Aim of workshop: Students to undertake and record research into 'direction' and 'quality' of lighting through practical experimentation.
In order to complete our preperation in terms of lighting for the creation of our short film we particiapted in a second workshop revolving around lighting. For the duration of this workshop we worked using a PD150 SONY.
Within the workshop we split what we would be learning about into two main elements which we would focus on.
an example of a 'soft shadow'
an example of a 'hard shadow'
The first element was quality; this involves focusing on the intensity of the illumination for example hard lighting. Hard lighting is a direct light source creating bold shadows with crisp textures and edges. The second element to the quality of
lighting includes soft lighting, this is indirect light which blurs contours and textures and there are softer contrasts and shadows between the light and shade. The direction of light focuses on the specific light source and where it has been positioned in order to make the shot. For example how it bounces off the different surfaces after being positioned at either the front, back, side or above. Ultimately every light source has a point where it is at its brightest.
Madonna - Vogue video
img1 an example of 'soft lighting'
After this we then watched Madonna's 'Vogue' music video - after watching and analysing this music video we identified the different light sources used within the video as well as analysing the use and how effective the useage was in terms of the style of the video. The video uses a film noir style as well as using a range of soft light sources
img2 exmaple of 'hard lighting'
this in turn leads to the bluring of contours and different textures within the shots - altough this is applicable to several shots within this video it is most noticeable in img1 (above), the defined shapes that are usualy viewable on a person's face are less clear as well as the curvatures within the shot and the person's clothing - these effects are due to the soft lighting illuminating the whole of the image.
***WRITE ABOUT IMG2***
The next step we took as a class was to create our own video clips using what we had learnt about the direction and quality of lighting - within this process to allow the filming to run smoothly we decide to allocate job roles to everyone so that there was no confusion whilst filming.
Director – Coordinates the group to achieve the experiment.
Camera – Set up and position the camera, and record evidence. Clapper – Writes “boards” to notify the audience what they are watching. Also helps Recorder. Recorder – Notes down the experiments variables and monitors decisions and revisions made. Gaffer – Positioning of light and equipment.
Finally before filming we established what equiptment we would need as well as gathering and discussing as a group what the variety of equiptment we got would help us create in our different shots - the equiptment we gathered: • Mini DV camera • Tripod • Batteries • Base plate • Tape • Laminated whiteboards and marker pens • 1x lowel pro 250W lamp • 1x stand • Extension lead • Barn doors • Torch • Black wrap and crock clips • White materials and tin foil • Safety gloves
MANIPULATING DIRECTION
Manipulating direction - this video presents the range of light sources that we had access to that we used within our workshop, it shows the affect the light sources had on the background with which we filmed and the person with whom we filmed.
DIFFUSION
***WRITE ABOUT VID 2***
BLACK SUGAR PAPER PLUS
***WRITE ABOUT VID 3***
VOGUE, SPOT AND FLOOD
***WRITE ABOUT VID 4***
DIRECTION
***WRITE ABOUT VID 5***
After analysing the different elements of lighting and defining the quality and direct aspects to lighting by understanding has improved dramatically. I now have a better understanding of the different effects of lighting and how it can change the films affect and tone easily. When it comes to creating our own short films it is important for us to consider the different light sources available and how they will in due course help convey different moods for the characters. The workshop has made me realise that during the planning for our short film we need to consider the lighting and how effective it will be. It is also important for us to remember and use the different types of equipment to manipulate the light. This includes using barn doors and light diffusers.
Due to several issues revolving around technical issues and issues of reliability within the car my group had to take a second attempt at filming our short film 'Bruises' - within this production report I will talk about both our first and final attempt of filming.
