This week in our main workshop, we organised and attempted to shoot a full scene of dialogue. This was the most extensive scene we have attempted this semester. To create this scene Robin assigned us roles, I was the cinematographer and was required to work closely with the director and the First A/C or focus puller. Although we were unable to finish the scene, I found Robins discussion around on-set etiquette very interesting and ultimately extremely informative. When going onto sets I feel I will now have a greater understanding of what is required of me in my role, how to behave and know who to report to etc. I also thought the step by step process of how a scene would come together on a professional film set was very useful information. The act of blocking a scene proved very useful in this exercise and is definitely I process I had previously underrated.

Lighting this scene was a challenge within itself. We set the scene up how we liked it with a 2k Fresnel aimed at a white card bouncing onto the subjects sitting down. However when the Director, Robin, decided to open the curtains in the background there were some major reflection issues from our existing lighting setup. To solve this we were forced to setup 2 more cutters between the lights and the reflective glass. Ultimately having to move our actors slightly further away from how we originally intended. This is a perfect example of how filmmakers need to be quick problem solvers and was a great way for Robin to let us figure out ways to solve these problems by ourselves. The shot was ultimately better for it as the clear window added depth and extra colour to the image.

Robin also touched on the strength of conventional circuit boards in Australia and why, when lighting scenes with powerful lights, you have to be mindful of the strength of the circuit. Your average Australian circuit is 10 amps. So you cannot plug any lights into a circuit that requires more than 10 amps of power. To know whether your lights are going to max out the circuit, Robin gave us a simple formal to remember: Watts / Volts = Amps. With wattage being the amount of power used by the device and volts being the amount of power able to go through the output which is typically 24v in a traditional Australian PowerPoint. With our lighting setup we were only using a 2k Fresnel so 2000 w / 240 volts = 8.3 Amps which is safe to plug into a 10 amp circuit. This is very useful information that will be extremely valuable knowledge as we progress into future careers.