We got through a lot in this class. One of the main subjects we focussed on was something that I’ve been wanting to learn more about for a while: lighting. From experience, my lack of experience with lighting is often the main flaw of the things I film. Having never really used proper film lights, and only knowing a little bit about three point lighting, there’s a lot for me to learn, and I feel like I made a good start on doing so in today’s class. I now feel like I have a better understanding of three point lighting, being made up of key, fill(positioned diagonally opposite each other) and back lighting. Paul provided a useful way to figure this out, named CIK – Camera, Interviewer/Ian, Key Light. This involves identifying where the camera will be shooting the subject from, where the subject is facing, and then the key light is positioned opposite to the camera.
After covering the basics of lighting, we moved onto shooting a very brief and simple shot as a class, with the hope of getting it just right(quality over quantity). This was an extremely useful exercise, and I feel perhaps more so than exercises in the past where we’ve split into small groups, as it allowed Paul to keep a strong guidance over us, as well as allowing more roles to be filled. My role was fairly minor, as I was one of the three actors in a very non-asking part. This worked well for me, as I was able to fully observe the other more complex roles being filled in the class. These included the director and the assistant director. Being able to see an AD in action made me really understand Paul’s appreciation of the role, and I definitely feel I would want one on my shoots this semester and beyond.