FIRST ATTEMPT FILMING:
The production of our short film 'Bruises' began on Thursday 10/03/11 - Before this date we had arranged within our shooting schedule and within the call sheets created by myself as the director to film in a chronological order, this meaning that on Thursday 10/03/11 we had established that we would be filming the entire of Scene one and carrying on filming in the sequence of the script. This first day of filming was a success, we managed to film everything we had planned to as well as being happy with the quality of what we had produced. The next day we were due to film on was the following day, Friday 11/03/11 - this was the date on which our problems began within our first attempt of filming. On this day of filming and once we had set up within the filming location it was approximately 4:15pm, our actors then proceeded to explain to us that they were only available until 6:00pm after we had previously arranged to film until 9/10:00pm, this led to us only managing to film half a scene out of the three we had planned for this day of shooting.
Due to this and our realisation of the time restraint we were under we made the decision to schedule another day of filming in order to get back on track by catch up on the filming we had missed out on Friday 11/03/11. The day we selected and agreed with the cast was Thursday 17/03/11, however once again on the day of filming our actors yet again let us down and told us that they could not stay until the desired time - at this point as a team, me and Rachael realised that the reliability issues our actors were presenting us with were becoming problematic not only in terms of time but also in terms of the level of continuity we were keeping to within our film. We gave the actors another chance as the idea of a re-shoot was not plausible at the time, so we scheduled with the cast two more days on which we would film: Wednesday 23/03/11 and Thursday 24/03/11, our actors failed to turn up to the filming location of Wednesday 23/03/11, they showed us the following day however the rooms we needed to film is were occupied. Although we had checked the rotas for the rooms we realised we should have made a point of booking them as to prevent problems such as this arising.
After many failed attempts at filming, our realisations of the deadline approaching and the lack of dedication exhibited from our actors we decided our only option was to chance a re-shoot - we swapped one of our actors, 'Grace' remained the same however we swapped the role of 'Grace's' father: this worked to our advantage in more than one way, the freshly selected actor was dedicated to the filming as well as fitting into the role better than the previous actor, filling more of the forms and conventions of 'Grace's' father. We also arranged in advance two days within the Easter holiday in which we would film - using the holidays allowed us whole days to film rather than just evenings as well as making the setting more realistic due to the fact that we had more of a range of natural lighting as well as artificial - We also arranged after the Easter holidays to finish the remainder of the filming.
FINAL ATTEMPT FILMING: On our first selected day of filming of our final attempt within the Easter holidays, Thursday 21/04/11we arranged for the crew to arrive at the filming destination, my house at 9:00am - this was communicated through the use of call sheets as well as conversation, the crew arrived earlier than the cast to enable to crew to set up smoothly. The process of setting up in this location was relatively difficult and was done in several steps: 1) the first step was to personalise a bedroom to 'Grace' rather than to myself, we did this through getting rid of most of the blank space as well as adding certain books to my desk and writing statements on my notice board e.g. art home work - this was relevant to 'Grace' as her art lessons are part of the film sequence.
LIGHTING - BLUE GELS
2)The lighting set up within my house was relatively difficult – this was down to the fact that we had chosen to use blue gels within the scenes in my house to create the desired atmosphere and mood, this involved covering all of the lights used within the scene and used out of scene to add to lighting of the shots in blue gels. Within the majority of the rooms there were singular lights to cover – this involved using bull dog clips to attach the blue gels to light shades. However, it was the spotlighting in my kitchen that presented a problem – in order to overcome it we cut the sheets of blue acetate into squares and secured them over the lights using masking tape. Any additional lights e.g. the pro light kits we used were adapted in the same way as the general lighting within my house, with the use of bulldog clips.The video above shows some this process.
BLACKING THE WINDOWS OUT
3) Also within the adjustment and set up of lighting within the location of my house we realised that my bedroom was to light for what we wanted to film in there – this was due to several factors such as the white walls within room reflecting a lot of light. We thought through several processes that could resolve this including options on the camera as well as practical fixes, we chose to follow the practical approach and blackout the windows and therefore the natural light within my room. We did this with the use of black bin bags and paint friendly tape. The video above shows the process.
All of the work that we carried our in terms of lighting within our media production was influenced by the advanced workshop we participated in during class on lighting manipulation – without this workshop the lighting within my production would have been of a significantly lower standard as I would not have had the knowledge of how to carry out any of the manipulations we carried out. There was several shots in which the lighting took several attempts to get correct, this leading to the fact that next time I carry film I would pay more focus to the lighting within my production, even though our lighting was considered in the pre-production stages I would probably carry out more research thus allowing me to attempt more creative lighting styles within my productions.
