This was the last class exercise we did together and was probably the best one of all. We spent the longest time on setting up lighting, eventually using one white board and three black boards to get the ideal look. The effort we spent on these boards were definitely worth it because the final effect was really cool.
The whole environment was dark, so to let more light in and onto the subject’s face, the aperture had to be wide. But the problem was that the lamp we used was too bright and we tried to use a dimmer but the dimmer was broken. So we cut a piece of ND filter and stick it on the inside of the lamp and it looked better.
We used a Dedo on the left to cast more light on the subject. To make the light less directed and with more span, we used a half folded white board to bounce the lighting onto his face.
The black board closest to the camera is to block out the lighting from the dedo so there’s no lens flare. The black board in the middle is to reduce the shadow of the dedo on the lamp and the subject. And the black board furthest to the camera is to block the light so it doesn’t reach the wall and bounce back to the right side face, reducing the fill.
I like how the class would discuss and adjust the lighting as it goes, it’s always a great experience when everyone’s involved and contributing. I like the whole class activities better than group exercises, simply because the more people we have, the more conversations we have and more ideas would come together.
After all the class activities of this semester, my understanding of pre-production has changed completely. I used to think lighting was something only big-budget productions would do as it’s complicated and needed professional cinematographers to do it. But now I see it an essential element of pre-production and production, it is a powerful tool to make a shot look different from reality and more like something from the film world.