In week 13, as a studio, we held a screening/ exhibition of the experiments created throughout the semester. Each group screened a selection of their work to peers and a few other media students in the RMIT Theatre. In our screening, we screened portions of both of our experiments. Showing our first experiment which focused on the dynamics of creating a silhouette. Then screening our second experiment that carried on from the first, focusing on silhouette in a neo noir style scene.

When asked which ways our screened work engaged the audience and communicated a key concern of the studio. I respond with, that I hope our screened work kept the audience engaged enough to focus on what we were trying to achieve. The goals of both of our experiments were clear cut and simple. Yet without us introducing the idea behind the experiments, it could have been confusing for audience members as to what we were trying to achieve. Our introduction of dark music to accompany the footage in our second experiment seemed to go a long way in generating a vibe to accompany our footage. Helping bring to life the action in our shots. I felt as though the audience did comprehend our experiment goals when viewing them at the exhibition. After gaining feedback from studio members, all understood our intentions and believed we effectively communicated our ideas without the need of a verbal introduction.

If I were to keep working on our second experiment, I would turn it into a short film instead of a single take. Keeping the neo noir style we created, I would utilize our shots as a stylistically vision and create a stylized neo noir crime/thriller. Essentially using our Experiment shots as tests for the visual style of our film. After conducting the experiments on Silhouette, I would utilize the skills learnt to create suspense and mystery within our film. Developing scenes that incorporate a silhouetted figure. I would also utilize the research we did on Colour Palette’s in our second experiment. Using neon lights to visually distinguish bad from good. Associating blue with good and red with evil proved to be a great way to utilize a creative element to add to the films narrative.

When looking at the other groups screened work two pieces really jumped out at me. Eleanor, Jagger and Noah’s exhibition was, in my opinion, the most entertaining. Their second experiment translated really well onto the bigger screen. They created a short scene set in a getaway car. The scene was cut together nicely and lit in a realistic nature. Subjects in the scene were filled nicely and the scene visually came across really professional. Their exhibition as a whole was a great example of utilizing the techniques learned in the studio and transferring them to a narrative scene which was a key concept discussed in class. The group that produced the Make-up scene also did a good job. They created an interesting scene that was lit with both soft and hard light. The use of lights with different colour temperatures was also interesting and gave the scene an unusual feel. This was a key concept discussed in class so, without knowing their true intentions, this was an interesting choice.

It was an interesting experience viewing our work on the cinema screen in front of an audience. Underwhelming is the first word that comes to mind. Your so used to seeing professional work on a screen of that size. So when our work was screened it came across quite amateur. I saw our work in a whole new light when watching it in front of an audience. For some odd reason I quickly became extremely analytical of our experiments and noticed things I hadn’t before. The entire viewing experience proved to be very beneficial and allowed to me to further reflect on our works.

#1 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/16/1-reflection-class-16/

#2 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/16/2-reflection-neo-noir-research/

#3 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/16/3-reflection-week-8/

#4 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/16/4-reflection-eleanor-jagger-and-noahs-experiment/

#5 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/16/5-reflection-week-11/

#6 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/17/6-reflection-week-12/

Experiment 1 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/17/experiment-1-reflection/

Experiment 2 – https://www.mediafactory.org.au/tully-hemsley/2019/10/17/experiment-2-reflection/

In this task we aimed to expand on the first experiment about silhouette and take our gained knowledge and use this tool in a Neo Noir style scene. We aimed to light this scene with contrasting neon colours featuring a victim sitting on a chair before a shooter with a gun appears from the shadows and pulls his trigger. Using the depth in the room and creative lighting we aimed to utilise our time to stylistically create silhouettes of both the shooter and the victim in different shots while changing the distribution of colours in the scene. 

Before this experiment I undertook some research to base our visual style off. John Wick (2014) from director Chad Stahelski and Cinematographer Jonathon Sela proved to be a great resource. Using contrasting warm and cool neon colours in neo noir shootout scene proved to be the perfect inspiration for our piece. We decided to adopt a similar colour pallete to our experiment. We also toyed with the idea of colour associations and how this might affect the perceptions of our characters. For Example Red is associated with danger in the human brain while blue is associated with safety.