PAINTING THE BRUISES
4) The final part of the setting up process had to wait until the actors had arrived – this process was painting the bruises onto ‘Grace’, although on set this process probably took the least amount of time the research into the creation of fake bruises was a long process. In order to learn how to create an affective and realistic set of bruises I carried out research during the pre-production stage: this including looking at theatrical websites as well as watching videos on YouTube. In painting the bruises onto ‘Grace’ at this point it also allowed us to begin the creation of our postcard designs for the marketing strategy of our short film as it enabled us to take the photos for it.
We discovered a technique during the process of filming ‘Bruises’ whilst encountering issues with continuity – due to the complexity of the positioning of our props within certain shots we had to do several takes of certain shots after realising that props had been moved. After a few retakes, we realised that a way to handle this would be to photograph the props thus allowing us to check the positioning in reference to the photo if in doubt of the positioning of props.
The filming within the holidays ran smoothly and unlike our first attempt we successfully completed all of the filming at my house within the one day - this meant that our next task was to film the remaining scenes at the second location. This location was our school, we had previously arranged for a class of year eleven students and a teacher to participate in our filming - with a very tight time restraint we didn't have time to pay particular attention to lighting and due to technical faults with the 85 filter we attempted to use we decided to just make use of the artifical lighting within the room we were filming to as well as relying on the editing we would later carry out to create the warm atmosphere we wanted during the scenes at this location - this section of the filming yet again ran smoothly. We then continued to film within a school art room, similarly to the last shoot we relied purely on the aritifical lighting within the room to create the similar effect.
However due to the fact that unlike the last class we filmed in this class had not been arranged by us but was an actual running class - this had both it's positives and it's negatives, the positives being that it created a realisitc and believable atmosphere and surrounding. The negatives including the way in which some people reacted to the camera - some people looked directly at the camera during filming, this meaning we had to do several takes of the same shot as well as there being quite a large amount of unwanted noise polution, this was so distracting that at one point we had to ask a girl on a sewing machine to temporarily stop whilst we filmed our last shot. Despite these minor problems, the filming was successful and relatively quick.
The final shot we had to film was one located in our school quad - this shot although simple and one of the shortest involved us finding the help of extras, we gathered people to fill the background of the shot to make it look realisitic as well as having people walk through the shot at timed intervals - one of these was specifically strategic due to the fact that when in the post-production phase, this movement would become crucial. There were two problems we faced when filming this shot - 1) the first problem was the weather, due to the persistant wind occuring whilst we were trying to film we faced problems with both the cast trying to remain in character as well as problems with the wind hitting the microphone and disrupting the audio. We solved the problem with the audio by covering the microphone with a thin piece of material, this blocked out most of the disturbance, once we had spoken to the actors and told them to not react to the wind everything ran smoothly. 2) The other issues we encountered was minor and not detrimental - due to our post-production plans we had to make our central protagonist 'Grace' move at twice the speed of everyone else in the shot, this took sometime to get correct.
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 img3img4 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.
The first step I made into creating a film review for the short film I have created was carrying out research into film reviews which consisted of looking at both examples of film reviews and the method and layout for writing one. In looking into examples of written film reviews I chose to research two magazine - 'Sight and Sound' and 'Empire'; two British film magazines.
Empire is a magazine with an online version also available- the link for which is above. Empire is one of the sources that could debatably reach the largest audience - with ranges from new 'most recent' films, 'interviews' to 'future films'. Both the website and online version providing the reader with multiple options of what they want to read up on; all of the film reviews both in the magazine and online come with a brief summary of the plot as well as a very short verdict on the film, including a quote paired with a star rating. Following the short review featured the reader can then chose to read full reviews on desired films. The writing style employed within this magazine is relaxed and bordering on informal, the reviews are serious but often contain an element of humour or mockery.
