journey from a place of uncertainty to one that feels comfortable. The skills I have learnt were in a sense, pleasantly unexpected but also engaging. Even from a shy first year, and in many senses I may still be that same person, to now I am of a state of mind to be able to think and reflect on everyday scenes. What I’ve learned for the past two and a half years now, I will take with me for the rest of my life which I am grateful for.

To be able to learn about media production and more especially film production, has had an engaging effect on the mind. Every film I see, or every piece of media I consume essentially becomes a practice of the mind to analyse and ponder how the piece was constructed. In Film Light, I learned how the mechanics of the camera work in relation to the shot; changing the focal length, aperture length, ISO or N.D filters and understanding not only what it achieves for the shot but also why you would do it in that way for the shot you want to achieve. A myriad of questions flow through my mind, ‘would a shallower depth of field be more effective here?’ Or ‘Do I have to shoot at a higher exposure with an N.D filter to balance out the ambient light coming into the room?’ Things like this I never thought before this semester, so not only does my understanding of framing a shot becomes important but there is an added layer of complexity that comes with selecting a shot.

For lights, it is incredibly helpful to understand the nature of artificial light and how it relates to lighting a scene. Things like understanding the replicable lighting of a scene on a day to day shoot where there may be days where the natural light is different and lighting a scene such that it would highlight the ‘key’ light of the scene in a more profound manner because shooting with natural light would cause difficulty to say the least. It is in a sense, make the shot look unnatural if you would shoot, ironically enough, with natural light. Understanding the colour temperatures and how it would become applicable to replicating the natural or ambient light within a scene. All these analytical skills become essential in being efficient in any future projects I may pursue.

The studio also taught me a lot of things about filming on location, especially when we are transitioning into a more digital age. There needs to be a plan going into a shoot for it to go as fast and efficiently as possible. As with our first project, we now have a general basis of understanding what is involved in shooting with reflecting water and around a technically limited space. In our second project, we improved on this by moving our ambition towards a different kind of light manipulation in the form of cutting a hard light source. Logistically, it was easier however it did achieve the same kind of noir-esque effect on the scene. Generally, what I’ve learned from Robin this semester, has been mind opening and I will forever be grateful for it. The things I learn today, will carry on with me as I journey through my career and I hope it will hold me in good stead.

Looking back, there were a great many things that I was unsure of upon taking up media at university. I was an unsure student who had given up on my pursuit of maths and sciences, though these things still interest me I feel like I have learnt all I can from that field. Now my focus and drive is purely on media content creation and consumption. I know that films are where my heart lies so I will pursue that career to the best of my ability and within it apply the knowledge I have learnt so far.

Links to Final Cuts of projects:

Project 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1izM87jCk8yrX8-jlzUJ4loaR9Axv4jl4

Project 2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P7X0oet9DTXs6O8ATfUbLEseOchm98i4

Shooting this week ran much more smoother than our last shoot. Almost poetically you could argue that upon reflection from the first project, our second was a much smoother run. Though we did achieve what we wanted to do, we did not lose our ambition from the last project despite the problems we had from it. This time we attempted at a Venetian blinds for an implied window within our scene with a noir inspired aesthetic to the scene. I felt like we were able to achieve that, though there are things we did well there are things that we could have tried. However, given the time span of the project (of two weeks), it is difficult to plan and logistically test and implement some things that would have been interesting to do.

We cut out a black core board with slits and initially used a 2k light to light through it to achieve our Venetian blind effect. During the shoot we got the idea to move the blinds as if they were scrolling up to achieve the mystique and ambient effect with our Bladerunner inspired scene. Though, perhaps we did overkill the bladerunner inspiration with our two projects, it does provide aptitude inspiration that we can measure against. Along with the Venetian blind effect we had a white core board to provide some fill light on the fill side of the shot as there is a lot of contrast between the two. We also set up a couple of dedo lights with red and green gel, this created a neon light effect which would implicate an outside light shining in.

Venetian Blinds from a side view.