In shot 1, we decided to give the victim a silhouette with a red edge light off to his side. While the shooter moves through the scene behind him before illuminating himself in harsh neon green. The Colour contrast between the bright blue background and red foreground comes across very aesthetically pleasing and seems to have some emotional undertones. (see link below)

In shot 2, we attempted to keep the shooter completely silhouetted and the victim lit with a red key light and contrasting green edge light. This colour combination still gives the victim an evil feel due to the red key light while the completely silhouetted shooter in front of a blue background has a safe, trustworthy feeling. (see link below)

In shots 3 and 4, we turned the lighting combinations around with cooler colours in the foreground and warmer colours in the background. We kept the same lighting setup as the previous shot yet the feeling of the image changed substantially. The victim for the first time seemed like the “good guy” and the shooter seemed to have sinister intentions. (see link below)

Shot 5 was an experiment within the experiment. We tried to create a different angle of the scene while keeping its sinister neo noir tone. The shot features the victim still sitting in blue light with the shooter emerging from the subtle shadows and his gun illuminated in red. The setup for this shot required two cutters in between the blue and red lights. The goal in this shot was to have the gun correctly exposed with the rest of the shooters body only slightly illuminated which is what we have successfully achieved. (see link below)

Overall this experiment gave me the opportunity to build on our last task and experiment with coloured lighting in a filmic situation. It was interesting how lighting the characters in different colours could enhance or detract from their motivations. Adding emotion through colour is something I wouldn’t usually consider doing and am now keen to pursue this technique further on future endeavours.

Scene Link – https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hLbkzKXf-npzS9CFDnX9_hP6A7NGEiTC

In this task we went for a purely experimentational route. Aiming to truly understand the fundamentals of creating “the perfect silhouette”. We decided to experiment with several slightly different lighting setups to investigate which combination of variables achieved a desired effect. Ultimately aiming to create a silhouette with no detail, well defined edges and a correctly exposed background. We went and shot 20 different variations of our setups in the hope to narrow it down to a selected 5 shots that we thought could be discussed and achieved our initial aim. 

We chose shot 1 because it was our simplest lighting setup that created our desired effect. We had a keylight directed at the wall behind me and a backlight intended to define the edges of the silhouette shape. In this shot we narrowed the backlight from Wide to Tight and you can see some detail in the subject’s clothes disappear. What I learnt from this shot was that to control the amount of light wrapping around the front of the subject, narrowing the beam of the backlight had a significant effect on this. ( See link below for details).

We chose shot 2 because it acted as the next evolution to shot 1. We added to our existing light setup with two dedo’s angled towards our subject from behind at a 45 degree angle. Through this change we hoped to add an edge of light around the subject. I liked how the addition of these lights shaped the subjects facial features without revealing the details of the face itslef. ( See link below for details).

We chose Shots 3 and 4 because they also provided another evolution to our silhouette. We added another subject into the shot and correctly lit and exposed for his skin tone. This meant we had to increase the amount of light into the camera which had a flow on effect in exposing more of our silhouetted subject. So to fight this we had to introduce cutters to the scene to stop the spill of extra light reaching our silhouette. What I learnt from these two shots was the ability to control existing light without changing the light itself. ( See link below for details).

Finally, in shot 5 we added to our existing setup with two dedo’s facing the subject at a 45 degree angle from behind. Similar to that on shot 2. I thought this shot was less successful as the highlights on the edge lose a lot of detail as they are over exposed. The Dedo also catches Terrance’s shoulder which was an undesired effect. ( See link below for details).

Overall, This experiment provided me with a finer grasp on the tools and set up required to create a silhouette. Giving me a deeper understanding of everything that goes into creating the desired effect while being able to incorporate it into cinematic situations.

Video Piece – https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TXKonXFRsRzoavJEmJTndOOtWsBwoYke

In Tuesdays workshop, we set up a “night time” scene where the subject was asleep at a bus stop with a bouquet of flowers next to him and a window slightly behind. Our set was extremely rough but that wasn’t the intention. Our intent was to really think about the process of lighting this scene realistically. Making the window seem as though it’s the only lightsource in the scene. We discussed many different methods as to how we could light the subjects in the scene without making the window overexposed. We tried a few different lighting setups with an extra two Dedo’s to light the scene. One focusing on the flowers and another focusing on the subject. Before we had enough time to perfect the scene, It was time to pack everything up. Although what I thought hearing other people’s approach and recommendations to helping Robin light the scene was by far the most interesting part. Most had different approaches to how they would light up the subjects and all could’ve worked in their own right. 

