To start the workshop we looked at lighting and how it creates different colour and feeling to the production.
We looked at pictures from movies, and I especially took a fancy to the new harry potter film, “The Deathly Hallows Part 1”. This is because Part of our media production requires us to have knowledge on lighting, and I wondered how the crew managed to film in the middle of Piccadilly Circus whilst incorporating a main source of light from the artificial lights already there (street lights). I have been there a few times and I do know that the area is very well lit, especially with all the cars coming through but when analysing a few of the shots, the characters always seem to be lit up, in close ups and in long shot.
Surprise, surprise, the next part of the lesson I learned that wherever the harry potter movies are filmed, they use addition artificial lighting, which I should have guessed as no street light could ever light up a shot quit like movie set light does.
Well to the left is a perfect image to show how they exaggerate the street light effect on the characters by adding addition lighting, in this case 3 large spotlights directly above the characters with the addition of a reflector to add light to the faces and take away shadow.
For the next part of the session, we focused on two film stills from the award winning film, “Forest Gump”. The first picture shows how the camera crew have managed to incorporate the natural light of the surroundings to give the shot a worm and natural feel or 'soft lighting'.
This kind of outside shot takes very well to natural light (as it is two character
s meeting each-other). The soft light has also created small attached shadows in the clothing.
If they had used a vast amount of artificial light, then the shot would look lighter, and brighter and the colours would not be so noticeable.
Coloured bulbs can be added but these can also add a different kind of effect and you have to be careful of shadow.
The second of the two images was very different as they had used a large amount of artificial light to create the shot. This meant that everything looked faded and washed out and the lighting was actually very hard. In doing this they had also eradicated any shadows which made the shot look unreal.
We then looked at another two images, this time of corridors. We talked about the lighting and how each of the two images differed. We also talked about the amount of control the producers would have if they chose to use them. It is very easy to spot the lights in the first image and they are what the producer would have. It would be good direct light from above, but no windows or anything to let real day light in so everything would look artificial.
The second image has a much more complex lighting arrangement in place which at a glance is very easy to miss. It is clear that there are additional lights in each central brace/beam in the ceiling which cannot be seen by the camera. There is also light directly on the face of the character which can be seen reflecting off the wall. The whole mood/scène is very different in this picture as the first one is, boring, normal, very office like but this second is full of action, and this is greatly down to the indirect light and the colour of the corridor, it looks exciting.
We where then spilt into groups and asked to research into effect of lighting and how creates an atmosphere. In groups
we were sent to different corridors and we were asked to shoot two different kinds of scenes. The first kind of scene was using the light that was already there. We were lucky with my groups as we were given a hall with movable spotlights, so we could use it and take full advantage of this feature. Below is the video we produced:
Our first shot was with all the normal everyday lights on which gave the whole scene a very normal, bland feeling to it. For the second shot we attempted to use the spotlight system in the ceiling and this worked exactly how I was expecting it to. The shot, just like that photos of the corridors above, the first one being bland and the second being exciting. The spotlights are directly on her face but there limited ceiling illumination which makes the scene look very different and as if it was shot in a different location.
Our teacher did point out that there is still natural light coming in from the window which we could have blocked. This natural light did affect the shot and if we were to do it again, it’s a factor to consider.
Light temperature is measured in Kelvin. The higher the Kelvin, the more blue/white light is seen.
I took some photos of a set of HID xenon gas headlights I have in fitted to my car. These are rated at 10,000 K and emit a very bright blue light which actually gives me around 300% more vision in the dark compared to standard halogen light which is yellow. These bulbs are not actually blue in colour but they contain a gas that emits this colour when it is ignited. Below is the lights on my car. On the left in the 10,000k xenon and on the right is the standard halogen but in feel boom brightness.
This relates to my video as choosing the correct light is crucial to making the scene look and feel real. it also shows how 1 xenon gas bulb can give greater illumination then 3 halogen bulbs.
The last part of the lesson we looked at a few camera lenses and how they can change the shot. In particular, we looked at the 85 lens which is orange in colour and is meant to worm up a shot. Take a look at how it affects the shot in the picture and how the main photo looks all worm, like a summers day but the actual shot is dull and lifeless. This could also be applied to our production as we could use this to create certain appearances.
No comments:
Post a Comment