Reflections
Links to Final Edit projects:
Project 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1izM87jCk8yrX8-jlzUJ4loaR9Axv4jl4
Project 2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P7X0oet9DTXs6O8ATfUbLEseOchm98i4
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Category Archives: Project Brief
La La Land “Audition Scene” | Lighting Analysis
Damien Chazelle’s La La Land pursues the musical feel from the New Hollywood and Classical Hollywood by mixing stylistic composition of scenes and sets with contemporary style of film making. In the audition scene in particular the scene shifts from a conventional back and forth between Emma Stone’s character Mia and the interviewers conducting the audition. However the gravity of the scene can be felt as this is the final audition for Mia, it was all or nothing in this moment. She wanted to give it her all but also wanted the respect she so desperately wants to perform in a comfortable space. The lighting change in the scene to have a spotlight effect with her as the subject blacking out anything other than the dark curtain behind her which was probably an intended effect of the light to not only light her from the front down at an angle (indicated by the shadow of her hair and head on her neck) but to also drop off onto the curtain to illuminate an silhouette of sorts around her. The key light also points to using a front on down angled soft light to perhaps represent a stage light in the scene with the key light being flat on Stone’s face leaving little fill light. The light seems to be diffused enough for it to spill onto the fill areas of her face.
The effect it insinuates is a familiarity with musicals, in particular would be stage musicals. With the backdrop within the scene it would have this effect, which Chazelle would probably have drawn significant inspiration for shooting not only this scene but many others within the film. He pursues this desired effect of mixing contemporary drama storytelling with what feels like classical Hollywood musical transition into song (Robinson, 2016). The curtain could simply serve as a reminder of classical Hollywood in Chazelle’s eyes within this scene.
What would be difficult in this scene is to provide a fair contrast between Stone and what would be intended to be darkness. I believe the light would have to be fairly spotted whilst running through a filter to reduce the exposure of the light to achieve a Hollywood musical feel with the spotlight effect on the main focus on screen. Another hypothesis of achieving this shot would be to decrease the aperture lens (greater f stop) to reduce the light and to use a harsher light to light the scene. However given the curtain looks fairly in focus indicating a larger depth of field it is less likely the case. The scene was probably achieved by finding a balanced aperture lens to achieve the contrast within the scene and having a single light the subject.
Robinson T 2016, ‘La La Land writer-director Damien Chazelle on subverting the things he loves most’, The Verge, viewed 19 March 2018 < https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13862752/la-la-land-damien-chazelle-interview-ryan-gosling-emma-stone >
La La Land 2016, DVD, Summit Entertainment, Santa Monica, CA, Directed by Damien Chazelle
Lighting in Art | PB 1
A wide shot of a 3 portrait standing rectangular windows equidistant from each other with the middle however appearing to be the corner of the building. The shot is separated into the three windows with the origin of the light source appearing to be coming from the top left corner of the room which is blocked by the wall in between the windows. The light seeps out the three windows that creates a hard lighting effect indicated by the distinct edge of the shadows created by the illumination. On the right most window the light passes through an orange filter that creates an orange hue outside of that window. The scene also appears to be Fill Lighted by the reflection of the source upon the cream walls creating a secondary but noticeably darker shade. The lighting effect could be said to be soft as they do not create hard shadows however it can be difficult to discern as the reflective light resides within the shadows created by the main key light.
Not quite my tempo | PB 1
This scene is generally a two shot that switches between J.K Simmons’ character (Terrence Fletcher) and Miles Teller’s character (Andrew). I’m going to focus on the mid shots of Simmons and Teller that are cut between from [0.20]-[1.29], in these two shots the lighting stays consistent in each one however each shot have slight distinctions to their composition of light.
From this shot, it is lit with a yellow soft light from the left hand side of the actors and camera, looking down on the subjects. There seems to be more focus of key light on Miles Teller (on the left side) as he is the focus of this shot, with band members in the background being lit by the spill. It could be possible that the light is more spotted on Teller or there are simply more that one source lighting teller to make him the subject of this shot. This way of lighting gives the impression that the lighting is coming from the lamps in the room. Also there seems to be some fill light to bring up the shadows so they don’t contrast as much as to the rest of the room (which is dark). This gives the feeling that Teller is the subject of this shot however compared to Simmons reverse shot it can be quite vastly different.
In this shot used, Simmons has very little key light falling upon the front of his face. It seems as though the key light is being lit from above him, giving his features a more refined and (in purpose of the scene) more menacing look. Overall, the lighting can be described as soft as we do not see any hard shadows however it is still harsher to that of the reverse shot of Teller. The key light on Simmons also gives the impression it is coming from a light on the roof of the room. The lighting also suggests that there is a soft fill light that is flat on Simmons to fill out his features. It would help reduce the heavy contrast that could be created by the key lighting alone and gives the shot a balance from the harshness of the key light.