In our Thursday workshop, we sat down again and watched a number of scenes from a variety of different films. I won’t reflect on all of them but a number tweaked my interest for both the lighting and practical effects. The first film to spike my interest was The Rubber Head (1901) directed by George Melies. This short was created in the early days of filmmaking yet the soft lighting seems to spread across the scene and look quite modern. The Practical Effect in the film where George Melies pulls his own head out of a box and begins to pump it up is quite impressive considering it was done over 100 years ago. Robin talked us through the process of how this effect was created. Sort of simple in its creation yet an extremely creative effect by Melies. 

That seemed to conclude the semester’s workshops. What I took away from the this lesson was an acknowledgement of the relationship between the lighting of a film and the production design, costumes and subjects. These have a direct correlation to one another which is an idea I never really considered. It’s when all these elements come together in harmony that the film begins to look really impressive. 

In our Tuesday class we went without our usual film and lighting kit and watched clips of film from a selection curated by Robin. Looking at these films with the purpose of analysing and discussing their lighting techniques. We watched a variety of snippets from older films like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and The Magic Box (1951). In both of these films there’s an unrealistic nature to the lighting of a scene. Overall I found the process of looking over these films and discussing the lighting extremely interesting and useful. Robin touched on the lighting style of these cinematographers and how most of them probably didn’t intend to create a style, it more so happens naturally. I’m eager to develop my own style but this, I think,  will come and I does not have to be forced. 

We also spoke about the technicolour process. Like many of the old filmmaking techniques I found this quite fascinating. The use of a beam splitting prism to create an exposure on three different pieces of film, to then take those pieces of film, dye them and stitch them together to create a colour image is crazy. Definitely shocked me to find out this was the process involved.

In our Thursday workshop we aimed to set up a latitude test set with a human subject focusing on the latitude we can gain from the camera when correcting it in post production. This was the first time we were introduced to a light metre. Understanding how these devices work was definitely a useful activity. In the current digital age, light meters aren’t as widespread as they used to be. However, as Robin pointed out these can still be utilised to for a variety of different reasons including having more precise control over your images and matching shots on different days or different locations. While providing filmmakers with a potentially faster setup process and making post production easier.

In Experiment 1; Elannor, Jagger and Noah’s goal was essentially to pick an assortment of shots from different films and see how many lighting setups they could recreate with just one light. They planned to only used a 2K Fresnel with the help of bounce boards, cutters and various types of diffusion. Their first shot was a recreated closeup of Scarlett Johanssen from the film Lost in Translation (2003). The shot required extremely soft light with a dusk feel to it. Their recreation was almost spot on. Perhaps the key side could have been a little less bright but ultimately it fit well. Their second shot was a recreation of the sewer scene from IT (2017). The shot required a very focusable light without it being too hard. Out of all their recreations, I felt this was the least similar to the original. The light they used seemed too soft and not quite narrow enough. In their third shot they tried to recreate the boat scene from the film Her (2013). This shot was originally backlit with a heavy fill from the front. I thought they did a really good job with this shot as their backlight to fill ratio was next to perfect when compared the original film. In their final shot they attempted to recreate a scene from Arrival (2016). This shot required a heavily diffused backlight creating silhouette of the subject with creature like shadow between the backlight and the diffused screen. The group’s use of creativity definitely helped with their end shot and the final product was extremely similar to the original. Their set up looked simple was ultimately effective.

Overall I thought this group did really well with one light source to recreate multiple different shots from a variety of films. Although not completely accurate they were often 90% there which for a one light setup is really impressive.

Today we reviewed the results of Exercise 5 and 8. Both exercises were mostly about balancing the light between two vastly different exposed settings. Attempting to understand the latitude of the cameras and our choices to control these. 