Sight and Sound, an 'international film review magazine' which similarly to Empire has an online application of the monthly magazine. However, disimilarly to Empire the target audience for Sight and Sound is a niche, audience - this niche audience are those who prefer art house films, independent and social realist type films. The film reviews within Sight and Sound are completely different from those found in Empire, the writing style is very formal and highly analytical, the reviews are full length and of a high quality - a technical and descriptive vocabulary are used in analysing and describing the film as well as the review fitting rigidly into the conventions of a review. The high quality, language and analysis involved with the Sight and Sound reviews make it clear that Sight and Sound is a magazine for people who have studied and have a real interest in film studies, the reviews are not easy to make head and tale of if the reader does not understand the terminology.
As well as looking into magazines I also carried out research into online film reviews on websites such as http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ and http://www.filmcritics.com/, these websites are similar to empire in terms of audience, context and writing style - rotten tomatoes features a laid back and similarly humorous affect. Rotten tomatoes has review sections including - DVD: top rentals, top box office and coming soon - but rottentomatoes could also arguably act as an advertising site for films as much as it is a critical film review site. Film critics is laid out in a more formal style however, the films critiqued on the website are usually smaller films, including art house films and animations, this website provides a generally publicly generalisable view on films. Reviews can be and are often used within the purpose of advertising e.g. posters and leaflets in cinemas - these advertisements are created with the intent of providing the reader with a positive image of the film e.g. they made include a positive quote or rating from a magazine or website.
After my magazine research I carried on to look at the structure with which a film review is written - Firstly I looked online at several websites on which a specific configuration was made clear. One website I found gave me a set of guidelines to follow -
1. After you have selected your movie, get familiar with its context. By this I mean, before you even see the movie, get to know a little about it. What have the actors and director worked on before? Maybe check out some of their past work. Are they Oscar winners? Are they known for a certain style? Is the movie based on a book or an historical event? Is it a remake or a sequel? Look into those kind of things. All of this information will help you understand the movie better. You'll pick up on details, allusions, trademarks of the actor or director, and probably have more insight into important story elements. You'll be able to tell readers how it lived up to the original, say, or the book. These are the things that help a critic write a solid movie review that is of interest to the fan.
2. After you see the movie, formulate a specific opinion in one sentence. Your job as movie reviewer is to give an opinion of the movie. Ultimately, this may come down to a "thumbs up" or "three stars out of five." But you want to have a specific thesis to drive your critique. For example, "I didn't like this comedy" becomes "The story had funny moments but it went on too long." "This horror movie is good" becomes "This horror movie works because it builds suspense right up until the end." So, try to find that very specific opinion that will be the foundation of your film review.
After all of the research I carried out, including analysing several sources and debating which magazine my personal writing style would fit into. I decided to base my film review around the styling of Empire magazine - the paragraping and language within my review were on par with empire magazine. During my research into Empire magazine I also found that they have published several 'short-film special' issue of their magazine.
img.1
My first step in creating the review was to established my layout:
1. Introduction
2. Plot Summary
3. Positives about film
4. Negatives about film
5. Overall verdict
Whilst doing so I created a brainstorm based around the ideas I had for the layout of my film review after looking at both Empire and Sight and Sight articles (img.1). Once I had carried out all of the above research I was ready to begin the creation of my film review.
The final thing I had to research was a short film festival - I decided that because I was creating my own conventions for a short film article spread in 'Empire' I wanted to make it look more authentic by adding in an advertisement for a short film festival - after a lot of res each past the obvious film festivals I could have used e.g. Schweppes film festival I found 'CineFringe film festival' - after researching the festival to check it was appropriate to be put into the double page spread I found that it was the perfect festival to include within my review due to the fact that it exhibited work from 'new talents', this was relatable to my short film 'Bruises' as well as the fact that the 2011 festival was taking place within the next couple of months making the advertisement at an ideal time.