Whiplash 2014, DVD, Sony Pictures Classics, CA, USA, directed by Damien Chazelle
Lighting Exercise | PB 1 Reflection 2
The exercise we did today with reflecting light off a white and/or black cardboard enlightened me to different possibilities that I can think about when lighting. Or as to say, actually being shown how to go about properly lighting a subject or set. Generally, I learned that direct light from a lamp with no filter or medium to pass through creates a hard lighting effect and the desired effect you want in the scene is dependent on where the light source is in relation to the subject.
Upon some reflection it got me thinking about lighting according to the available light and what I can do with simple tools to manipulate the scene. I’ve never really thought about using a surface for light to bounce off but when I ever see behind the scene pictures of shoots or sets there will always be a reflective surface that a lamp would project into, I’ve just never paid that much attention to the purpose or composition of that. What this achieves I believe is a softer light if you need to light the fill side of the scene and conversely, I thought about not lighting the subject directly but to bounce the light off a surface (which I now have taken notice of in many behind the scenes footage) and create a soft light for the key lighting. This would mean that the key would be even more dimly lit or non-existent for a scene to look natural.
We also touched upon how to think about lighting a scene according to the scene desired. For our demonstration we looked a subject directly lit by the lamps and to think of how or why it should look if we were shooting for a scene in the direct sun. Reflecting on this was insightful as I thought about many movie scenes or hypothetical shoots that would encompass artificially creating a scene with the light. One film scene that comes to mind is the interrogation scene between Batman and Joker.
This scene ,being obviously lit in an artificial space, came to my mind upon trying to understand how to artificially light a place to look as it is intended. Understanding how light would be used to illuminate this scene that goes from lit to dark in an instant. I thought about how to compose a shot like this and the lighting and camera-work needed to create a piece for its intended setting such as the outdoors or within the halls of a building.
I intend to continue thinking about film differently from an analysis point of view, as each class rolls on I still reflect upon on more and more aspects as I discover them.
Film Light, Broadening my Mind | PB1 Reflection 1
Film light took my interest before the semester. Keeping in mind that this will be my last studio, I wanted to make it something that would combine theory and practice as an amalgamation of what I’ve learned and experienced so far. I’m excited about the prospect of learning about ‘film light’, lighting in my youthful understanding of film is just ‘lighting’ for the sake of lighting a scene. To provide or emphasise key features of the characters, however my understanding is that they just do this and the purpose it serves. I would like to understand how they do this, in that what day conditions combined with set lights create certain moods or atmospheres for the shot in mind.
Having spent the first week already in class, my mind has been opened to how to think about lighting a scene. Terms such as Hard Light and Soft Light that can be applied to all the films I view but also in real life. Something that Robin pointed out is thinking about a shot that you see in real life or film and how to go about recreating that shot on a camera. Things like understanding where the source of the light comes from and the diffusion of the light depending on if it passes through anything. Even from the first week of classes I have learned so much and opened a new way of analysing when it comes to film.
In this course, I’d like to broaden my way of thinking when it comes to analysing and creating film. Where as previously mentioned in class by not only thinking about lighting, framing or camera movement but combining all those factors to create a worthy piece. One project I’ve had in mind for a while ever since I’ve seen the studio pitch is that lighting a character/s in different scenes that represent different moods, I envision the subject to recite poetry and change their mood based on the lighting and it will reflect on their articulation of the recitation and the lighting. Having this vision in mind, I think it would be a good exercise in creating a piece with all my prior and current knowledge on display.
Coming a Long Way From Where I Was | Final Course Reflection – Media 1
Here I am, at the end of semester one. Let’s go through what I was thinking about university before I started this course to now. First I was anxious, having done maths and science for high school and doing engineering in my first year of uni last year and finally deciding enough was enough, I wanted to chase my passion. But I wasn’t sure, whether if I was capable of this, I had done no video projects in the past, no production of any kind but so have most people in this course actually. Now I feel like I belong here, I enjoy and look forward to going to uni now and this course does a great job making me feel like that.
This is my thought process during that time.
Upon the first few weeks of university my anxiety about starting this course were swept away, from me thinking that maybe this might not work out to now I feel like I belong here. It is quite contrasting my thoughts before and after starting this course which makes me feel relived I chose to start this course.
Blogging was something I have never done or was really interested in before coming here, but in the first half of the semester I was really invested in blogging, often blogging about random thoughts and reflecting on life along with course material.
Here’s a couple examples of my blogging from that time.
I tended to relate readings and lectorials to things I am interested in because they spur me on to think about them which makes me have a discussion on the topic in a broader view and contextualise things relating them to what I am doing now and what I plan to do in the future or what it is like now.