Robin gave insights into the results of Exercise 8. We talked alot about exposure within this scene as the exercise prompted. Having a window behind the subject in a room always makes the decision on exposure difficult. This group chose to expose the subject correctly and allow large amounts overexposed highlights outside the glass. We discussed how there were sort of two ways to approach this scene without getting hot parts in the image. They could either silhouette the character and expose for the window outside or match the brightness outside by lighting the character. Both would have eliminated over exposed sections of the image.

When looking at Exercise 5, this group seemed to handle the bright and dark areas of the image a little better. There were small areas of over exposed sections in the frame, but the group did a nice job of exposing for both the characters in the shade and in the harsh sunlight. However what robin touched on was the discrepancies in exposure between the different shots. Exposure in exercise 5 seemed to change during the scene with the characters in the shaded area. Keeping exposure consistent throughout the scene is also important so if you establish the characters in a shaded setting, keeping them slightly underexposed keeps a visual flow within the scene. Lighting and exposure are two fields that directly affect one another and its important to understand the latitude your camera can handle when shooting in tough situations.

This week we were also introduced to the correct naming terminology of different types of diffusion and gels. Colour correction gels such as CTO (colour temperature orange) and CTB (colour temperature Blue) come in different density’s which can be used to change daylight in tungsten and tungsten into daylight. But can also be used in half and quarter density for effect and or to compensate for different coloured lighting. We touched on types of diffusion sheet and ND gel’s were also looked at. I don’t believe we’ve looked at them before but they are used to dim lights both in and out of shot. 

As part of my preparation for our Second Experiment where, as a group, we will be looking at expanding on our first silhouette experiment and delve into silhouette in a Neo Noir style scene with contrasting colours and shady characters. I’ve decided to analyse a scene out of John Wick (2014) from director Chad Stahelski and Cinematographer Jonathon Sela. This scene and the film as a whole feels as though its a huge homage to the film noir genre of the 30’s and 40’s while strongly fits within the new neo noir genre through its dark themes and colourful, contrasty images. In this scene John Wick infiltrates a nightclub where his enemies are expecting him. Shooting countless henchmen but ultimately ending up empty handed without his target. This scene is creatively lit with extremely warm and extremely cool colours. Both contrasting each other. Depending on where the characters are placed in the environment, subjects in the foreground can be lit with blue light and the background with red light or vice versa. Occasionally a mix of both within the same shot can be seen as the characters move through the creatively lit environment. The moving lights add a lot of movement to the frame and enhance the visual speed and urgency of the fighting. The coloured lighting doesn’t seem to have much of a narrative motivation and seems like more of  a stylistic choice. The stylistic elements of the scene with the neon lighting almost takes a front seat to the action, creating an extremely stimulating image. Spectacle over Substance is a complaint many have with modern films yet there’s something extremely artististic about this scene and the film. 

Overall, I really like the visual style of this scene and the contrasting colours definitely enhance the visuals on a stylistic level. I would like to incorporate similar lighting techniques in our second experiment while similarly choosing Neo noir style action and suspense to correlate with it. 

Scene Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-HSoOFdJ3s

Today, In our 16th class we attempted to create a scene in which a man moves from his bookcase to his desk before seeing a ghost in front of him. To start the workshop off we assigned actors and some primary crew before blocking the scene. Once we had blocked we started to think about how we were going to light it. Initially we turned off all the lights and used the desk lamp available to see what that looked like without any extras. Now both the director, Robin, and the crew liked the look of this set up on the subject yet the lamp head was completely overexposed and detailess. To change this we decided to use the dimmer on the lamp to bring down the brightness but this in turn left our subject too dark. So we had to incorporate another light source out of the shot that had to look like it was coming from the lamp head. After the use of 2 cutters, a 2k fresnel and white bounce card we were able to get this result ( see photo below). Not perfect by any means but it’s almost there. The lighting on the book doesn’t match the intensity to that of the subjects jacket. There is also some unusual spill reflecting onto the table from the left of the subject. Yet due to time constraints we were forced to move onto the next shot which was also rushed. 

Ultimately, doing exercises like these is very useful. Learning how to problem solve and understanding how to control the lighting variables within a scene will be extremely beneficial for our future careers. Knowing that we don’t have to be content with mediocre lighting because we know how to fix these issues is fundamentally what this course seems to be about.