Reflection #1 (Week 10 – Rory Timoney)

The special guest, Melbourne-based gaffer Rory Timoney was definitely a highlight from the course for me. His years of experience and knowledge for the craft shone through because he was so engaging and taught me so much in that two hour class. Tomoney explained how tungsten lights are becoming a thing of the past in the entertainment industry due to the bulbs used. There is a pressurised halogen gas inside the bulb that helps to redeposit evaporated tungsten metal back onto the filament. This creates a warm glow that can be corrected with gels. But this causes rapid heat to escape, due to this there is quite a high chance of the bulb over heating and blowing up. They are usually used for interior scenes because of there warmth (3200k).

HMI (Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide) bulbs use mercury vapour mixed with metal halides to create an electrical current which lets out an extremely radiant glow. The light emits a 6000k colour temperature, close to the colour temperature the sun shines. This makes it an efficient daylight lamp. Timoney used a large ARRI brand HMI as an example which lit up the whole room as if the sun was beaming off the wall in font of us. He expressed ARRI as his most loved lighting equipment brand.

Lastly he spoke about LEDs being the future of film and television lighting due to their practical, power saving and versatile colour temperature nature. The downside is the cost, as well as the issue of them not creating the same intensity as a Tungsten or HMI lights yet. My favourite piece of equipment was the S120-C ARRI Sky Panel with the external DMX because there was endless features and such power put into the light design.

I found the environmental side of the industry extremely interesting and upsetting. I’ve realised that high budget filmmaking is not environmentally friendly (Sorry Leonardo DiCaprio). Tungsten and HMI’s use excessive amounts of power, chemicals and toxic fumes. LEDs may use less electricity and chemicals but the battery materials needed, still contribute to mining.

Having the chance to view the film (Like Minds) he worked on was an educational treat because after all the information he shared with us, we could see the equipment being used in a professionally shot high budget film. Which is what most of our class is aiming to become apart of. 

 ARRI Sky Panel Showreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj1C7smGGzE

Reflection #2 (Week 10)

Our chosen practical projects are to shoot two short interior car scenes. The first will be a night shoot based outside of the restaurant/bar, Magic Mountain located in the city centre on Little Lonsdale Street. The venue has red neon lights which illuminate the interior and exterior of the building. We want to mimic the vibrant light spilling onto our subjects as if they are parked across the road from the venue. Our second project will be another interior car shoot but set during the day. This gives us the chance as a production team to experience contrasting environments and working conditions.

Our team and actors decided to have a run through the week before the official shoot to gain a clearer idea of our final product’s appearance. We didn’t bring equipment but Darcy bought her personal camera (Lumix GH5, a mirrorless micro 4/3rds camera) to use for the rehearsal. It was definitely a smart decision to rehearse as it gave us the chance to clearly plan out, lighting, camera coverage, a shot list, storyboard, the final script and the actors marks/movements.

We decided this would count as our first project as we played with natural lighting to achieve our shots with a higher resolution DSLR camera. We also shot extra exterior scenes that we decided we wouldn’t use for the final project. The main challenge we predict to face will be controlling the light sources because LED panels spread a vast amount of light which can be difficult to contain and control. In our week ten class we had the chance to set up lighting for an eerie ghost scene. The only natural light source to be mimicked was a lamp on the desk to the left of the subject. To create this realistic yet complimentary lighting there was a large amount of cutting involved. The equipment included a dido and almost 5 pieces of black board to control the spill of light on the actors and the room.

We also have to physically move from the car parking space after the actors enter the vehicle because the space provided is not appropriate to use for the lighting set up. So there will be difficulty in keeping consistency.

Reflection #3 (Week 11)

To create a more professional and organised mentality we decided on production roles, which were, Darcey as Director of photography (camera woman), Samantha as 1stAD, Louise as the gaffer/director, Anie as sound operator and I was the main director. We all gave input through out shooting though. Ella and Taylor played the frustrated couple in the car. We used a Canon 5D to shoot and two lapel microphones with a duel adapter into a smartphone to record dialogue.

The official shoot did not go as we planned. Wilson’s carpark denied our location grant, our actress Ella’s car park was also restricted so we came to the final decision of setting up our shoot in the laneway next to Ella’s apartment on Wills St as a low impact crew. This proved great difficulty as we had not planned a lighting set up or shot list in this environment. The first issue we ran into was finding the perfect balance of red to reflect Magic Mountain’s lights and the pale blue imitating the moonlight glow. We solved this by moving the red LED to the very right side of the actors so it functioned as a fill light (Doubling up on red gels to create a rich saturated colour). The second issue came from the blue LED (The key) hitting the back of the rear view mirror. The light bounced off the surface exposing our natural moon light affect, this was resolved by using the blue LED as a key for Taylor (moving and angling the light to the left passenger seat side) then using the portable ENG fresnel light from a lower angle as a key for Ella.

When shooting Ella’s close up we found that the red LED coming from behind her was reflecting off the front windshield into her eyes. This made her look demonic so we were forced to move the light further to the left of the camera to cancel it out.

Another problem was due to the black car seats and lack of light on Ella’s body she looked like a floating head, we brought the ENG Fresno light in (as a fill) from the left of the camera to subtly expose shape to her neck and upper body. This also separated her from the car seat.

When shooting the one take tracking shot outside of Magic Mountain (using a hand held stabiliser) we ran into a significant issue with keeping our subjects in focus. In the first shoot we practiced by hand with Darcy’s LUMIX GH5 for our production, this worked well because the LUMIX has more advanced technology to shoot in lower light and also has more precise auto focus features. Darcey also used a shorter/wider lens that made it easier to concentrate on specific focus points (also letting more light to come through the sensor). Due to the CANON 5D’s technology and the longer/narrow lens it was too difficult to perfect the vision we originally planned for the final shoot. This also contributed to the over all quality off the footage. Here are comparisons.

Canon 5D Footage:

Lumix footage:

Canon 5D Footage:

Lumix Footage

(Quality may affect the images due to screen shots coming from Google Drive)

Reflection #4 (Week 12)

Louise volunteered to edit the footage. Darcey and I did not realise the issue with the camera sensor’s sensitivity in picking up a primary saturated colour dominating the shot. Watching the footage afterwards, in the two shot and over the shoulder shot focusing on Taylor, the images seem out of focus and fuzzy (Not noticed during production). This is because Taylor’s face is covered in the rich red light. I found a Q&A website (Stack Exchange: Photography) in which professional photographers, film makers and enthusiasts give advice and solutions. The users said it was due to dim lighting as well as the fact that most camera sensors have what is called a ‘Bayer colour filter array’. The raw processing software in a DSLR camera is designed to produce a full-colour image (Blue, green and red) so when one primary colour takes over a shot it is difficult for the camera/camera operator to focus perfectly on a subject or object. All primary colours should be present for the sensor to clearly distinguish between each. The other issue to fix was that the lapel microphone on Taylor’s shirt obviously in shot. Anie offered to mask the microphone in post.

Over all I believe our group did a great job and despite the issues we faced, our project was still successful. Majority of the shots turned out to be well composed and we discovered so much from the mistakes we ran into.

By Quinlan Li

Darcey’s Test footage: https://vimeo.com/272070806

First shoot: https://vimeo.com/272075273

Reference link: https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/73453/blown-out-blue-red-light-making-photos-look-out-of-focus