Post Thirteen: Advanced Production Skills Workshop 3

WORKSHOP #3

In a class lesson approaching our third and final workshop, we had group discussions revolving around way in which the quality of our filming products could be improved in terms of video quality through the lighting within our short films; whilst in this discussion the point was raised the as well as amending the quality, lighting can also develop a specific and desired sense of style within a film. After establishing this we began our workshop and begun by looking into how lighting affects sources and colours within a shot.

To being this process we looked at two stills from the film 'Forest Gump'. The first was img1, the contrast between the two images was dramatic, the first image obviously contained a lot of natural lighting as well as containing an element of soft lighting to enhance and continue the natural style created. Within this image there are hardly any noticeable shadows on the characters themselves and their clothing; In this image there are limited attached shadows on the characters clothes. The soft lighting used highlights the reduced differences between light and dark areas.



img2

The second was img2, as you can see there is a stark contrast between this image and the first image, the style of this shot is completely different. Opposed to using a soft lighting affect, this still consists of the hard lighting affect, this is used to create an artificial lighting affect withing the shot. The effect it has on this shot is that the costume looks bleached and any attached shadows are very difficult to pick out.
 


During this lesson I decided to make notes of the progress I made in understanding the development of a sense of style. The main focus within our discussion and therefore within my notes was the analysis of the two stills above from 'Forest  Gump'. Additional information within my notes also contain elements of mise-en-scene of other photographs we analysed and self reminders and descriptions of '3 point lighting' that we also learnt within the lesson.

***INSERT BRAIN STORM***



“Lighting can be characterised by its source. In making a documentary, the filmmaker may be obliged to shoot with the light available in the actual surroundings. Most fictional films, however, use extra light sources to obtain greater control of the images look. In most fictional films, the table lamp and street lamp you see in the mise-en-scene are not the principle source of illumination for the filming.” After reading and looking into this quote as a group we managed to establish that a light within a film can be limited; from what sources of lighting they can use to which sources are available. 

The following images are still from a 'Harry Potter' shoot - the obvious director's intent is for the central source of light to be the lamppost, within the shot this will appear the case however the light from the lamppost alone would not have been bright enough and would have created a significant amount of shadows and not enough light to fully illuminate the central character within the shot. Therefore the director has employed extra lighting the created the desired effect, by doing so it still appears within the shot that the lamppost is the only source of light but the additional lights emphasise upon the actual source of light. 



img3



We next looked the next set of stills, these helped us establish how lighting can add to and essentially create atmosphere - The first photograph, img3 is of  an empty corridor, if a director had chosen this as a location for a film they would have limited control over the lighting, the lights are pre-fixed and in shot, therefore covering them with gels to adjust the colour or blacking them out completely would not be an option. The artificial lights create a a hard lighting affect and cast reflections on the floor as well as the walls. Considering the lighting within this image it would be highly difficult to adapt the setting to a desired film setting. 

img4

The second image we then looked at was img4, completely contrasted to img3 img4 contains light sources that have been purposely used in order to create the desired style, the lighting has been used to create shadows below the lights due to the lights being positioned upwards. Positioned strategically between the segregations in the ceiling, there are lights placed between them so that within the shot the middle of the corridor is also slightly lit, enabling us to see the whole of the way down the corridor. There is a light positioned in front of the central character's face, so that his face within the shot is completely visible, finally there is a light source positioned directly at the end of the corridor, this is placed there so that the end is visible.

 MY LIGHTING IDEAS

Once as a class we had discussed lighting we went about thinking about the lighting for our own short films. We established that it is important to take into considerations elements of mise en scene within the film when considering certain lighting aspects. This includes consider the location, set design, hair and make-up, costume, props and possibly most importantly character movement as all of these factors can affect lighting dramatically. Having dark lighting during a shot with which the character movement did not match would make no sense, therefore in order to avoid this lighting has to be matched to the scenario tightly:

We then learnt about gels, how to use them and the affects they have on shots. A gel is a device that you palce infront of a camera lens, this allows the shot to change colour accordingly. Gels come in different colours including red and blue, the strengths of them also differ e.g. 1/4 blue/ 1/2 blue and a full blue. Gels can also affect several elements of shots, they can create the appropriate mood, temperature and tone of a shot.

Within studying the lighting employed in films there are two typical lights that are identifiable, these are key lights and fill lights - fill lighting is a technique used to create less intense illuminations within the shots, it does this through the use of 'fill ins', this softens the lighting of the shot as well as the shadows. The opposite of this is the use of kay lights, these provide an intense illlumination and cast strong and prominent shadows.


CLASS PRACTICAL VIDEO

Once we had studied the use of lighting to enhance and create atmosphere and studied photos of how atmosphere was created within photos of corridors we participated in a task to create desired atmospheres within our own school corridors. This task involved the shooting of two seperate scenes: The first scene we shot we used the available lighting, these included natural lighting from windows and doors and artifical lighting from the ceiling lights. In the second scene we shot we manipulated the available lighting to attempt to change the atmosphere within the shot, we did this through blacking out the natural light and changing the positioning and strength of the artifical lighting.