Technical recces consist of an aerial drawing of each location at which filming is taking place at within the production stage. These drawings consist of all furniture within the rooms/area in which filming takes place, the lighting sources (both natural and artificial). Once the detailing has been added into the drawings the next things to be added are the camera positions, these are labelled with the shot numbers for that specific camera position within the scene that is being filmed. Lighting details e.g. gels that are being added to the lights must be noted on the technical recce as well as the positioning of the actors within the shots. Technical recces helped us establish where problems may be encountered in terms of the furniture positioning, light sources, risks that need to be assessed as well as helping us visualise how the scene will pan out enabling any necessary changes to be made before the day of filming.
STORYBOARD
A Storyboard is part of pre-production documentation and is a document which places an image to each shot within your product - as well as the image, shot and scene numbers are mentioned and importantly the camera and character movement. There are two columns on a storyboard, the left hand contains the image and the right contains the necessary information. The detailing surrounding the images - the arrows surrounding the outside of the box containing the image indicate camera movement e.g. panning, tracking, general movement and the arrows inside the box imply the character movement within the shot. This detailing works to our advantage due to the fact that simiarly to technical recces it enables us to get a clear idea of how the shot should look with details such as the proximity of the camera and actors e.g. long shot, medium shot, extreme close up, 3/4 shot etc.
LOCATION RECCES
Location recces as part of pre-production documentation are the process in which a scout visits numerous locations and takes photos, these photos would then be shown to the director who selects the locations that would be used to film at - Due to a time restraint we decided where would be be filming and have then created a location recce for every area in which we are filming. Within our location recces we have analysed and annotated them for power sources within the area, the lighting (both natural and artifical) as well as permission for using the area.
SHOOTING SCHEDULE
A shot list is the part of pre-production documentation in which the location is stated with the scene and shot numbers by it as well as a description, this involves camera and character movement as well as any other relevant details for the shots.
CHARACTER PROFILES
Character profiles are designed to establish elements of the characters within the media product you are creating, they include necessary information on the characters as well as examples of costume - the information character profiles establish includes details about their appearance, certain character traits they have and even possibly their background. These enable to character preperation to run smoothly e.g. costume and the actors understanding of their characters - (Due to reliability, Ryan was later changed to Martin Pridgeon to play Grace's Father).
CAST PROFILES
Similarly to character profiles cast profiles are designed to establish necessary facts about people, however the aim of the cast profiles are establish information about the cast members rather than the fictional characters within the media product - cast profiles can include information such as eye colour, height, clothing sizes and personal interests. The aim of these are to enable yet again the character preperation to run smoothly e.g. costume and the actors understanding of their characters as well as acting as an aid to make sure the cast member is correct for the character role - (Due to reliability, Ryan was later changed to Martin Pridgeon to play Grace's Father).
SCRIPT
A script is a written version of a play or other dramatic composition and is used in preparing for a performance - in this specific task we had to write scripts for a short film. This challenged me due to the fact that when creating a script there are many things to consider e.g. creating convincing dialgoue, creating action that was produceable, creating characters that had the desired affect upon the audience, having workable destinations in mind and generally having a realistic story line. However, once considering and planning idea I successfully managed to create a script that we then followed through to the production stage to create.
RISK ASSESSMENT
A risk assessment is a vital part of the pre-production documentation - it is essential that a film has a risk assessment for each filming location before the production process begins. The risk assessment allows a film crew to both acknowledge risks present in an area as well as taking action to eliminate or minise the risk noticed. The usual format for a risk assessment is stating the location, the risk, the action being taken towards eliminating the risk and then the risk after action has been taken.
COSTUME LIST
A costume list as part of pre-production documentation is essentially a list that consists of all of items involved with costumes needed within the media product - it consists of detail descriptions of the items of clothing, the cast member name/the character name as well as the scenes the clothing is needed for. will need for each scene that requires it.
PROP LIST
Much like a costume list a prop list entails a list of props are needed within the filming of a media product - the list consists of the props that are required as well as the scene in which they are needed.
In order to complete our preperation in terms of lighting for the creation of our short film we particiapted in a second workshop revolving around lighting. For the duration of this workshop we worked using a PD150 SONY. 