Though there was a problem with the key light, the 2k would drown out the dedo lights. In another production, perhaps that would be the intended effect. However we wanted the dedo ‘neon’ light to have more presence in the shot, so we downgraded the 2k light to a 1k however the effect was more or less the same than with the 2k. So we opted with another dedo as the key light. This time we felt we had a comfortable light level to shoot at as the 1k and 2k would make the scene feel overexposed because we wanted the neon lights to be significant as it is in the shot. We felt this way because in a real world setting, a neon light shining through the window would be most likely a lot more brighter than the ‘key’ light from the blinds. We also used a phone light to give an eye light for that extra definition in the shot which I felt was a good thing to have and think about. The difference can be seen if we didn’t have that light for the eyes, as they make the subject look like they have dead eyes.

Front on view of the scene

I felt like, although what we achieved was ambitious and valuable to learn from as an experience it would be much more interesting and challenging to do a similar scene in a much larger set. One with actors moving throughout, as all films do not have shot by shot of static subjects it would be quite valuable to shoot a scene that had a much larger set. This would explore how a lighting setup would affect an entire set space with subjects moving and interacting. We would be able to see the subtle changes in light as each subject moves or as we move the lights around. Then we could see what we could do with core boards, lighting placements and cameras. It is also of note that we did not have a multi camera set up, which is quite convenient from a directing and editing point of view where we don’t have to essentially re-shoot scenes over and over again just so we have variety in our shots. This introduces the problem of each take having slightly different rhythms and tones throughout and it ultimately limits your cutting options when editing which was a problem with our particular project. I had to cut in between lines rather than cutting in them with a shot that I really wanted because the delivery of the scene didn’t match up with each shot. In a multi-cam setup it would be possible to cut like this where we can take multiple angles of a take that was successful and not have it limit your editing options.

Link to our most recent edit on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1av2ZDmu_umDIN6yz9LYsOg1nqx0Lz0qj

The past week felt optimistic, with the screening of our final(ish) draft in class we received encouraging feedback. This made the work we did was worth it despite its troubles, though I would try to avoid any similar trouble like this in the future; or perhaps at least it felt like the work we did was not in vain. The terror that what we had worked on would not have come out as we hoped would have been a discouraging affair. However, it did not come to that and we were extremely proud of the piece we created. The only thing to touch up would be some sound equalisation and some extra sound effects for footsteps and atmosphere.

Things to improve on of course would be our time management of the place, things like determining if the shot was good enough rather than perfect would be helpful in our time management. Next would be working with different variants of fill light, if we were going with a more intense (soft) light to really brighten the scene or use a less intense one. The former would achieve a brighter room setting but would introduce a challenge to our water background effect on if we are able to provide enough water light effect for it to be significant. The former is essentially what we achieved, with a generally dark setting being filled up by a soft light (in our case it was a Kino). The feedback on my performance was promising as I have not done any acting professionally however I’m passionate and interested in it enough to at least attempt acting, the general feedback on it was it was a good performance as it can be. Though with our inspiration for the scene was much rhythmically quicker, though ours had a longer script. Had we had a few days to rehearse and prepare, the outcome would be more towards that rhythm in the scene in Bladerunner 2049. Though, because it was such a longer shoot, I was sitting in my spot for essentially 3 or 4 hours before we took our first shot and in the close ups it shows my blemishes. In hindsight it would’ve been extremely relieving to have some makeup and drink enough water (ironically) on set. It would have fixed the blemishes on my face as well is my chapped lips for sure. Though, if it were in a much higher yielding project, a short film for example, there would be people with this in the forefront of their mind.

Blade Runner 2049 Baseline Test Scene.

Now what comes next is part 2 of this project; we want to achieve essentially the same tone in the following scene. This time we intend to use hard light and a less number of lights along with a hazer. With this, we hope to achieve a noir like feeling. With the use of less lights and the use of a hard light source and a hazer we hope to achieve a smoke effect similar to that we had with a water effect in project 1. Though they are separate in their execution and look, but they both would hope to achieve an ambience in the scene. Achieving this ambience and learning how to use it will fare well in the future in the film making I want to pursue.

So in the past week, we have planned, finalised and completed our shoot for our first part of the project. Not a case of everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but what did go wrong was totally in our control and I’d like to talk about how to remedy these things and why after a few days to take it all in. First off, it wasn’t a disaster as it sort of felt at the time. Getting an e-mail from Robin in the morning after filming was not a good feeling and on top of that, sitting there quietly with Robin for a while whilst waiting for my group to come in for Robin to essentially ‘tell us off’. It wasn’t a talk that was maligned or with any malice but it was disappointing to hear it from Robin. We had gone overtime and violated the privilege of occupying the space in building 16 for filming, which has further implications of future students potentially not being granted the permission to film there again for a time. However despite this, I feel that we got the shots we wanted, now how long it took and the painful deliberation it took to achieve them is another thing.