I also blogged extensively every time I had a significant progress or issue with my Project Brief. I covered things like learning how to use premiere, problems I had with editing, compressing or encoding. Different techniques when it comes to shortcuts and maintaining things to my memory. Overall, learning how to use premiere was a refreshing experience, something I had not done nor did I think I would do before joining this course. But once I got into it and started really learning how to use the program my confidence grew and my comfortability with this course became more apparent. It wasn’t something I learnt that I thought was a chore, but more of an experience.
In the second half of the semester, we were getting into the thick of things, so most of my blogs were about the process of work and reflecting upon it. For instance we had the lecture on Copyright and I had a thought process relating it to our upcoming project. Most of the time I related back to our project brief and the work upcoming.
Upon receiving the last project brief and getting with my group there was a lot of discussion and idea generation of what actually to do for the video and audio essay. We had a lot of discussion between ourselves in our first initial meetings, but I felt we did not have a concrete argument for them and it was too broad to cover things we wanted to cover. When we met with Rachel in our workshop she said the same thing, so we had to go back to the drawing board with our ideas and somehow come up with an argument that can refine our broader ideas down.
There was a point however where I didn’t have the motivation to do work however it wasn’t because I wasn’t enjoying uni, it was just a lull in between assignments where there wasn’t much going on. Illustrated here on my ‘learning graph’.
The dip in week 10 was an indication of that, and throughout the semester I have been building my ‘media brain’ and work ethic towards this final project.
My initiative posts toned down as we got to the business end of the semester, the work was piling up and I had no time to do many things, the only note worthy post was a review I did on Captain America: Civil War. Other than that I did mostly random things I noticed, or music that caught my attention and I talked about the impact it had on me. However because I was in media I decided to start up my own podcast, which will be on every 6-10 weeks because I want each episode to be relatively long and to talk about anything from Video Games, Anime, Manga or Society in line with me and my panel members’ interests. Other than that my work has been limited to research or discussion with my group along with other work from other subjects.
Now as we approach the end, I feel like I found the course right for me. Coming from a maths and science background it was a bold step for me to take up media based on the sole reason is that in my spare time I love watching movies, anime or playing games (I haven’t played games in months however). Now that the semester is about to end, I’m going to follow through with this course as it is where I truly feel happy.
Rough Cuts | PB4
This week we finalised our rough cut of our audio, we recorded an introduction and conclusion for out audio essay and did final ‘clean up’ recordings for the final audio essay. We rewrote some of our lines and got to recording in the studios. It was my first time down in the studios and it feels really cool and professional about it. Not ‘cool’ just because I had no other words to describe it, but ‘cool’ as in this is a profession and this is where we’re going to be spending our time when the going gets tough. Everyone in there is friendly, approachable and is there to get their work done. It is a professional environment in which I feel very comfortable being in. Anyway we finished off doing all the major recordings for our audio essay and all we have to do is edit it down and add in some B-Roll.
Then we got started on our video rough cut, which we just all basically recorded half of our points and we would leave that to expanding and re-recording properly the week after. For now we have the rough skeleton of our video essay. We hope by Monday and/or Tuesday next week we are able to have our work done so we can get down to our reflection.
PB4 | Getting things done
This week my group got work done, in that we as a group had the goal by the end of our weekly meeting to finish the rough cut. So before that each of us wrote up our part or expertise in the field and had a brainstorming session on how we are going to structure the essay. We went to the library where we found one of the study rooms in which we did the brainstorm and recording. So each of us took turns to record and we brainstormed on what was required and what form we would do the essay in. We decided for now to have a rough cut of the audio of each of our parts and brush it up later or to re-record segments with different voices or tones. Also adding in B-roll after Friday’s class.
Refining Ideas | PB4
Today we refined our ideas for our video and audio essay. A common theme with our research was the conceptualisation of ‘The Audience’ and we had a lot of ideas to convey and we had to find a common topic to draw them all together for the essays. However we had to keep in mind that we couldn’t overlap much of our content for both essays.
With our discussion with Rachel and between ourselves we had to find a topic that we could talk about a certain aspect/topic about the audience but broad enough that we could use our research. We went on the basis we would base our audio essay on audio based mediums and video essay on TV or Cinema. For our video we came to the argument that ‘there is no such thing as a passive audience’ and we would use different points backed up with different case studies to show this. This way it doesn’t limit our content in terms of the research we have already done. For our audio we came up with the argument that ‘audio based mediums have not diminished over time but in fact increased in volume and thus their audience base has increased’. This was on the basis that audio mediums such as radio and music has branched off onto other things like podcasts, audiobooks, radio dramas etc. and thus has created more mediums for different kinds of audiences. We would talk about the different mediums and their audiences.
Here is a couple of pictures from the notes I took during our discussions