I believe the reason we went so over time was the ambition and drive to create a perfect piece. Not that is a bad thing, but it would seem overzealous within the confines and purpose of the current assignment. It is important to be ambitious and to want the perfect shot, however during the shoot we spent so much time trying to get the lighting perfect for our background with our water effect that it ultimately impeded our plan. Though I was the talent, I could not discern from the camera if the shot was good enough however I believe it reached a point where it was at least to get a few takes in. Our Bladerunner inspired lighting technique blinded us to the purpose of the exercise which is to learn about this technique. I did truly believe that there was a point where it was great to shoot, however with the drive to get the shot as perfect as we can we ended up eating time, too much time in fact. There are a few things to consider, we used a lot of lights to light the background in our pitch black room, with three 1k lights to reflect the water onto the wall, dedos to create some more of those reflections in the background and onto my face; and a Kino to fill the scene with soft light. There was a point in the corner of the background where the reflection was not perhaps dissolving with the rest of the background as we would’ve liked, now to debate this internally it was either fix it or shoot as it is. We had tried to fix it, and with lack of knowledge on how light interacts with water and surfaces on a physics level or a lack of experience with this lighting set-up it was evident in hindsight that it was too small a problem to be fixing over such a significant and crucial period of time.

Photo of lighting setup

As shoots drag on, especially on small crews the restlessness and carelessness tend to settle in. It only takes the most experienced individuals and crews to fight through that, even then it might not be enough. As time goes on, we get more fatigued, this could lead to a skewed perception on the shot we intend to shoot, which in turn leads to lower standards as we essentially just want to get the shoot done and go home. This could have played a significant part of our inability to determine if such a problem needed to be fixed to a point of relative perfection. Even so, we eventually were happy with the shots we got and wrapped. Though we learned a valuable lesson that I for one would not forget is to respect the space.

It is important as media practitions that we abide by the schedule we are given, this is not only important in the short term with university projects but with longer ambitious goals such as making a film. A film or a piece is not defined by a single shot or a single shoot day, there may be days which are important but the whole is much larger than its parts. More often that not, a ‘bad’ shot can be masked within the magic of film making where it is not noticeable to an audience member. There comes that restraint and perspective of viewing it from an audience members point of view, because there is a point on set where the scene is not as perfect as you believed it would be, where the minute details are not to your liking. However, what does that matter to a viewer, or a critic or your colleague for that matter. It is important to discern if a shot is ‘good enough’, especially in the context of this shoot day. Not to criticise any of our crew members, it was the group’s mistake to overstep our boundaries of the schedule however it is important to reflect on what can be learned.

For the next part of the assignment, it is important not to lose our ambition and our drive. I believe it was perfectly fine, however I think that we need to re-focus it to what needs to be done rather than we want done.

Going into the exercise of a ‘Sci-Fi suspense thriller’ I had a particular image in mind and a rough idea of what to shoot. Though I volunteered for acting, some parts of the shoot went as expected and some things did not. For one, I imagined we would use a combination of soft and hard light and we would use some method of cutting or diffusion.

Thinking about the shoot, I would have used a 1k to project a hard light source. I would cut this so that only slithers of the light would be present in shot, I believe this would serve as a representative for an outside light, either to another room or outside depending on the intensity and colour temperature I desired or how the scene would fit in a film. Though we do not know the rest of the movie in relation to this scene given to us, it is easy to create the illusion of one scene part of a bigger whole once we assume things. Assuming that there is an outside light source would also serve the purpose of a close up shot where the subject would be in a state of self-reflection or deep thought. Having little to minimal light to enhance the shadows and emotion the subject could portray would achieve the sci-fi suspense of this scene as it says within the script.

Though our use of soft light was consistent and fit the scene, I would have experimented with the idea of using a single key light, rather than ‘lighting’ the fill in tandem with the key. In this context, what I am saying is to light the subject with one light, without a separate fill light, and let the ambience and bounce of the key fill the rest of the scene. I think this approach works well in a suspense thriller, it especially points towards a more noire-like approach to constructing the scene. One thing to try differently or think about differently is the contrast of colour in relation to the light and what the director wants. I believe that generally, when you introduce different coloured lights into a scene, providing that contrast to the subject, it would adhere to a more contemporary look or a more saturated look which results in a certain suspension of belief within the scene. This could build towards a much larger production design where there are different contrasting lights however it is ultimately up to the director to establish the aesthetic of the scene and movie overall. Another factor would be the general aesthetic within the DoP’s preferences, some prefer the use of different coloured lights, more lights, less lights or the same colour temperature lights. Within this exercise, it was a shame that we only had only a couple of hours to shoot, I would have endeavoured for more experimentation or even shoot different executions of the scene using different methods.

Overall the scene we shot felt very naturally lighted, the blue lights (from a dedo with four blue gels) provides a contrast with the yellow light provided by a Kino with an orange gel. Which the latter provided a light which looks like daylight breaking into the room. The blue light provided a light originating from the rooms supposed electrical products which adheres to the sci fi aesthetic of the scene. As mentioned before, if we were to go back and re-shoot this, I think experimenting with a single key light would be insightful at least. We also used a backlight to light the area behind the subject as well as black cutting boards to block out any light we deemed unnecessary or out of place. Another thing to consider would be what light specifically would be beneficial to the subject on a smaller level. In a previous exercise we experimented with cutting out a shoulder light. As I’ve said in my previous reflections, it would be proactively beneficial if all these things were to be at the forefront of your mind on set and given enough time all these things could be practised and refined.

A groups concept was notably similar to ours where they would take a monologue from a book, The Outsiders (?) I think was the name. From what I can recall it was a monologue from a character in isolation and was an unreliable narrator. Having read the book many years ago I think this was the case. Anyway, I was wondering about how to portray a monologue within the context of our studio. The obvious thing to think of would be night and day scenes. These scenes would have different tones and depending on the delivery of the monologue it could be a vastly different tone to fit night or day.

For instance, achieving different tones by using hard or soft light and even combining such techniques with cutting or distorting light to convey the isolation and delusion of the character giving the monologue. I remember them talking about a jail cell or a room of isolation, in my head, the way I would achieve that is cutting hard light onto the scene to achieve an isolated feel, that there is barely any light coming through to the room in order to pursue that feeling of isolation within the scene. The lighting I feel would most likely be minimal, only to light the subject to achieve that feeling of loneliness. However if the subject were to be portrayed as unreliable and emotionally unstable, cutting between a dimly lit room and a room filled with daylight can play into that scene if it is the intention of that certain scene.

Also the use of the camera is also very important to this scene. Things to consider when shooting a scene like this would be camera movement and camera cuts. It would be helpful to think about how many cuts and how much movement are you willing to use in order to portray the loneliness and isolation the character is feeling, especially if the character portrayed is a young boy (as it is in the novel). Using a shallow depth of field also helps with the use of close-ups and having the light focused on the subject would help add to the native tension and tone of the scene.

With the in-class exercises conducted by Robin in recent weeks I’ve deepened my appreciation for the work that a cinematographer does in order to produce the frame in shot. With the most prevalent being in Class 12 having a more significant impact in my understanding of the composition of a set relating to a shot from a single camera. It was particularly mind-altering for me to realise that lighting not only involves lighting the scene using natural or artificial light but to also understand that lighting in relation to your subject/s that you are filming. In our case it was the effect that skin tone had on the lighting, different skin tones imbue different characteristics in relation to how they absorb and reflect light and it would be our job as a cinematographer to decide if we want these certain characteristics in the shot or not.

Now what to think about when you make a decision and why you do. And the ‘why’ is particularly important to me, in the case of the class exercise was that ‘Cath’ had a reflection of light bouncing off her outline when the focus of the shot would be on ‘Colin’. What we did was mount a negative fill or cutting board to block out the soft light falling on ‘Cath’ to eliminate that reflection. The purpose being to cut out the light so it does not reflect but also to perhaps not draw attention to the foreground as the focus should be on ‘Colin’ in the shot.

For me, it was quite important to note that how ever nuanced or minimal your change in lighting or framing can be for a cinematographer, it may not even matter in the end, but it does most certainly has an effect on the shot and that cannot be understated. There was something that I’ve begun to appreciate more in terms of cinematography is that it is fine to be totally nit-picky with your shot and it may or may not matter to the director or audience member but I think it has at least an effect somewhat on everybody who views that shot consciously or subconsciously.